The deep depression, that was threatening to strike Tamilnadu coast, seems to have relented. It has now moved West, and is hovering menacingly to strike near Mumbai coast.

But the depression, due to the unrelenting showers and the death of over 70 in the State, continued to loom over  like a persistent miasma.

But the weather office cannot do anything about that depression. Tamilnadu continued to be on alert today following forecasts of rain over the next 24 hours (ending 8 am tomorrow).

All the reservoirs have received copious inflows. But the question that lingers in everyone’s mind is how much of the monsoon rains is enough? Evidently not, especially if the summer turns outs to be a scorcher.

More rains, in the event, are needed to tide over the next summer. But more showers will not help to tide over the enduring winter. It’s catch 22.

The dams and rivers in the South are in spate. Chennai residents have all along been worrying about whether the rain would come at all to wet the parched throats in the city.

But now, it looks like they would not want more of showers as it would wreak havoc on the infrastructure which is not well equipped to deal with the deluge.

The havoc of the two-days of rains was evident all over, and it was just not in the water-logging. Roads have been breached and there are gaping cracks  not like ones after tremors  in many places.

The residual stones and mortars are strewn across in many places, almost giving a picture of after-apocalypse. The stormwaters were effective only in certain locations. In certain others, it was the same old story of inundation.

The rain has sparked off a discussion among the common people travelling in buses and share-autorickshaws whether the city would turn into another Mumbai. More than the ecstasy, it is the agony that haunts the people now for they know that the civic authorities have always been paying scant regard to the need to take pre-emptive measures to ward off eventual damage that may result to life and property due to rain havoc.

Since yesterday evening, there has been little rain in the city. But the sky was cloudy and there was an early-winter nip in the air.