More than 7,000 people have been evacuated by emergency services from Chennai, formerly known as Madras, while essential supplies are being dropped to those who cannot be reached.
Prime Mister Narendra Modi has announced a £100m aid relief package for the region.
While the rain eased on Friday, forecasters were warning of heavy rainfall or thunderstorms still to come.
The bad weather is being caused by a depression in the Bay of Bengal and the strong El Nino effect which has hit coastal areas - Chennai saw 12186mm of rain in the month of November alone - three times more than usual.
The price of vegetables, milk and drinking water has rocketed in the flood-hit areas. Electricity and mobile communications have been - some people have been without power for days.
Fourteen patients on life support at the MIOT hospital in Chennai are reported to have died on Thursday night.
Businesses and factories are closed as are schools and colleges and examinations have been postponed and trains in and out of the city have been cancelled.
The Chennai International Airport will be closed until Sunday.
Its runway crosses the Adyar River which broke its bank and flooded the airport - almost three dozen aircraft were at one stage seen with their underbellies submerged in water on the runaway.
Although the water has started receding slowly, it has nowhere to go.
Residents blame unauthorised building work, bad planning and the relentless building within the city. Storm water drains are choked and blocked because of the unregulated building activity.
The state high court has ordered the government to reveal the number of illegal buildings but, although some 150,000 are known to have been built, none have been demolished.
The city of Mumbai was hit by 944mm of rainfall in one day in 2005, which caused massive flooding and led to the deaths of some 500 people.
It was the blocked storm drains again that were believed to be behind the disaster.
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