In rain-hit Chennai, as water surges in residential areas, a woman has been sitting with the body of her mother for nearly 20 hours. Her friend appeals for help through NDTV.


"Her mother, a dialysis patient, passed away yesterday. She is all by herself with the dead body in the dark," said the friend, urging the authorities to send a hospital van to the house in the city's Ashok Nagar area.


"If any morgue van could reach in a decent hour, we can give her a decent burial. Otherwise it's going to be an epidemic breakout because the body is in a very bad situation. It is a big risk to others. She has no help, she is helpless. Please help her," she pleaded.


The woman's ground floor apartment is just opposite a high school. She tried to take the body to a morgue last night but had to return as the roads were flooded and blocked. A neighbour who has been lived in the area for 50 years, said he had never seen so much flooding ever.


"It is a posh, central area of Chennai. There is so much water because of bad planning," he said. Large parts of Chennai are flooded because of rain, and the water level is rising in many areas because of overflowing lakes and water released from reservoirs. Water has even reached the second floor of some houses in central Chennai.


There has been no road, rail or air traffic in the city since yesterday. The army, navy and air force have stepped up rescue operations.