[das.sui]

As much as I love Chennai for the people, food, beaches and everything else it offers, everyear November-December is becoming increasingly challenging because unpredictable rains and floods. No one to be blamed except we the human kind, have put ourselves in a rut and its only getting worse.
Also this something not specific to Chennai as such, however when it comes to urban flooding Chennai and Mumbai are nature's favourite whipping boys.

It's about 30 minutes past midnight and it is raining constantly. The street below is waterlogged and am getting increasingly anxious about the next 12-24 hours with more rains and of higher intensity being predicted. Deja vu 2015 or worse.

Prelude:
Back in 2015 I guess nobody was prepared, ordeals of many have been well documented here in the forum as well as the internet. But then I thought probably writing down my experience would help me calm me down a bit.
Those days I used to work in Mahindra City, (about 40 kms from city centre). Because of the emergency being declared I decided to go to West Mambalam and be with uncle and aunt. That quickly turned on its head and I was stuck somewhere near SRM for over 20 hours. Finally made it Mambalam only to witness more trauma. Lake View Road had become a lake, there was around 3 feet of standing water inside the house and the folks had moved to first floor. My uncle owned an Alto Vxi (only 3 months old, even the plastics on seats weren't removed)and I used to drive it around was almost submerged.Apparently water level was around 6ft at some point. The car was declared a total loss.

Without going into what I lost here is what I learned/did
:
1. Move to higher grounds asap, by that we moved into an apartment on the 3rd floor and vowed never to stay ina ground floor house. Also if water reaches 3rd floor it is "May Day".
2. Stay as close to workplace as possible. Now we stay in Velachery, Ten minutes from office and school and ten minutes from being water logged.
3. Keep all the documents the originals (certificates, property documents etc etc) in a backpack and make sure the pack is on your back. Getting those documents back was more traumatic than the floods.
4. Always and I mean always go for all the add ons available on insurance I make sure that I have ROI, Engine Plus for sure.
5. An emergency kit : A torch, some biscuits, some batteries, first aid whatever must haves one needs.

I would love to hear from members of the forum their views and experiences on bow to mitigate this.?

Also on another note my limited knowledge on BEVs says most of them have their batteries on the floor. I am sure it is waterproof with all the IP67 that probably means for about a metre of water but then for how long?

Mods I could not find an appropriate thread to share /post this. My apologies in advance if there is already a thread for the same.

[CliffHanger]

Stay safe guys! Just mad mad rains since last week. If any cyclone happens in the coming days, it will be a repeat of 2015.

Let's be prepared and take necessary precautions.

[GTO]

We live right on the beach and a flooded lane is like a twice-a-year ritual.





Solution = adapt. I love my location too much, so earlier this year, I created 3 ramps for 3 of my cars (no ramp for Jeep as it loves to swim). I also raised the overall level of the compound flooring, so 3 of my cars (BMW, Superb, Sunny) are now parked ~4.5 feet over the level of the lane outside. 2nd solution when I buy more cars in the future = stack parking (Advice needed: Twin-Parking System in my building?).

Sorry for the work-in-progress picture:

[The Mechanic]

Originally Posted by das.sui

4. Always and I mean always go for all the add ons available on insurance I make sure that I have ROI, Engine Plus for sure.

Adding to the insurance part, also consider insuring your house and its contents. The same applies if you own a business as well, take an insurance policy to cover the building, stock and other contents such as furniture, computers etc.

For insuring your house you can get long term policy ( Meaning a single policy valid for multiple years, usually 10 Years ).

[aargee]

Highest water logging ever seen in last 15+ years; dreading part is that, the worst part is not over!!

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Stay safe guys! Just mad mad rains since last week. If any cyclone happens in the coming days, it will be a repeat of 2015.

Let's be prepared and take necessary precautions.

2015 was a man made disaster as they released Chembarapakkam water at the wrong time. This time, the current government appears to be proactive and the CM himself is at the forefront attending to the issues.

There is an old house built in early 1930s sitting almost close to the sea shore in Besant nagar. It has not suffered any damage in all these years - indicating that cyclones have not crossed this part. Usually cyclones spare Madras and cross over to Andhra shores in the north or Cuddalore, Karaikal, Nagapatinum in the South. Yes. There will be inundation due to copious rainfall like it happens now.

[adisan]

My car got caught in an unexpected and freak incident of heavy water logging towards July-end this year. I had parked my car in one of the roads in the the heart of Bangalore just after sunset. I am quite familiar with this area and have never seen much water logging even with very heavy rains.

About 15 minutes later it started to rain, and quickly turned into a heavy downpour which lasted for about 45 minutes. Water was gushing with such force on the roads that people were finding it difficult to walk. It took more than an hour to reach near my car, and I found that water levels were just above the silencer. All the other cars which had been parked there had left, except for one car behind mine. A few traffic police officers were in a nearby junction and had engaged a JCB to clear debris near a drain hole. I enquired with them, and they said if I waited for 20-30 minutes then the water levels will come down. As more of the debris was cleared, the water levels began to reduce quickly, and within an hour it came below the silencer. By then the time was past 10 pm.

A couple of other persons who had joined in thought it would be safe to try to crank the car since water levels had been just above the silencer, and it started without issues. To be on the safe side I ensured to race the engine for a few minutes and to not put the engine off till I got home. The drive felt normal, and all mechanical or electrical parts were fine. The seats were slightly wet (which I thought could be because of heavy condensation), and there was a bit of mucky water on the floor. Once home, I manually drained the water form the floor.

Since the car would definitely need interior deep cleaning, I spoke with a few of the specialist vendors as well as the ASC the next morning. The ASC mentioned that the seats would have to be removed, and the floor carpets taken out to be dried. The other vendors would not do this, so I chose to go with the ASC. Once I reached the ASC, they inspected and said that water levels had actually risen till the seats. The engine bay did not have any traces of water, but the spare wheel well did have. If I had known this the previous day I would not have attempted to start the vehicle.

The car was delivered after a day, and it cost me roughly 3k rupees.

The reason for the water logging:
In Bangalore, many of the roads have a gradient. It is usually imperceptible when driving or even walking, but when it rains it has a major role. Unfortunately, the place where I had parked was very near to a point where the roads from all four sides converged with downward slopes. The junction had a drain hole, the entry point to which was blocked by debris.

Effectively, if the drain hole had not been blocked, or if my car were parked about 10 car lengths ahead, the water levels would have been under the silencer at most.


Lessons learnt:

• Nowadays when parking, I ensure not to park near the lower parts of any gradient.
• I have gone through the flood-related threads in Team-BHP and am more aware of how to handle such a scenario.

[das.sui]

Mod note:Back to back post, use multi quote [Quote+] instead.

Originally Posted by GTO

Solution = adapt. I love my location too much, so earlier this year, I created 3 ramps for 3 of my cars (no ramp for Jeep as it loves to swim). I also raised the overall level of the compound flooring, so 3 of my cars (BMW, Superb, Sunny) are now parked ~4.5 feet over the level of the lane outside. 2nd solution when I buy more cars in the future = stack parking (Advice needed: Twin-Parking System in my building?).

Stack parking is actually very useful especially in public places. I own a single car not sure if it is viable, even if I mice to house which enough space.
The ramp though definitely helps. Currently water is about 2 feet on road and the ramp is certainly acting as a good deterrent.

Originally Posted by aargee

Highest water logging ever seen in last 15+ years; dreading part is that, the worst part is not over!!

How is it now? Stay safe buddy. This how the adjacent street looks now.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by adisan

As more of the debris was cleared, the water levels began to reduce quickly, and within an hour it came below the silencer. By then the time was past 10 pm.
...
A couple of other persons who had joined in thought it would be safe to try to crank the car since water levels had been just above the silencer, and it started without issues. To be on the safe side I ensured to race the engine for a few minutes and to not put the engine off till I got home. The drive felt normal, and all mechanical or electrical parts were fine. The seats were slightly wet (which I thought could be because of heavy condensation), and there was a bit of mucky water on the floor. Once home, I manually drained the water form the floor.
....
If I had known this the previous day I would not have attempted to start the vehicle.

You mean to say you cranked the car when water level was above silencer, left it running till the level was below silencer and later drove on. Later realised you should not have done it?

[adisan]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

You mean to say you cranked the car when water level was above silencer, left it running till the level was below silencer and later drove on. Later realised you should not have done it?

No, the water came below the silencer as stated in the line: "As more of the debris was cleared, the water levels began to reduce quickly, and within an hour it came below the silencer".

The water levels had risen very fast because of the blocked drain hole (the rain was for just about an hour), and had dropped just as quickly when the drain hole was cleared. When I got near the car the water was a little above silencer level. I did not know that water had risen till seat level, if I had known I would not have attempted to start the car.

After starting, raced the engine for 2-3 minutes and started driving.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by das.sui

How is it now? Stay safe buddy. This how the adjacent street looks now.

After a break from 9:00 Pm, the spell picked up the pace & it's back to square 1 now






I was told the water had seeped through the Orange (and green) color house

[headers]

YEAH, This year the corporation seems to be handling it much better than 2015

Low lying areas have their water pumped out regularly using pump sets atop TATA Ace / Mahindra Pickups and many important junctions in the city are clear of any major chaos.

[Arjun Bharadwaj]

The thread gives rise to an interesting question given this is Team Bhp - what cars/SUVs/CSUVs are ideal/proven to be reliable during these flood situations? Like maximum tolerance to floods/highest water wading capacity etc. Obviously none of them would be boats/submarines but I'm talking about the ones that could be potential life savers relatively.

[katsumoto]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Usually cyclones spare Madras and cross over to Andhra shores in the north or Cuddalore, Karaikal, Nagapatinum in the South.

Non relavant reference: Tamil movie Anbe Sivam depicts the same mind set when Nalla talks about the effect of cyclone
(சென்னைய தாக்குது தாக்குதுனு சொல்லுவாங்க, அது ஆந்திராவையும் ஒரிஸ்ஸாவையும் தான் எப்போவும் தாக்கும், Translation: Everybody expects the cyclone to hit Chennai but it shows it's worse effect in Andra and Orissa)

Barring last few years where it hits Chennai also, I have always seen the North-Eastern Cyclone usually hits the Godhavari basin and Orissa more violent than Chennai.

[amvj]

Originally Posted by Arjun Bharadwaj

The thread gives rise to an interesting question given this is Team Bhp - what cars/SUVs/CSUVs are ideal/proven to be reliable during these flood situations? Like maximum tolerance to floods/highest water wading capacity etc. Obviously none of them would be boats/submarines but I'm talking about the ones that could be potential life savers relatively.

I see 4x4 vehicles with Snorkel driven around deep water but not sure about keeping vehicles stationary in depth water. 4x4 vehicles are usually tall and Diesel engines are usually tight since they require higher compression ratio than petrol. Thar, Gurkha, Fortuner, Dmax - with suspension lift or big tyres and other SUVs with high ground clearance.

A snorkel is a must. Air filter box should be water tight. That said vehicles cannot be submerged in water for many hours or days. Alternators are one of the first components to fail during deep water. ECUs are also one of the delicate components.