hi all
Unprecedented Rain in 100 years
Almost from the first week of November 2015, till last week Chennai has experienced an unprecedented rains, the first of its kind in 100 years. As against the average rain fall of 69 cm during this period in the past years, this year Chennai got 169 cms of rains, followed by 'urban flooding', again the first of its kind in India. On a single day Chennai got 50 cms of rain, which is a record. Most part of Tamil Nadu experienced this problem. Cuddalore is one of the worst affected places. This is one of the National disasters.
Though many of the members might have read the information in the newspapers or watched in TV news, unfortunately, the national channels did not give importance to the sufferings of the Tamil Nadu. Only after Prime Minister's visit in the middle of the crisis, the National Media realised the seriousness of the situation and covered for two days. We can understand that their priority is that of Arushi murder, Indirani case, intolerance, some murder in some part of the country for TRP rating. Though the Southern States have 60% viewership of the National Channels, they have not given the due importance to the disaster, which affected crores of people in Tamil Nadu.
Impact
On 1st and 2nd of December, it is reported that nearly one lakh cusecs of water was flowing through the canals. Since the water bodies are not properly maintained and also due to lots of encroachments, the rain water and the excess water released from the lakes started flowing through all streets of the City. Many parts of the City had 3 to 6 feet of water on the road. Water entered in the ground floor of the many buildings, damaging the properties. In some places, the water level went upto the first floor. People have to be rescued only through boats.
Lakhs of poor people and middle class people lost their properties heavily. The schools in Chennai remain closed almost from Deepavali. Only today, the schools are getting reopened after a month.
As on date, around 18 lakhs of people are in relief camps. Since they lost houses and other properties, they could not be moved to their homes.
There are lakhs of people in the middle class who have not gone to the relief camps, in spite of their losing household properties.
Even the Banks were closed for two days officially under Negotiable Instruments Act.
Support from the society
During the first week of December when the people were caught inside the houses due to flooding, lakhs of volunteers and NGOs rescued the victims and provided them shelter and food. Army, Navy and Air force came only on the next day. When the National Media was debating the 'intolerance' issue, the entire Chennai people were showing the highest level of 'tolerance' by helping each other, irrespective of caste and religion. Many Muslims and Christians were sheltered in Hindu houses and vice versa. The popular Parthasarathy Temple in Triplicane gave shelter to many Muslims. Mosques and Churches were filled with Hindus. Many International Media picked up this story to highlight the helping attitude of the people. Trucks of relief materials were rushed with volunteers from the neighbouring States like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra. Many houses were thrown open to suffering people.
Rehabilitation
Chennai has suffered heavily. People have not lost hope. Many people have lost their houses and house hold properties. The trauma undergone by the people are still fresh in the memory. Fortunately, the Health Secretary of the State Government has taken initiative to prevent any epidemic in the post flood situation. With Assembly Elections in April 2016, this will have an impact on the election results also. Chennaites are confident that this disaster will help the people to emerge more strongly.
Private Sector operators ran away
During the dark days when the people were suffering without electricity, transport, network, internet, the continuous support came only from the Public Sector organisations. Electricity was cut off to avoid any electrocution. The Electricity Board employees, whom we curse them for arrogance in normal days, worked day in and day out to check all the points and transformers and to restore electricity. They responded patiently to enquiries.
We always feel greatly honoured to praise the private sector and blame public sector. Unfortunately, the Private Sectors ran away in the crisis. Private cab operators stopped operation. Only Govt. owned Metro Buses, electric trains and Metro trains were operated to possible extent. Chennai Airport was closed for few days. The private operators like Jet Airways and Indigo jacked up the fare during this crisis time to make money. Air India operated on a concessional rate from the temporary Airport. Some of the poor auto drivers braving the flood helped the children, elderly people free of cost transporting them to safe place. (compare the attitude of Big Airlines).
Private couriers are yet to start the operation. Till date, Flipkart and Amazon have stopped delivery operations to Chennai. Postal Department braving all the challenges operated with maximum efficiency. During normal days, we have been scolding BSNL and many of us considered ourselves fashionable to switch over to private mobile operators. During this crisis, none of the private networks (mobile and internet) like Vodafone, Airtel, Aircell, Reliance, Idea worked. Though some of the BSNL exchanges were drowned in the flood, they provided the network continuously through mobile and landline. Since electricity was stopped, none of the TV shows could be seen. Three TV stations stopped operations due to flood.
This disaster has brought out lot of lessons to all the people in india. The disaster has happened due to the encroachments and constructions on the water bodies and rivers, with the support of political parties. Even some of the IT companies are built on the water bodies. This is the situation in the entire country, particularly in major urban centres.
The disaster has also exposed the hypocrisy of National channels. The local channels did tremendous work. Their reporters took risk and went deep into the flood hit areas and reported live. Though Chennai people could not see the TV channels, the people from other states could see the real situation and they rushed support.
Whatever be the behaviour in the normal days, the services of Corporation Scavengers, Electricity Board Employees, Metro Bus crew, Railway, Postal and BSNL employees were commendable.
Lessons learnt
During normal days, generally the city people do not move and interact with neighbours. They behave in a selfish manner. During this critical time, irrespective of the status, every body started helping each other. We could see only three categories of people. (1) victims (2) volunteers and (3) victim cum volunteer.
The tall claims and hollowness of the private sector companies were exposed (mobile, cab, courier, airline operators). They are not dependable during the crisis time. Public sector operators, whom we have been cursing on a daily basis, were with the suffering people and did their best.
Dec 2015 issue of ezine PreSense is devoted fully for Disaster Management in detail.
Srinivasan
Prime Point
