one image that is being widely circulated on social media over the past few days is that of late chief ministers m g ramachandran m karunanidhi and j jayalalithaa along with edappadi k palaniswami as well as present cm m k stalin on the ground wading through stagnant water they are seen taking stock distributing relief and assuring people of help years run past and regimes change but these scenes have not changed on the streets of chennai during monsoongovernments have dealt with floods a common challenge virtually every chief minister faced in different ways some were prepared for the inclement weather and ready with precautionary measures in other cases the intensity and duration of rainfall left behind a trail of devastation like the floods in 2005 on some other occasions the government machinery was completely caught unawares as in the case of december 2015challenges were familiar but the manner in which the chief ministers handled the situation had similarities as well as differences m g ramachandran himself had to be evacuated from his home at ramavaram gardens after water from poondi reservoir engulfed the locality in 1985 he had to stay at connemara hotel for a week where a war room was set up to handle the situation senior partymen and bureacrats say he would step out of the hotel and visit floodhit areas dailytechnology has changed the way we deal with disasters retired ias officer k allaudin reflects on how pace makes a difference back then there was no whatsapp or social media through which information could be passed on to individuals or groups instantaneously gathering data issuing directions mobilising people were done in a conventional manner which took time he says during the 1985 floods allaudin recalled how he had to be rescued from his nandanam house in a boatduring his years karunanidhi too made it a point to visit rainhit areas and meet people he was hands on he knew most of the localities the problems they faced and would offer solutions recalls a retired ias officerbureaucrats say the present situation is more or less similar to the 2005 floods m p vijaykumar then chennai corporation commissioner says it is like a dj vu whatever i see now i had seen then the same areas that are flooded now like pulianthope kolathur and west mambalam were flooded back then too there was sewage mixing with rainwater in north chennai he saidvijaykumar recalls that many advised then chief minister j jayalalithaa not to venture out she was told not to go because people would throng her with complaints but i urged her to meet people i said if there were complaints we will solve them finally she met people and they were so happy vijaykumar said she visited several places like periamadu t nagar koyambedu and velachery despite continuous rainbut 10 years later jayalalithaa had to face flak for the 2015 floods besides the governments unpreparedness jayalalithaa had to face criticism that it was delay