Experience with Flood and Rain

We sat watching updates on northeast monsoon’s rain and floods reported from various parts of the city from more than two news channels. Usually rainwater used to stagnant around my home, whenever there’s heavy rainfall and water will recede slowly once it stopped raining. But on Sunday, from the morning the rainwater started to stay around my home in the usual way and from the evening and once in started to downpour there’s no way of receding and the level of water continued to rose as it rained constantly. Our attention from the TV slanted towards our own and what we have seen through all the years during the monsoon has at last reached our destination or we transferred towards it. Though this is not a usual monsoon and the rain didn’t’ last throughout the season, but showered the entire sum within a week time, blocking every waterways and drainage system, and over flowing rivers and lakes and heavy dose of rainfall brought things to standstill. 

Some flood scenes on neighbors and ours, shot from first floor

We don’t’ know what to do when water level touched our floor surface and when our attention was how to block the doorway to prevent water entering our home, the water started to outflow though the bathroom gullies blending rain and sewage water. With constant rain and increasing water level around the home, the flood started to enter our home in all possible ways and with the warning of met. Dept for intense rainfall for next two days, there was no other option than moving out of home. It was a moment perplex to do what next and mom didn’t have a mind leaving the home like that and obviously we are in charge of taking refuge at our uncle’s house in next street, which is of course our native house  and just being an upstairs homes we couldn’t reside there. At that phase mom remind us about the empty portion above our home, which is waiting for a tenant and the key, was also with us. Just informing the landlord, we moved couple of cots to the first floor with the help of my cousin and his friends, who also uplifted me using a chair.

My uncle’s family was very supportive throughout this phase and only that we were unable to stay with them... thinking about that now, mom had took the right decision and moving to my uncle’s home at that time should have been more difficult with water flooded all over the streets and moving upstairs within the building is most easiest. The late evening was spent quite putting things at safest and believing that water won’t raise more than a feet (although it rose only one third of it) we made sure no electric device was exposed and moreover switched off the main for two days until water recede quite. The only thing was we were unable to cook and was also not in mindset to bring stove and utensils above (as we feel it won’t be nice to make cooking at the house that was yet to be rented) so it was my uncle’s family take care of this too. My aunt prepared dishes consecutively throughout our stay above and passed it though my cousin and uncle and what we were doing was just eating and taking rest.

It wasn’t like we were affected by flood, but come to a place on vacation surrounded by water and the weather make feel of staying at a hill station. No televising and internet to connect, though we are glad there was electric throughout, unlike many other places, we can’t play television or interest. But that wasn’t a matter as we have Smartphone’s to connect via mobile data, there was little update about rain and flood in neighbourhood. Though water recedes in two days, we decided to stay upstairs for couple of days to wait and see what the weather condition was, because going back and front is not easy task. But glad there wasn’t heavy rain after the constant downpour and we have moved down this evening after going through couple of water washing the home and used cleaning agents to keep away germs and smells. The recent downpour made Chennai float in flood but when checking other places and esp. the suburbs that was almost covered by flood, what we have gone through isn’t much. And it was an experience and brought things close to explore lives at lowest. Glad things are back to normal now.