Coonoor:
Indiscriminate widening of roads along the mountain side could have led to the unprecedented landslides in the Nilgiris that have killed 43 people.
Authorities, including the Union IT Minister A Raja, who is the MP from Nilgiris, have not ruled this out and have asked for an investigation.
"Very heavy machinery was used which shook the ground... they loosened the soil. Now lots of boulders are waiting to fall. Authorities should halt this and do damage control," Raja said.
Ooty is cut off as the road to the hill station has been breached. Coonoor is the worst affected area. "Since 1978 we have not seen this kind of very heavy rainfall in Ooty," said a resident.
Apart from the landslides in the Nilgiris, the North East monsoon fury has struck Tamil Nadu yet again in what has become almost an annual feature. Thirty-two people have died in floods across the state.
Chennai too has stood still since Monday. There is massive water logging in the city, forcing a vacation in schools.
"Even autowallahs will not come, very difficult for children. Of course the major problem is drainage," said Rajagopal, a Chennai resident.
"The rain will stop soon in a gradual and phased manner," said S R Ramanan, Director, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai.
Now the big worry is this kind of water logging should not lead to the spread of any disease. In 2005 and 2007 much after the North East monsoons had subsided, Chennai was left grappling with thousands of cases of water-borne diseases.
The challenge for the city is to prevent a repeat.