I think I was very lucky, or lucky that we didn't leave an hour or so later.
We had been to Shennoy Nagar. When the rain was obviously very heavy, I wanted to leave ASAP, although my wife would have waited for it to stop. It was not driving in the rain that worried me, so much as the result of the rain. We left at about 4.30pm, destination Palavakkam.
The road where we were visiting was flooded, but the people living there were well used to this, and assured us that it was fine to drive through, on the next street we would be out of the water. We were also assured that the Nelson Manikam Road underpass would not fill up.
Poonamalee High Road was pretty clear, and we reached Nelson Manikam Rd in a few minutes, and that seemed clear too --- until we reached the traffic jam. Maybe It wasn't so bad, maybe it would have moved, but I was still worried about that underpass, and just had the feeling that it was
not going to move.
U-turn, back to Poonamalee HR, and we made mostly good progress until we reached the 100-ft Rd crossroads, where traffic heading South was solid. We made some headway driving on the rubble at the side of the road for a few hundred yards before edging into the now-moving traffic again.
The traffic was patchy, pretty much all the way, with obstructions caused by flooded sections and breakdowns, but between them, it was clear. At one crossroads (don't know which one, might have been Arcot rd, might not) the water was not deep, but it was flowing across our road, from right to left, so fast that it
looked scary!
I wanted to avoid any route through T Nagar. Another underpass that I don't know how to route around, and an area that I have heard nothing but bad reports about the traffic even in good weather recently (I haven't driven through it since the flyover), plus reports of serious flooding there the last time it rained.
Headed for Kathipara. On reaching the beginning of the new flyover was one of the scariest bits: a sheet of water, goodness knows how deep, and what worried me was a lorry hanging back and looking reluctant! Watched a few vehicles, and the tracks they took, and knew that it was perfectly passable. As long as I didn't catch any big potholes they'd missed of course. Did I mention I can't swim?
Neither can my wife!
The next day I heard stories of waist-deep water, and people getting stuck for hours at Kathipara: we made it easily onto Anna Salai, but there our seriously slow part of the journey began. We soon began to see the Human chain, which I vaguely remembered reading about but had forgotten. Luckily it was on the other side of the road, so at least our side was not narrowed, but we spent a lot of time sitting with the engine turned off. We were [un]lucky (politically neutral; read according to your point of view) to see the CM's car, armed guard and all, just a few feet from us, passing on his tour of inspection.
It seemed to take ages to reach Little Mount, but once there, we sailed along until we met the next jam at Sardar Patel Rd. Despite my wife's prediction, the Traffic to Madyar Kailash was not so heavy, once we managed to make the left turn, and kept moving.
Our maid lives by the canal side, and I got my wife to phone ahead to check that the small canal bridge had not been inundated. I did
not want to take on the ECR; would have followed small lanes if we hadn't been able to cross at the usual place. However, reaching it to find it uncrossable would have put us in a mess, probably having to go all the way to Sholinganallur. It was fine (although our maid's house --- a solid house, not a hut --- had water oosing through the floor) and the OMR and back lines got us home promptly.
Total journey time a little over two hours. I hate to think what it might have been if we'd left an hour or two later.
Oh! I guess that's sort-of my first Team-BHP "travelog".
Forgive the ramble, and forgive the mis-spelt place and road names. It's sloppy not to check them, I know, but it's 2.45am!