The rains kept the newly elected DMK councillor M. Subramaniam busy on his first day in office after he was sworn in the new Mayor of Chennai. He had to rush to the rain-hit areas in the suburbs and assure people of immediate help. Meanwhile eight people died in the city, three of them in a stranded car in T. Nagar. The three were employees of a software firm and were found dead inside a car parked on G.N. Chetty Road. They had suffocated to death, the police said, but further details were unavailable. Over 1000 people have been moved out of Pulianthope, and many more across the state have been rushed to safety in temporary relief centres.

Are we in for a repeat of the 2005 monsoon? That’s the question on everyone’s lips as the rains continue to lash the city from the late evening through the night. Many of the subways are already under water and rescue teams from the city police and corporation have been involved in helping stranded people, redirecting traffic and pumping water out of low lying areas and subways.
Train services were affected because trees had fallen on the tracks in the heavy wind. Two trains stranded between Park and Beach stations and hundred of people in them had to be ferried using a train operated on the express line.