Chennai Flooding - The Rescue

Where do I begin?!

The following is a brief (I hope) glimpse into the events that occurred in the past couple of weeks that have not only put Chennai on the map, but have torn through the lives of its citizens and caused more havoc than many of us have ever deemed possible.

Tuesday – Dec 1

It had been a fairly normal day in the office with the usual vagaries of work. Around 5 PM, it started raining and given that we had just come out of a set of rain filled days that caused us some inconvenience on a small scale, we decided to let our associates to go home early.

The problems started when one by one our office cabs called in to say they can’t reach the office as there was too much rain and traffic. Those of you in Chennai know that traffic is bad – but at least it moves. This was not one of those days.

Jesu – one of my colleagues and friends and some of our associates started the logistical nightmare of ensuring that those who came in and had to get home were able to by combining trips, asking other associates to drop others off etc.

All this time, the rain is still – raining! And traffic is still building up.

A couple of us went and did the inevitable selfie and photos in front of our office still not knowing what was going to happen.

Pratheek and Rishad - surveying the water

Finally, we had a few associates who decided to stay at work as there was no way they could make it back. Jesu kindly walked one of our associates to the Alandur metro. You may think why not the Ekattuthangal metro – err – cos you had to know how to swim to get there! :)

Rishad, another of my colleagues and I decided that it was too risky to take our cars and even if we did, given the traffic build up, we would be stuck in it for ages. So we left our cars in the (lower) basement and began our walk.

That in itself was an eye opener as we had truly miscalculated the amount of traffic! And the water build up. We had umbrellas (thanks Shantanu :) ) and the walk was crazy. There was water all over, we vaulted the dividers and the flyover walls to land in knee deep water! At times it was almost waist deep. We assumed this was all just something that would dry up eventually!

We walked past the Hablis hotel and were literally shocked to see the number of cars that were under water or in the process of getting inundated. Traffic had been diverted from the flooded road and sent on the wrong side, but no one counted on informing the right side traffic and there you go. Traffic Jam with Honey on the top! It was an absolute mess. There was no way this was going to get cleared any time soon.

Front of Hablis Hotel

Cars and more cars

That is a BUS!

At Velachery junction, Rishad and I bid farewell and I walked on to the colony. Along the way guess what I found!! An old coin operated phone. Needless to say - I did try it but it was dead! :)

Coin operated phone

Water seemed to be subsiding and it was only ankle deep when I reached my house where power had already gone. Oh well, I thought. At least am home safe and sound, which is better than anything else.

With no further plans, rested well after the tiring walk,

Wednesday – Dec 2 – 6:30 AM

Was woken up by a cacophony of car alarms all around the house. I was really irritated as I had even heard this in my dreams! Went outside to the balcony of my Ground + 3 apartment, where I stay on the 3^rd floor and was shocked by what I saw. Sruti’s 2 year old Honda Brio was covered in water till the rear view mirror. I knew then that we had a problem. A major problem.

First view of the cars in the driveway

First view of the Brio. :(

We then went downstairs and saw the car and even more shocked when reality started to kick in. One of our neighbours was packing up to leave and in hindsight, I wish – perhaps we too had done that! But, we didn’t. We lazed in the comfort of thinking that it can’t get worse. And yet as the events of the day unfolded. It did!

We packed an emergency bag with – what else – emergency supplies. Took stock of the situation and had we stayed, we knew we could manage to be safe and dry for at least – 3 to 4 days.


By 10 AM, the cars in the driveway were completely engulfed. The bikes. Oh well. No need to talk about that now! :(
 
Ram – my neighbour and I decided to see how far we can go if we had a raft. So used some plywood that was lying on the terrace with thermocol packing from fridges and washing machines and my endless supply of bungee cords and attempted to make a makeshift raft.

We then took it down to see if we can make it to the entrance of the colony at least which is on higher ground.

Oh and did I mention that neither of us can swim!?

Spot my bike!

  

Rafting - an attempt!

We tried and went to the end of the street but we kept hitting obstacles. What obstacles did you say? – oh the numerous submerged cars of course! What had happened was that the car owners further down my downward sloping street had all brought their cars and parked them near my place thinking they will be safe. If only they had gone 300 meters more they would have been safe(r). The current was too strong for us and therefore we decided to abandon our great raft escapade and made it back home in 2 pieces.

Once this ordeal was over, there was nothing more we could do except head to the roof and see if we can contact anyone. Ajith, one of my friends managed to be safe and lo and behold he was able to make contact. He said, don’t worry – they will get a boat and come over. Post this conversation, I was completely unreachable till late in the night when a couple of people were able to contact me. The day was spent just walking out every time to see how much more the water had risen. Managed to locate a book I had not read (in a while) and re-started it.

We saw a couple of helpless lost and confused dogs and felt bad that we could not do anything for them. (Thankfully - we saw a couple of them after the waters receded - safe and back to their rowdy ways!)

One of our other neighbours, Naveen, had given us his keys and he said to pick up stocks and supplies from his home as he wasn’t there so we were stocked with Maggi (Yay!) and pasta, and importantly 2 laptops fully charged. We had an inverter in our house and therefore had some power, but we shut down all items, cleaned the fridge out and even had chicken that day for lunch! No way was Ginger my dog going to get everything! :)

Ginger does not care as long as I am there :)

We used as little power as we could and this was just to charge phones (in the hope that the damn VODAFONE network would pick up some time or the other!) Vodafone – if AIRTEL could work – why couldn’t you?!?! Crappy! and it has made me reconsider my rather long relationship with Vodafone!
Absolutely nothing on your website on the failure as well. #stupidvodafone

We had a disturbed sleep as it was extremely silent, completely black as there was no power and we could hear lost street dogs howling away in the eerie darkness. Was sad and scary at the same time. I was trying not to dwell in the present but thinking of the future. 1 car, 4 bikes completely submerged (and you know I am a motorcyclist!).  But, what kept me going was that God had a plan for us. We were alive (thus far) and that was all that mattered and in reality – that’s the way I am looking at it right now. There is a purpose.

Maximum depth.

The final pic before waters started to recede

Thursday – December 3 - 7 AM

Woke up fairly early and was unable to sleep any more. Had a cuppa and were talking about how to call Smitha, one of our friends who had their birthday today and around 7 AM, I heard a loud voice calling out my nickname “DODO”. I recognized it immediately as the voice of Lakshmi - a good friend of mine. I immediately ran to the balcony and was thrilled, ecstatic and whatever other adjective you can find when I saw Bharathwaj aka Bra, Lakshmi and Chella wading in neck deep water and entering my compound. I immediately donned my swimming trunks – (yes I have them even though I don’t swim!) and took a bottle of drinking water and went down to greet my rescuers. They hadn’t been able to arrange boats as boats had already been deployed in my area. So now it wasn’t a question of IF – it was WHEN.

Told the rest of the neighbours to pack up emergency stuff and be ready.

We had a family with a 3 month old baby and of course Ginger who all had to be evacuated soon.

Ram said he won’t be getting rescued as they were all fine and his aged parents would not  be able to cope. No amount of persuasion would help, so I gave him my spare keys and told him he could use the house whenever he wanted – for food, water, supplies and power.

All of us were ready to go and the boys flagged down a boat and brought it INTO the compound. I don’t have photos as by now all was packed in Ziplocs and in the emergency bag. Managed to get Sruti into the boat and then took charge of Ginger who swam :) - she was a bit scared but with me there she was absolutely ok. Heaved her into the boat – which already had some more rescued people and then went about getting the others from the apartments into the boat. The last was the family with the baby as we were all scared. Took the baby, and handed over to the father who was in the boat. And finally bid adieu to Ram. I am rather tall and so rather than get into the boat, my friends and I walked alongside the boat pushing it and manoeuvring it where needed. Chest deep water now – indicating the waters were indeed receding (phew!)

After about 20 minutes, we reached the entrance to the colony. My maid Rita was among the others waiting for loved ones and she walked in the water the moment she saw us and a barking Ginger. Ginger was so caught up that till the end she didn’t realize there was another dog in the boat! ;) Rita took Ginger and my friends and I helped the others off the boat.

Many other of my friends had shown up  - Rajsekar – aka Owner, Ajith  - the main man! (he actually made it in the water too!), M Arun Kumar aka MAK, Manickam, Bhavishya all of them were there. We finally made it to firmer and solid ground. The irony of the situation was when we reached the main road and realized that it was life as normal for everyone else. Roads had traffic, buses, autos cars etc all plying like nothing had happened!! And we were but 400 meters away and in a boat!

Oh well.

Mak kindly “volunteered” to take us to Lakshmi's house and so we were soon on the way in his car. Reached safely to Lakshmi’s house and settled in after letting one of his cats escape! Yet, this was no time to rest. Like me, other friends were stuck in various places so decided to head back to regroup and start off the next set of rescues and then on to relief.

That, my friends is a story for another day.

God has been great and ensured that we are safe. Alive. And kicking. That is sufficient.

My friends have been brilliant. Thanks to you all. Without you  who knows what could have happened.

Thank you all.

Some of the rescuers who came home! Thank you boys!

Clockwise from top left - Ajith, Bra, Chella, MAK, Bhavishya, Manickam, Rajsehar, Lakshmi - Thanks Boys!

Watch this space for more to come. Slowly but surely.
A photo journey and more on Relief and the rest is next.