A seemingly conservative mostly hot south-Indian city has seen many-a-days of drought and dryness. Here, many households do not have direct water-supply lines and rely on deep bore-wells and paid tankers for water. Mineral drinking water in cans is a big business in itself here. But then as they say, literally, when it rains it pours! In the last two weeks, Chennai has seen the heaviest rainfall in over a 100 years! Some reports claim that Chennai has been lashed with several normal/dry years' worth of rain in just a couple of days! Now, nature has a peculiar way of settings things straight. It answered a question - why would a generally hot city with limited rainfall need sparkling silt-free drainage? (Brr..) Lets save the city-planning and Municipal efforts; money is better utilized in distributing 'essential' freebies - TVs, grinders, laptops...Shall we?
The initial few days of slightly heavy rain did not fret the rain-hardened Mumbaikar in me. But, when it continued battering, leading to several feets of water across the city, followed by a pre-cautious power outage across the city, 'panic' was not just a word! I had a Deja-vu from 2005 of wading through waist deep waters in Mumbai - that was just one day.
Source: Indian Express
Thousands were stranded across the city. With several parts of the city with over 4 to 10 ft of water, some even with 18 ft. Those living in slums had nowhere to go, holding on to the little they could salvage they moved to temporary shelters in government schools. Families living on ground floors of various apartments sought refuge in flats on higher floors. With no functional mobile networks and no electricity - communication was completely cut off for more than two days. Hundreds of cars, auto-rickshaws, bikes were wading in water or broke-down mid-way. Airport runway got flooded, railway tracks were flooded - cutting off the city from the rest of the country. And most depressingly, over 250 lives were lost - several due to electrocution and gushing water current.
Source: Indian Express
Only prayers could be heard amidst the late-night pattering incessant rainfall. Basics of food, water and a roof to sleep under was the only biggest worry to many. Thanks to numerous contributors and volunteers, the city witnessed the power of philanthropy and the good side of human nature. Together with the rescue operations by the Army, Navy, NDRF etc. hundreds of volunteers waded through waist deep water and reached out to hungry and distressed souls. Rescue on boats plying through the streets, helicopters dropping food packets, etc. showed that hope is alive to those stranded. Many individuals opened up their houses to accommodate others. Some theaters and malls opened up too. Many small institutions (surprisingly some political institutions as well) and organisations worked in full swing cooking and packing food packets for distributions. Lakhs of food and water packets were and are still being passed on, especially to isolated areas. Support from neighboring states and their residents pour out overwhelmingly. This crisis has bought out mutual care and compassion beyond the superficiality of class/religious divide. Reinforcing this were the social media platforms effectively being leveraged to reach out and help in time (#ChennaiRainsHelp). Now, with Indians even tolerating extremes of nature while helping others, where does the debate on Intolerance of ideas stand?
Source: Indian Express
The Hindu - A visit to the flood affected areas (Tamil):
NDTV – People stranded across the city, Rescue begins
This was a city where several did not carry an umbrella for most days of the year, except for protection from the sun in peak summer. Climate change is not a newly coined word, but may be now many in Chennai would relate to it. We have just one solution to save us - making peace with raging nature.We could start by living in an non-intrusive and non-deploring manner with water bodies and forested areas. Also we could go back to our textbooks and learn our lessons on drainage planning from atleast the ancient Harappan civilization- even that was Indian, wasn't it?
In the meanwhile back in Chennai, water has receded in most parts leaving behind gaping potholes and cracks on roads. While temporary filling & construction is on, municipal workers have started cleaning up the mess. Fear of epidemics loom large and hospitals are preparing for the same. Volunteers are being offered tetanus doses. People in temporary shelters remain worried about what next, while those with damaged homes and vehicles are counting their loses and thanking those who helped. Several areas like Kotturpuram are still in the dark, with resources reaching slowly owing to persistent water levels.
Chennai might not see any tourists or visitors for quite sometime. Several migrants are also planning to catch the next flight/train home. But nature has bought several new rare visitors to Chennai lakes - Migrant birds! With the birds, let us hope and pray that the sun shines and the city rises to a better dawn.
Note: All videos and pictures are attributed to the respective news channels/websites from which they have been sourced. None of the images/videos are my own.
