Caught in Chennai Floods, They Screamed For Help For 9 Hours. None Came.

Chennai: As the water rose inside their little house in outskirts of Chennai on the night of December 1, Retired Lt-Colonel G Venkatesan and his wife Geetha had scrambled onto a table.

For nine hours, neighbours heard the couple screaming for help. But none could battle the strong currents to reach the house. The waters were 12 feet deep, and the little boats were no match for it.

"They drowned after a nine-hour struggle," said Brigadier Rajagopalan, a neighbour who had gone for a walk with Mr Venketesan even on the previous evening.

Mr Venketesan's house was  just around 500 metres from the river Adyar, which was already in spate.  But the torrents of water released from the Sembatrambakkam lake turned the house into a death trap.

The couple had called their daughter for help. "His son-in-law came. But even he could not approach the house," said Brigadier Rajagopalan.

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Nithyashree, who lives closer to the river and practically grew up on its banks, said she suspected much more water was released into the river from the Sembatrambakkam lake than the 18,000 cusecs claimed by authorities.

"The flow was huge. We never expected the water would rise to this level," she said.

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Since October 1,  347 people have died and 17.64 lakh people have become homeless as the worst rain in nearly a century battered the state.