[narayans80]

I've been a passionate weather follower from childhood, growing up reading page 4 news from the Hindu. And have been following KWS weather blog since the 2011 Thane cyclone. Below are some of the experiences from me and my family growing up in Madras since the 1980s.

1977 Trichy Floods

Per Wiki it is Tropical Storm 05B. This was experienced by my father's family, who at the time were living in Tennur. The storm brough massive floods that destroyed their belongings. Ended up being the seminal event for the rest of the family to move to Madras. Recently (September 2023) brought it up with a small hotel owner (Sankar Cafe) at Gunaseelam temple. He recounted there was water level above the tables that were at the hotel.

This particular system was unique by the fact, it survived through land (they usually dissipate) and made another landfall in the Arabian sea. Not just that, while this system made landfall in Delta districts of TN another cyclone formed in the Bay and became the 1977 Andhra cyclone and made landfall in central AP.

1985 post-Diwali deluge

This was the first big storm that I remember from childhood. Rains started the morning/afternoon of Diwali day and hammered continuously for 2 days. Around 2 am on the 3rd day of rains, rain water entered our house in T. Nagar and I remember me and my parents sitting on a small bench that night. Next morning I remember being carried around waist deep water in Burkit Road. Schools were off for 2 weeks. The historical rains take 5th and 11th place in the list Sudarshan has posted (About Cyclone Michuang and other Severe Cyclonic Storms).

Based on my mother's recounting, she said this was the only time our well overflowed. We returned home a full 3 weeks after our house got flooded.

In the aftermath the house was reconstructed in 1987 adding a 2 feet to the foundation, which withstood for 28 years.

1996 Reopening week deluge

Madras normally receives rains in mid-October to December. We normally have an extremely hot June when school reopens, it was totally weird to see deluge worthy rains on the first week of school.

1996 U-turn cyclone

Named BOB 08B as per the wiki. This was one weird system, that landfall locations change from Orissa, West Bengal, Bangladesh. Performed a full circle and made landfall between Madras and Mahablipuram as a shredded storm. There was very little rains, it was mostly winds that evening from what I remember.

Incidentally weather blogger Sai Praneet who posts as AP weatherman was born on landfall day or day after landfall in Madras.

2004 Hurricane Ivan

I was at Montgomery, AL at that time and had been to Washington, DC for an interview the morning of the landfall. I was supposed to be back same day by 6 pm flight, which was continuously delayed till noon next day. Witnessed the full fury of a weakened hurricane on the shuttle ride to Auburn and the remaining on my friend's Toyota Echo. He had a hard time getting us back home.

2004 Houston deluge

I was working at Houston at that time (October 2004) when the rains started sometime in the evening around 6 pm. I went home (2 blocks away) wading through waist deep water around 9 pm.

2015 deluge

The 2015 is one infamous year. It saw 4 big spells, one of which brought the entire Madras city to a gridlock. The house I grew up survived the seminal deluge on 2nd December. But thanks to the water management, we ended being flooded with 4 feet waste water on the 3rd December.

2017 November 1st rains

This was not a storm, but a high rain rate event. The rains started at 630 pm that day and hammered 180 mm in Taramani in a matter of 2.5 hours. I remember dropping my colleague at Guindy railway station with several vehicles stuck enroute.

An administrative staff who joined work that day was greeted with a near empty office

2020 Nivar cyclone

We did not directly witness this cyclone, but experienced the aftermath. We were returning from Nagpur to Madras that day. Rains started little after we crossed Chityal. And it was non-stop rains through NAM and Ongole. We were alerted of signs of trouble at Tanguturu toll plaza (good old N5) where they were making announcements of traffic distruption beyond Nellore around 9 pm. From here our progress was slow, we were close to Nellore only around midnight with torrential rains and crosswinds. Seeing this we decided to stay at Nellore. The Minerva Grand hotel was filling up with southbound cars at midnight.

It was on the next day's breakfast, we knew the full story. The bridge at Audi Shankara college had given away and there was traffic piling on either side of NH5. Little after lunch, we were apprised there was a detour that was motorable. I had posted about it here (Bangalore - Vijayawada - Vizag - Bhubaneswar : Route Queries) on the immediate aftermath after reaching home.

The initial post and followup Whatsapp conversation helped Ashis to bypass the entire mess by taking the Hyderabad route to Vijayawada.

2021 November 10-11

2021 was a big rain year with several big spells. Has entries in 20 and 24 in the all time record list. We had our son's upanayanam on 11th and spent the previous night largely sleepless with torrential rains. It was so bad, only 3 out of some 40 odd invitees made it. We saw the full horror with knee deep plus water on the way home.

2022 Mandous cyclone

This was a windy cyclone. First experience for my kids (we were not in Madras during Vardah). They were quite scared that night with howling winds as the storm was making landfall.

2023 Michaung

From past experiences, December cyclones are mostly windy and less rain bearing. The projected track was also unusual. It was to take a north-westward track and get close to coast near south AP coast and diverge north-eastward.

The local weather bloggers (TN weatherman and COMK) did alert if it came ~ 100 km radius it was going to dump a huge quantum otherwise we'd get moderate rains.

The actual track was remiscient of the November 1976 storm, that got close to the Madras coast, slowed down and then diverged. 25th November 1976 was infamous taking first place in 100 year history of rains in Nungambakkam at 452 mm. Michaung was close in terms of a 24 hour rainfall between Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon and the quantum got split between the days due to the 0830 am IST cutoff.

We had a generous southwest monsoon and most lakes around us were already saturated. So a rather lackluster NEM before this event wasn't a big downer. A nearby lake was fast filling on Monday. Even with the 470 mm hammering, we survived with some minimal overflow on the roads. GST road (which is a km away) escaped unscathed except for a km worth local flooding after Guduvancherry. Except for couple of roads, most places around my workplace in Taramani were badly hit. Personal experiences from my colleagues staying at Velachery, Perungudi were remiscient of my own from 1985.

[DevD]

Originally Posted by narayans80

1996 U-turn cyclone

Adding to this list is one of the most destructive cyclone from Bay of Bengal region - Odisha Cyclone of 1999. The massive destruction in this cyclone was the trigger point for The Government of Odisha to create a comprehensive disaster response plan, including the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force as an agency, making it the first and one of its kind disaster management and relief agency in the country.

The 1999 Odisha cyclone (IMD designation BOB 06, JTWC designation 05B, Wiki link) was the most intense recorded tropical cyclone in the North Indian Ocean and among the most destructive in the region.

Have heard extensively from my father who witnessed the destruction in Bhubaneswar. He also witnessed even greater destruction in next two weeks during his travel to the Paradip coast (the land fall location) as part of relief and rescue team. The normal distance of 3 hrs took them almost 4 days as they had to clear fallen trees, manage the dead bodies (human and cattle) lying on the roads, distribute relief materials throughout the journey. Almost all the big trees were flattened and thatched homes were destroyed. Only concrete structures had survived.

[Arun_S]

One general question I have, what will happen to Flood Affected EV's both Cars and Bikes.

Will they be not affected at all, I understand they have around 30CM-40 CM of water wading capacity.

If they are fully submerged, can they be fixed?