Cyclone Michaung: Engineering college students in Chennai go days without water, electricity

NEW DELHI: Heavy rainfall brought on by Cyclone Michaung in Chennai forced many students of St Joseph’s Institute of Technology and Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology out of their hostels and paying-guest accommodations and onto the roads on Tuesday. They had already gone two days without food and electricity.

Seeing the dire situation, residents of OMR, Chennai’s IT hub, rescued hundreds of students, supplied them with water and other essentials and ferried them to the closest bus-stop. “At least a dozen cars from the area helped around 200-300 students who were living in the hostel and PGs in the neighbourhood and helped them with water bottles, snacks and a few other things,” said a resident who didn’t want to be named.

Many residents of Chennai also wrote on Facebook regarding the situation of the areas affected due to heavy rainfall.

New cyclone affects students

“Since Sunday afternoon, there has been no electricity, water and food. Eventually students moved out yesterday to charge their phones and move back to their homes. We reached out to the administration of the college but due to the cyclone they could not offer any help. And the institute also declared holidays till Sunday, December 10. Our parents came and brought us back home,” said a BTech student from Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai.

Another student from St Joseph College of Engineering, who didn’t want to be named added, said: “The hostel’s ground floor and the mess were filled with water and there was no power for two days. Around 70 students eventually moved back to their homes due to waterlogged hostels. A bus was provided by the college to drop students to the bus stand.”

சென்னை மாவட்டத்தில் உள்ள அனைத்து பள்ளிகள் மற்றும் கல்லூரிகளுக்கு நாளை (7.12.2023) விடுமுறை - தமிழ்நாடு அரசு அறிவிப்பு. #CMMKSTALIN | #TNDIPR | #CycloneMichaung @CMOTamilnadu @mkstalin @mp_saminathan pic.twitter.com/yNz9JcygwZ

— TN DIPR (@TNDIPRNEWS) December 6, 2023

The government of Tamil Nadu also declared a public holiday from December 4 to 7 with emergency disaster response, relief and rescue services to function usually for the district of Chennai.