CHENNAI — The Tamil Nadu capital braced for more rain on Monday after a single night's downpour dumped 36 cm on Parry's Corner in north Chennai, flooding roads and homes and prompting Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to order the ministers overseeing monsoon preparations back to Chennai.

The rain was the first intense spell of the northeast monsoon, which set in over the state on October 15. It is also the first big monsoon test for Vijay, whose Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) came to power after April's state election, and opposition politicians were quick to criticise his government's preparations.

Parry's Corner recorded 36 cm in the 24 hours to 8.30 am on Sunday, followed by Kathivakkam with 34 cm, Chennai Central with 27 cm and Tiruvottiyur and Ennore with 22 cm each, according to weather data reported by DT Next and the Press Trust of India. North Chennai took the first blow, with 6 cm to 10 cm falling in less than an hour, DT Next reported. More than 30 locations across the city received over 10 cm, The Hans India reported.

In Tiruvottiyur, knee-deep water collected outside the government maternity hospital on the main road, the newspaper said. Rainwater entered the Vadivudai Amman Temple, and a temporary pandal put up outside it for Navaratri celebrations collapsed. Standing water covered GP Road in Royapuram, and traffic was disrupted near the Gemini flyover in Nungambakkam.

The Greater Chennai Corporation said all 22 of the city's road subways had been cleared and reopened to traffic by 6 am on Sunday, with "no casualties or major accidents" reported. It said major bus routes and most streets had also been cleared.

One team from the National Disaster Response Force and four from the state disaster response force were sent to vulnerable areas, PTI reported. Nine relief centres were opened, and food was handed out to residents of low-lying neighbourhoods.

Vijay visited the corporation's headquarters at Ripon Building on Sunday to review monsoon and stormwater drainage arrangements, The News Minute reported. He also told the ministers assigned in August to supervise the corporation's 15 zones to return to the city at once and oversee operations in their areas, The Hans India reported.

The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for the city on Sunday, warning of extremely heavy rain of more than 20 cm over the 24 hours from Sunday afternoon. Its Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai put Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, the Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Theni under orange alerts.

The red alert was later downgraded to yellow, DT Next reported on Monday. Forecasters still expected heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over Chennai, Tiruchy, Coimbatore and the Nilgiris on Monday.

School Education Minister Rajmohan said on Sunday that the government had not yet decided whether to close schools. "We will decide at the appropriate time whether to declare holidays for schools and how to handle the situation, based on information from the meteorological centre and private weather observers," he told reporters, according to IANS.

Many people described the downpour as a cloudburst, a term conventionally used in India for 100 mm or more of rain within an hour over a small area. Weathermen quoted by DT Next said it appeared instead to stem from "organised, widespread convective activity" linked to an upper-air cyclonic circulation over north Tamil Nadu and south coastal Andhra Pradesh.

The season is already running wet. Tamil Nadu received 163.2 mm of northeast monsoon rain between October 1 and October 18, 57% above the normal of 103.8 mm, according to Regional Meteorological Centre data. Storage in the reservoirs that supply Chennai's drinking water rose to about 35.6% of capacity, according to water board figures cited by The News Minute.

The flooding quickly turned political. AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran said the waterlogging exposed shortcomings in the government's preparations, and that appointing ministers and senior civil servants to watch over the city's zones would achieve little without effective work on the ground, The Hans India reported.

The absence of Mayor R Priya from the post-rain inspections and the chief minister's review drew comment on social media, days after she presided over a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) protest accusing the TVK government of sidelining elected corporation representatives in monsoon planning, DT Next reported. Deputy Mayor M Mageshkumar said he was not invited to Ripon Building during the chief minister's visit. On an inspection at about 1 am on Sunday, he found plastic waste blocking catchpits along General Patters Road, the paper said.

At a review on September 1, Chief Secretary M Sai Kumar had set an end-of-September deadline for desilting and stormwater drain projects. He named Velachery, Ambattur SIDCO, Tiruvottiyur and Manali as chronically waterlogged areas that needed high-capacity pumps on standby, according to an official release reported by The Hans India.

Chennai has reason to fear the monsoon. Northeast monsoon floods in late 2015 killed more than 500 people across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and Cyclone Michaung brought heavy rain and flooding to the city in December 2023.

The weather office expects heavy rain to continue in parts of Tamil Nadu until October 24, with orange alerts for Theni, Tirunelveli and Madurai on Tuesday and for seven districts including the Nilgiris and Coimbatore on Wednesday. Another weather system may form over the Bay of Bengal in the last week of October, The News Minute reported.