Suresh, Mahalakshmi, Murugan along with family members and neighbours are struggling to survive. Their current home is Mount Road and if it rains again they would have abandon even this road-side shelter.

There is no drinking water, no food and no shelter. "Only one meal was provided by the government yesterday (Wednesday). Some residents of nearby locality visited this afternoon and distributed packets of food. We are lucky to get one," says Mahalakshmi, pointing to the auto with food packets.

"Our voter id card and ration cards were washed away when water flooded our slum near Dams road. Now we don't have any identity proof," says Suresh.  To avail of various welfare schemes the identity paper is important.

Like Suresh's family and neighbours, hundreds are awaiting help in Chennai.

Stranded people have been trying to reach rescue and helpline numbers provided by the government since three days.  But the numbers does not seem to be of much help.

Forty-years-old Narendra Kumar, a resident of Mylapore locality says "these numbers are of no use. My friends are stuck in Manapakkam locality and we have been trying to call on the rescue numbers but most of the time it is engaged and even if somebody responds to the call we don't get satisfactory replies."