2018 has been an year of total loss and a hand full of horrible memories. I am talking of the recent flood that happened in Kerala and to which I and my family was a part of. Its been more than 4 months now but I still can see and feel the drastic effect of "The Flood". Travelling through the roads near by, only one thing comes in mind.. "Puzha Ozhukiya Vazhi". I can still see the marks of Flood in the walls of many houses. For the past few days I have been thinking of making a note of whatever happened in those days so that some day my kids can read and feel the moments just like me. I do not know what lies ahead of me. Another drastic flood or a life full of surprises. But I just want to jot down whatever was in my mind those days. Love you hus and my kids (One being in my belly right now, silently watching everything from his/her third month. I am on my 8th month of Pregnancy!! And Thats how I got time to write .. lol ...).
I was Three months pregrant when everything happened. And that was the reason for everyone's tension too. And being on the beginning of forth month is what my doctor said my luck was. I already had an abortion before. So extra care had to be taken to avoid another loss. The Doc said I was lucky that everything happened after your third month or I might have been in major risk. God is great to save us. Thank You God.
I work in a Government Office. There was Red Alert for Idamalayar Dam on 09/08/2018. A kind of small trial before the actuals. Our panchayat was near to Periyar River and hence more fear was there in everones mind. But we didnt have any idea on what to do and what not to do. Being on Red Alert, I was instructed to stay back at home by hus and family. The Colllector had already declared a holiday for the Schools too. So even if I had some urgent works to do at office, I stayed back at home with my son and mom that day. We were infront of TV from morning watching the water flowing everywhere. 5 gates of Idukki dam was opened up for the first time in history. Rainfall was getting heaviner and heavier causing more damage to many areas in Kerala. Periyar being the stop mark for the water coming from Idukki, and we having our house near the banks of periyar, we were afraid thinking of what is ahead. There is a small thodu behind our house. The thoudu is connected to a small river near by which is a part of Periyar. Every hour we rush towards our backyard to have a peek on the water level. Has it raised and how much will it raise is a question for which we had no idea. Guessing and guessings only. It was kind of small fun at that time. Guessing of the consequences which was still blank for us. My hus works abroad and he couldn't concentrate on his work because we are away. For us it wad the reverse. Our tension was because he was away :(
Seeing the TV news about the flood made our BP go high. Bcoz they had news saying how water will or mite flow and what might happen. Also, the clips showing the destruction caused by flood in hilly areas and news of N no of people's death due to flood was also disturbing. The official facebook page of Disaster Management was better. Decent news and lot of comments. That was enough.
In the evening, my colleagues sent me photos showing the arrival of Army Team in our Panchayat. Wohhoo..!! That was unexpected and that made more tension too. Why have they arrived? TV News also started showing the clips of Army. My brother in law being an Ex Navy officer went to visit them and when he returned, he gave us the news that as per the conversation he had with the Village Officer, water may rise upto 1 or 1.5 meters above. We got tensed but we didnt expect a big rise. But I didnt forget to put alarms in between at night and went and checked the water level. And everytime I opened my eyes, before waking up from bed the first thing I did was to touch my hands in ground and check if water has flushed into our house. The outlet pipe of our bathroom goes into a pit near the thodu. So my expectation was that the first room to get wet was mine. Luckily it didn't happen everytime my alarm sounded.
The next day I went to office to get teased by my colleagues because nothing happened :). I escaped in the name of my baby. The explanation received from everyone for the flood not to happen was that it was because of the low tide that sea took away the water from river as soon as it arrived, making no harm at all to everyone. And as per the local fishermen , as the Karkidaka Vaavu was near it added to the benefit.
In the mean time, I too went to see the Army officials. ofcourse see as in see from a distance Only :). Apart from a stack of life jackets there were some metal tools. Not toools actually, I was not sure what that could be. Some said that it might be used as bridge in emergency( in case the actual bridge falls down). That made a bit of tension in mind. What all things do they foresee and bring :O .Thank God, nothing happened was the feeling which came into my mind that time.
Days passed by and still the Army hadn't returned. The Village Officer was in charge of the well being of Army Officials and he was also in tension. Later got
to know that they are staying back till the Independence day. One day we saw that a large office truck had come in and all the Army officials got into it in casual dresses. Seeing them not in uniform and just casuals, we felt like Aww they are just normal citizens!! When they get into that Army pack, they do have a different Look. Anyways by noon, they had returned in the same truck carrying lot of bags full of dresses from near by Shops in town. Felt good and proud. :) :) They own a life too.
Then on 14th of August, another alert came up. News shows the chances of Mullaperiyaar dam to be opened up. Oh my my! Not again.
[More to come....]
The morning of 14th August was just another regular day. As usual I left my son in the School bus for his regular day and I went to office. It was a cloudy day. But it was not raining heavily. Not here in my place, but surely in Idukki. By noon, news started coming in to my office that near by places has started to drown. Drown? As in real drown?? I called home and confirmed that nothing has happened there. But that made my Amma in tension. She was all alone in house too. By noon official confirmation had come in that climate may get worse and red alert is declared. Also new mails regarding the details of camps set up in panchayat and other facilities arranged ahead of flood had plung in. I got tensed thinking of my son and suddenly I got a call from Amma asking what to do for Achu(my kid). Because of the sudden changes in situation, people were expecting more traffic in road and there might be chances that my Son's buses may go in different route. Since I am pregnant and I couldn't use my bike, it would become difficult for me if they drop him somewhere else. I suddenly called to his school and enquired if it would be possible to pick him up before the school leaves and they said ok. I made arrangements with my sister in law and she agreed to pick him up. He sure would be happy for that.
In the mean time, one of my colleagues whose house was near the periyar had gone home for lunch, but she didn't return. She said water is rising than last time and she had to stay home in case of an emergency. She sent me pictures of nearby places. The nearby roads were drowned as it would have been if it was raining. Only that much. I again called home to check if Achu had arrived and made sure no water has rised in our area. Thankfully Achu had reached and nothing worse had happened.
Somehow I managed to be at office till 5pm and everyone left bidding adeau and making fun of the situation. One of my colleagues who was staying in an island nearby told me if flood comes in, u can see me waving bye bye holding on to some coconut tree. Next day being Independence day, everyone was asked to reach office by 8.30 AM. I thought of taking my son to office next day as this year's Independence day would be special with the Army Officials. Something will be different!! As I left office, I could see my male colleagues decorating the corridor and the Flag pole for the celebrations.
As I was reaching near to my house I suddenly remembered about the call I recieved about the parcel from Amazon. It was a brand new Honor 7X for mom. Though it was slightly raining I decided to collect it from the courier service. I always had a bad courier service from Bluedart and next day being public holiday, I didn't want my anxiety to go on. So I took my auto and collected the surprise gift for mom. My husband was also happy because he wanted to gift her one for so long.
As I reached home, I felt good because everyone seemed to be happy. It was not the situation in my office. My brother in law lives near by. Didi (Sis in law) was at our home and they all were having some good time. But as I reached, I told them of the news in office. Switching on the TV was actually terror. Seeing all the news about the destruction and death due to flood. But still we were ok. Water may not rise that much. That was the feeling. At night, when my hus came online, the phone was handed over to mom and we all had a nice time. But because of the fear deep inside, my husband made me pack all the necessary documents into a bag and I kept the bag above the almirah for safety. Also, I packed a bag full of necessary clothes for me and my kiddo. Just in case of an emergency. Also I didn't forget to take my son's crayons and a set of coloring buks to make him engaged. Amma also packed her necessary documents and a bigshopper full of dresses.
TV news was showing of water rising here and there, but after our regular drama of Serials, we switched off the TV. After food, something struck in my mind and I went and took the Holy Bible in Amma's room. I randomly opened up a page and started reading. It said, flood is on the way and I am taking the life in you ... and it had some lines like that. My BP got raised and I became tensed. I closed the book and came back to my room silently. I was all tensed and waited for my hus to come online. When I told him about what I read, he started scolding me and asked me to go back and read some other page. Amma had already fallen asleep. In the dark, I managed to take the book and came to my room and read some other page. I really do not remember what I read. But I wanted to make him listen to what I read before. I had noted down the page number in mind. But I forgot. I searched for the page but I couldn't find out :( . Did I really see what I read? I don't know. But I was afraid to face the situation. Somehow I got into sleep. But only to wake up for another BIG DAY.
Next day morning, as we went to backdoor to see if water has rised up, I couldn't see the thodu :(. Water has leveled up everywhere. But only a bit. May be just 2 inches above the ground level. When my husband made a video call, I showed him everything live. More than fear, it was kind of excitement to see water evrywhere. But as I took a zoomed view, I could see couple of snakes moving so fast towards our house. I got afraid and went inside to avoid any attack. Hearing about the snakes, binuvettan also got afraid and asked me and others to stay inside ONLY.
I really wanted to go to office with Achu. But situation was not good. So I informed to office about my leave. Pictures of Flag hoisting were posted in FB and watsapp. I showed it to Achu. My brother in law being an Ex-Navy official, he had taken his daughter to Paravur and nearby premises with Independence Day celebrations. They came up with sweets for my son and everyone. We came to know that the disaster relief camp had already been set up in a school nearby. Last time also camp was set up there. And people had joined mainly because of the fund they might be getting for being in the camp.
Current had gone in the morning itself. So TV was off from morning. Invertor was working fine in our house. So charging the phone was not an issue in our house. But there was no invertor in Brother's house. So they came over here to charge their phones. As channels was not available in TV, we were actually unaware of what was happening outside. But I turned on Asianet/Mathrubhumi Live in Mobile. Reporters were making us afraid of the situation. I felt like they are just making up stories for their channel. Thats what they did last time. They are very good in making a very small thing REALLY BIG. So I turned off the Live Channel too. As current was not there, I thought of charging Amma's new Honor 7x and install whatsapp, facebook and messenger. So that just in case if my phone's charge gets over, I could get in touch with my hus with Ammaz phone. Clarity was just amazing.
In the meanwhile my mom and brother called up and asked us to join them at my native place. How could I go. Amma here will not leave home and anyways brother and family is near. So I felt it was ok. And brother in law was preparing themselves with food supplies. Eggs, Meat, Vegetables, Rice, Milk. If rain continues and if no shop is open tomorrow what will we do. So they were actually equiped for two families. We were also to join them. For buying these things, he had taken his new Brezza car and his younger daughter accompanied him. But while coming back, they took a short cut instead of main road. Roads were full of water and car broke down for a minute. For a second, they thought they will be stuck inside. But somehow he managed to restart the ignition and reached home safely. But both of them got so sooo afraid that reaching home their hands started shivering. In the evening, at around 3.30 PM water level had raised around 1/2 ft above the ground level. I heard that Amma was doing something outside the car parking area. Our car parking area was little more higher than the actual ground level. I came outside to see what was happening. She was in the water picking up the coconuts that was gathered in the backyard. She couldn't bear the loss of coconuts in running water. Brother's house is around 3 ft higher than our ground level. She started throwing the coconut to his backyard and hearing the sound, sister came out and she with her daughters started collecting it in big bags. Brother also came up to have some good conversation. He started saying the idea of throwing the coconuts up to his house's 1st floor. But we proceeded with the idea of filling bags with coconut n keeping it outside. Water is not gonna rise so much. That was our feeling. As my husband was not home, brother took our Ford Figo keys to shift our car to their 2 ft higher front area. Also, my Swish bike was also taken.
Electricity was still off and so was the TV cable too. I was afraid to open FB and watsapp fearing the battery loss. Invertor could go off anytime! But I couldnt resist my FB addiction and thought to have a glance. As I was scrolling down, I saw a video in which a guy was in his 1st floor and he was shouting to help and suddenly I saw that his house was actually drowned in water. I could see water till the gate level. I mean the gates were completely drowned in water. Ayyo!! Wud that be a fake video? How can water rise so much? How is he gonna get out if it was real? I got sooooooooooooo afraid that I turned off FB. I didn't know what was gonna happen here. But I didn't know what to be done sitting inside the house waiting for things to happen. Actually, mind was blank. At that moment, didn't feel to take any precaution for the flood ahead. Only thing in my mind was the documents to be taken care of and gold at home. And it was kept safe! Documents above the almirah and gold in my bag.
By late evening, the road infront of our house started drowning slowly. First water was near the sides only. The middle part of the bulgy road was visible in the beginning. Slowly, as the water rised, the road became invisible. It was raining. There is a small bridge crossing a small river near to our house. Water was flooding from that river obviously. And people were walking to the bridge to see the whole scene. Yes, everything was like a film shoot. By night 7 PM, water had raised till our first step in the front and was about to enter our work area in the back. We already had shifted our bag with dresses to brother's house. We with the help of brother and sister, had shifted our washing machine to kitchen from the work area. So its safe for the time being. Children were all excited for a night together. We promised to join them after our dinner. Anyways electricity was not there in their house. So we thought to stay back as long as we could here. But once we had our dinner, amma's face was all frightened up. She started to shift the setty cusions upstairs. I joined her. I was in my 3rd month. So couldn't lift heavy things. But I helped her with whatever I could. Then she started to take the dinning table chairs. She is in her 60's. I was getting afraid if something happened to her too. Thankfully chettan(brother) came up at that moment with his younger daughter. They also joined to help her. The setty cusions and the chairs were safe now. Just in case water comes in. But still we expected that water will not come inside our house. Then we shifted 3 beds from our bedrooms to the glass top dinning table. I was afraid if the glass would break down. And I had placed a bedsheet over the glass so that there wouldn't be any scratches in it. If water rises, we expected to be below the dinning table level. I had already shifted my dresses in the almirah to two drawers above. Just in case, water rises it will be till that level. Because I remember my amma saying the story of one of the staff in our shop that in the flood which was expected last time, water rised till 2 levels of their almirah. But that was in a low lying area. Ours was safe that time. So WATER IS NOT GONNA RISE THIS TIME TOO.
We shifted to chettan's house by around 8.30 PM. It was a total fun mood for b-6/ children. Everything was candle lit. They also had finished their dinner by that time. Chettan called up his friend who was staying opposite to their house. We got to know the shocking news that they already had shifted to their flat in Kakkanad by evening. Then we called our cousin nearby. He had already shifted his car to Paravur town area. And he was forcing his mother and father to join him. They were not at all willing to go. But by 7 he managed to get their permission and they all walked till main road carrying their bags bcoz roads were flooding and no auto was willing to come. Once they reached main road, they took an auto to Paravur town to their car. When we called them at 9, they already had reached their tharavadu(Aunty's own house). I was bit tensed to hear that too. Bcoz I felt like everyone is running away.
At night, when my husband called we couldn't talk much because none of us had a powerbank for charging. Battery had to be kept alive :(. When he asked about the documents, I said its safe above the almirah. I was expecting that I could go back home in the morning. But he scolded me too much for not taking it with me. What if water rises by morning and we wouldn't be able to reach back to take the documents. Every single document is in it. :'( Hearing every possibilities my BP rised up. I couldn't sit or stand. I was shivering and was afraid about the safety of documents. As I was pregnant, everyone asked me to calm down and sleep fastly. I couldn't sleep and couldn't help my tears rolling down too. Later my husband called me and asked me not to worry. And that chettan will get the documents in the morning. Whatever, I couldn't sleep. By around 12 I felt like vomiting. In the darkness I rushed towards the bathroom. And aimed in dark towards the closet. Somehow I managed to vomit. Hearning my roar sound sister and amma rushed to the bathroom with torch lights. They got me back to bed and asked me to relax. My health status became another reason for their tension now. Because when I am with them, if something happens to me its them who has to rush. When my hus is not with me, they are care takers of me, mom and my son. I tried to sleep. They all were in the mainhall discussing this and that. By around 3 AM I woke up. I went near the windows to see how much water had rised up. We didn't have a torch of our own. We had invertor to support electricity. So even if our torch was not working, we didn't care. Same with the emergency. We never cared :(. With the help of my iphone's torch light I managed to guess that water has reached our car shed. As I was back to bed, I heard the sound of brother's window opening. I rushed towards our window to see the water level. Yes, I was correct, water had rised till our car shed. Tears hadn't stopped :(. I somehow wanted to watch the sun rise :(
In the morning, water had rised by about a feet in the car shed. By around 6 am, water had reached brother's car shed. Where we thought water may not come at all. Ok that made brother and family a bit tensed. They started to pack their documents and shift it upstairs. I couldn't ask them to take mine unless their documents were safe. As brother was a contractor, they had lot many files to be shifted. And his laptop, printer and all necessary things were shifted upstairs. Their new house had lot of interior works and their stairs were also luxuriously twisted. 3 turns are needed to reach upstairs. And the ...... kaivari was not so strong unlike what we see. So they needed to be careful while taking things upstairs. By around 8.30 they finished their first set duty. Then chechi(sister) handed over the final touch up of kitchen activities to me. Chettan, chechi and amma went to our house for their next mission. They didn't allow me to step out of his house for my child inside. My chechi is 5 ft 5 and water was till her knees in her backyard. Chechi bought the documents to home. Some buckets and necessary utensils were shifted too. Chechi was the carrier. She crossed the running water. In the meantime, chettan and Amma shifted the oven and TV upstairs. Upstairs was open, but the roof was covered with ..... sheet. Its safe from rain. Fridge and Washing machine is too heavy for them. Brother disconnected our invertor and they took it to his house thinking we could make use of it somehow. Either to charge our phone or atleast to light a bulb. He is a master of everything. He can do anything.
We had a Labrador doggie- Rocky. What to do with him. Chettan opened up his gate so as to let him free. Let him be free and find his way out. But seeing the water to his cage level he was even frightened to come out. Brother rushed back to him and somehow managed to pull him in water and reached our Varandha. But he was still frightened and was behaving odd. After all what he and amma could do inside our house, he fed Rocky's tummy full and locked Rocky inside keeping the upstair doors open. So that he could save himself if water rises up. That's all what we could do. On the way back home, chettan slipped and had a minor injury to his hand and leg. :(
In the meantime, we could see people walking in the road across the running water with a small bag of all necessary things. They were shifting from a church camp nearby to next camp as they all were asked to do so by the authorities. My mind wanted to run away somewhere safe. But all in the house were not willing. They all are ready to be at home. Amma said whatever be it, we are in our house. We will be safe. My mom and brother asked me to tell everyone to evacuate as early as possible. But no one was ready. Chettan was the only adult male with us. Us- His mom in her 60s, His wife, His daughters: elder one in 9th standard and younger in 3rd standard, A pregnant lady, my 4 yr old son. What could he decide further.
After having our breakfast, chettan's family started shifting their dresses and whatever they could to upstairs. Curtains, dresses, cussions etc. All the clothes from their huge almirah were put into a flat bedsheet and rolled into bundles. Easy to carry and shift. I could do this yesterday to save mine and my son's clothes. Not even once did this idea strike into my mind. I was so stupid. But I never thought that such a situation would come. I was expecting to go back home in the morning. That was why I kept the documents above the almirah :(... :'(... In the meantime, chettan started removing the batteries from Brezza, Figo, Royal Enfield Bullet, Swish and Access. All the documents from every vehicles were taken out and kept safe upstairs. Then only I remembered that my Swish's documents are kept safe in the main hall. Now I can't even imagine to ask chettan to go back home to get that. I didn't tell anybody about that. My phone battery was getting low. Not just the phone battery. All the call networks were out of coverage. And it was just my Vodafone in iphone which had range. Amma's old phone too had vodafone. But it was showing poor network. My hus called and asked chettan to shift to my native home which was the safest for the time being. But chettan couldn't decide. Because the water was running heavily by that time and to walk to such a distance, we didn't know if we could. I told I am ready. But then Mom, and kids.. And above all they were not ready to risk with a pregnant lady. Just in case I felt something bad, we were not sure if we would get the medical attention in time. So we just waited inside watching people going through the road in small manual boats, walking through the water which was above the knees in road. Children were still excited to have another night together that too may be upstairs with no lights. I was really frightened thinking of being stranded alone. Almost everyone in the area had already evacuated to may be safer places. We didn't know. We didn't know what was happening on the other side. We just waited.
Chettan's brand new house was yet to celebrate anniversary. Almost all walls had lovely wall stickers. All the furnitures were brand new.. custom made for his designer house. The sofa set was very heavy for them to carry and even thinking of those being drowned in water, I was getting tears in eyes. Then what would be chettan's reaction. Our house is very old one but we had also painted and had bought new furnitures. Kitchen drawers and cupboards were also new. And our house had actually started to drown :( . Water had raised to 2nd step in the front area of chettan's house by that time. No water inside yet. We were all tensed and all our mind was blank. Then at that moment, an angel came... My God.. We saw that Ilayachan (My huband's fathers's younger brother) who was forced by his son yesterday to shift to his mom's native place came back to see our situation. To help us get out.. :) :) I really felt sooo soooooo thankful to God for sending him as an Angel. He travelled all the way from his wife's native to Paravur in bike and from there he walked all the way to our house to see us. My God.. that was almost more than 2 kilometers :O .. He suggested to get out of house as early as possible. There is nobody in the whole area and its better that we evacuate asap. Now chettan has a good decision. He asked me if I could walk. I said no problem we can go ahead. Then he was the commander in charge :). He asked all of us to carry a shoulder bag full of just necessary dress and quickly pack up. My shoulder bag is drowning in our house :( His daughter gave me one of her old school bag. I packed 2 of my dress and achu's too. And just the necessary items like my medical records and achu's medicines and a bottle full of water. Chettan's family too packed up. so did my mom too. Then we changed ourself to comfortable dresses to go into the water. Most of us didn't know to swim :( Only chettan and his daughter's knew. They were in their shorts. Me and chechi in tracksuit and salwar tops. Though it was raining, we were not sure if we would be able to carry umbrella with us. We had no idea how strong the running water would be. And we had a shoulder bag and a handbag with us. So we took caps and a plastic cover over it to be safe from getting wet.
Chettan still had duties to fill up. He took lot of large ropes and got out of house to tie all the vehicles to whatever places he could. He tied our Figo to one of the pillar and brezza to another. Enfield was also tied to a pillar in the parking area. He and chechi dragged swish & access to the varandha and he tied that too to his window bars. We can't afford anything floating away in water :(. But doing all these, his injured legs were paining a lot.
I was Three months pregrant when everything happened. And that was the reason for everyone's tension too. And being on the beginning of forth month is what my doctor said my luck was. I already had an abortion before. So extra care had to be taken to avoid another loss. The Doc said I was lucky that everything happened after your third month or I might have been in major risk. God is great to save us. Thank You God.
I work in a Government Office. There was Red Alert for Idamalayar Dam on 09/08/2018. A kind of small trial before the actuals. Our panchayat was near to Periyar River and hence more fear was there in everones mind. But we didnt have any idea on what to do and what not to do. Being on Red Alert, I was instructed to stay back at home by hus and family. The Colllector had already declared a holiday for the Schools too. So even if I had some urgent works to do at office, I stayed back at home with my son and mom that day. We were infront of TV from morning watching the water flowing everywhere. 5 gates of Idukki dam was opened up for the first time in history. Rainfall was getting heaviner and heavier causing more damage to many areas in Kerala. Periyar being the stop mark for the water coming from Idukki, and we having our house near the banks of periyar, we were afraid thinking of what is ahead. There is a small thodu behind our house. The thoudu is connected to a small river near by which is a part of Periyar. Every hour we rush towards our backyard to have a peek on the water level. Has it raised and how much will it raise is a question for which we had no idea. Guessing and guessings only. It was kind of small fun at that time. Guessing of the consequences which was still blank for us. My hus works abroad and he couldn't concentrate on his work because we are away. For us it wad the reverse. Our tension was because he was away :(
Seeing the TV news about the flood made our BP go high. Bcoz they had news saying how water will or mite flow and what might happen. Also, the clips showing the destruction caused by flood in hilly areas and news of N no of people's death due to flood was also disturbing. The official facebook page of Disaster Management was better. Decent news and lot of comments. That was enough.
In the evening, my colleagues sent me photos showing the arrival of Army Team in our Panchayat. Wohhoo..!! That was unexpected and that made more tension too. Why have they arrived? TV News also started showing the clips of Army. My brother in law being an Ex Navy officer went to visit them and when he returned, he gave us the news that as per the conversation he had with the Village Officer, water may rise upto 1 or 1.5 meters above. We got tensed but we didnt expect a big rise. But I didnt forget to put alarms in between at night and went and checked the water level. And everytime I opened my eyes, before waking up from bed the first thing I did was to touch my hands in ground and check if water has flushed into our house. The outlet pipe of our bathroom goes into a pit near the thodu. So my expectation was that the first room to get wet was mine. Luckily it didn't happen everytime my alarm sounded.
The next day I went to office to get teased by my colleagues because nothing happened :). I escaped in the name of my baby. The explanation received from everyone for the flood not to happen was that it was because of the low tide that sea took away the water from river as soon as it arrived, making no harm at all to everyone. And as per the local fishermen , as the Karkidaka Vaavu was near it added to the benefit.
In the mean time, I too went to see the Army officials. ofcourse see as in see from a distance Only :). Apart from a stack of life jackets there were some metal tools. Not toools actually, I was not sure what that could be. Some said that it might be used as bridge in emergency( in case the actual bridge falls down). That made a bit of tension in mind. What all things do they foresee and bring :O .Thank God, nothing happened was the feeling which came into my mind that time.
Days passed by and still the Army hadn't returned. The Village Officer was in charge of the well being of Army Officials and he was also in tension. Later got
to know that they are staying back till the Independence day. One day we saw that a large office truck had come in and all the Army officials got into it in casual dresses. Seeing them not in uniform and just casuals, we felt like Aww they are just normal citizens!! When they get into that Army pack, they do have a different Look. Anyways by noon, they had returned in the same truck carrying lot of bags full of dresses from near by Shops in town. Felt good and proud. :) :) They own a life too.
Then on 14th of August, another alert came up. News shows the chances of Mullaperiyaar dam to be opened up. Oh my my! Not again.
[More to come....]
The morning of 14th August was just another regular day. As usual I left my son in the School bus for his regular day and I went to office. It was a cloudy day. But it was not raining heavily. Not here in my place, but surely in Idukki. By noon, news started coming in to my office that near by places has started to drown. Drown? As in real drown?? I called home and confirmed that nothing has happened there. But that made my Amma in tension. She was all alone in house too. By noon official confirmation had come in that climate may get worse and red alert is declared. Also new mails regarding the details of camps set up in panchayat and other facilities arranged ahead of flood had plung in. I got tensed thinking of my son and suddenly I got a call from Amma asking what to do for Achu(my kid). Because of the sudden changes in situation, people were expecting more traffic in road and there might be chances that my Son's buses may go in different route. Since I am pregnant and I couldn't use my bike, it would become difficult for me if they drop him somewhere else. I suddenly called to his school and enquired if it would be possible to pick him up before the school leaves and they said ok. I made arrangements with my sister in law and she agreed to pick him up. He sure would be happy for that.
In the mean time, one of my colleagues whose house was near the periyar had gone home for lunch, but she didn't return. She said water is rising than last time and she had to stay home in case of an emergency. She sent me pictures of nearby places. The nearby roads were drowned as it would have been if it was raining. Only that much. I again called home to check if Achu had arrived and made sure no water has rised in our area. Thankfully Achu had reached and nothing worse had happened.
Somehow I managed to be at office till 5pm and everyone left bidding adeau and making fun of the situation. One of my colleagues who was staying in an island nearby told me if flood comes in, u can see me waving bye bye holding on to some coconut tree. Next day being Independence day, everyone was asked to reach office by 8.30 AM. I thought of taking my son to office next day as this year's Independence day would be special with the Army Officials. Something will be different!! As I left office, I could see my male colleagues decorating the corridor and the Flag pole for the celebrations.
As I was reaching near to my house I suddenly remembered about the call I recieved about the parcel from Amazon. It was a brand new Honor 7X for mom. Though it was slightly raining I decided to collect it from the courier service. I always had a bad courier service from Bluedart and next day being public holiday, I didn't want my anxiety to go on. So I took my auto and collected the surprise gift for mom. My husband was also happy because he wanted to gift her one for so long.
As I reached home, I felt good because everyone seemed to be happy. It was not the situation in my office. My brother in law lives near by. Didi (Sis in law) was at our home and they all were having some good time. But as I reached, I told them of the news in office. Switching on the TV was actually terror. Seeing all the news about the destruction and death due to flood. But still we were ok. Water may not rise that much. That was the feeling. At night, when my hus came online, the phone was handed over to mom and we all had a nice time. But because of the fear deep inside, my husband made me pack all the necessary documents into a bag and I kept the bag above the almirah for safety. Also, I packed a bag full of necessary clothes for me and my kiddo. Just in case of an emergency. Also I didn't forget to take my son's crayons and a set of coloring buks to make him engaged. Amma also packed her necessary documents and a bigshopper full of dresses.
TV news was showing of water rising here and there, but after our regular drama of Serials, we switched off the TV. After food, something struck in my mind and I went and took the Holy Bible in Amma's room. I randomly opened up a page and started reading. It said, flood is on the way and I am taking the life in you ... and it had some lines like that. My BP got raised and I became tensed. I closed the book and came back to my room silently. I was all tensed and waited for my hus to come online. When I told him about what I read, he started scolding me and asked me to go back and read some other page. Amma had already fallen asleep. In the dark, I managed to take the book and came to my room and read some other page. I really do not remember what I read. But I wanted to make him listen to what I read before. I had noted down the page number in mind. But I forgot. I searched for the page but I couldn't find out :( . Did I really see what I read? I don't know. But I was afraid to face the situation. Somehow I got into sleep. But only to wake up for another BIG DAY.
Next day morning, as we went to backdoor to see if water has rised up, I couldn't see the thodu :(. Water has leveled up everywhere. But only a bit. May be just 2 inches above the ground level. When my husband made a video call, I showed him everything live. More than fear, it was kind of excitement to see water evrywhere. But as I took a zoomed view, I could see couple of snakes moving so fast towards our house. I got afraid and went inside to avoid any attack. Hearing about the snakes, binuvettan also got afraid and asked me and others to stay inside ONLY.
I really wanted to go to office with Achu. But situation was not good. So I informed to office about my leave. Pictures of Flag hoisting were posted in FB and watsapp. I showed it to Achu. My brother in law being an Ex-Navy official, he had taken his daughter to Paravur and nearby premises with Independence Day celebrations. They came up with sweets for my son and everyone. We came to know that the disaster relief camp had already been set up in a school nearby. Last time also camp was set up there. And people had joined mainly because of the fund they might be getting for being in the camp.
Current had gone in the morning itself. So TV was off from morning. Invertor was working fine in our house. So charging the phone was not an issue in our house. But there was no invertor in Brother's house. So they came over here to charge their phones. As channels was not available in TV, we were actually unaware of what was happening outside. But I turned on Asianet/Mathrubhumi Live in Mobile. Reporters were making us afraid of the situation. I felt like they are just making up stories for their channel. Thats what they did last time. They are very good in making a very small thing REALLY BIG. So I turned off the Live Channel too. As current was not there, I thought of charging Amma's new Honor 7x and install whatsapp, facebook and messenger. So that just in case if my phone's charge gets over, I could get in touch with my hus with Ammaz phone. Clarity was just amazing.
In the meanwhile my mom and brother called up and asked us to join them at my native place. How could I go. Amma here will not leave home and anyways brother and family is near. So I felt it was ok. And brother in law was preparing themselves with food supplies. Eggs, Meat, Vegetables, Rice, Milk. If rain continues and if no shop is open tomorrow what will we do. So they were actually equiped for two families. We were also to join them. For buying these things, he had taken his new Brezza car and his younger daughter accompanied him. But while coming back, they took a short cut instead of main road. Roads were full of water and car broke down for a minute. For a second, they thought they will be stuck inside. But somehow he managed to restart the ignition and reached home safely. But both of them got so sooo afraid that reaching home their hands started shivering. In the evening, at around 3.30 PM water level had raised around 1/2 ft above the ground level. I heard that Amma was doing something outside the car parking area. Our car parking area was little more higher than the actual ground level. I came outside to see what was happening. She was in the water picking up the coconuts that was gathered in the backyard. She couldn't bear the loss of coconuts in running water. Brother's house is around 3 ft higher than our ground level. She started throwing the coconut to his backyard and hearing the sound, sister came out and she with her daughters started collecting it in big bags. Brother also came up to have some good conversation. He started saying the idea of throwing the coconuts up to his house's 1st floor. But we proceeded with the idea of filling bags with coconut n keeping it outside. Water is not gonna rise so much. That was our feeling. As my husband was not home, brother took our Ford Figo keys to shift our car to their 2 ft higher front area. Also, my Swish bike was also taken.
Electricity was still off and so was the TV cable too. I was afraid to open FB and watsapp fearing the battery loss. Invertor could go off anytime! But I couldnt resist my FB addiction and thought to have a glance. As I was scrolling down, I saw a video in which a guy was in his 1st floor and he was shouting to help and suddenly I saw that his house was actually drowned in water. I could see water till the gate level. I mean the gates were completely drowned in water. Ayyo!! Wud that be a fake video? How can water rise so much? How is he gonna get out if it was real? I got sooooooooooooo afraid that I turned off FB. I didn't know what was gonna happen here. But I didn't know what to be done sitting inside the house waiting for things to happen. Actually, mind was blank. At that moment, didn't feel to take any precaution for the flood ahead. Only thing in my mind was the documents to be taken care of and gold at home. And it was kept safe! Documents above the almirah and gold in my bag.
By late evening, the road infront of our house started drowning slowly. First water was near the sides only. The middle part of the bulgy road was visible in the beginning. Slowly, as the water rised, the road became invisible. It was raining. There is a small bridge crossing a small river near to our house. Water was flooding from that river obviously. And people were walking to the bridge to see the whole scene. Yes, everything was like a film shoot. By night 7 PM, water had raised till our first step in the front and was about to enter our work area in the back. We already had shifted our bag with dresses to brother's house. We with the help of brother and sister, had shifted our washing machine to kitchen from the work area. So its safe for the time being. Children were all excited for a night together. We promised to join them after our dinner. Anyways electricity was not there in their house. So we thought to stay back as long as we could here. But once we had our dinner, amma's face was all frightened up. She started to shift the setty cusions upstairs. I joined her. I was in my 3rd month. So couldn't lift heavy things. But I helped her with whatever I could. Then she started to take the dinning table chairs. She is in her 60's. I was getting afraid if something happened to her too. Thankfully chettan(brother) came up at that moment with his younger daughter. They also joined to help her. The setty cusions and the chairs were safe now. Just in case water comes in. But still we expected that water will not come inside our house. Then we shifted 3 beds from our bedrooms to the glass top dinning table. I was afraid if the glass would break down. And I had placed a bedsheet over the glass so that there wouldn't be any scratches in it. If water rises, we expected to be below the dinning table level. I had already shifted my dresses in the almirah to two drawers above. Just in case, water rises it will be till that level. Because I remember my amma saying the story of one of the staff in our shop that in the flood which was expected last time, water rised till 2 levels of their almirah. But that was in a low lying area. Ours was safe that time. So WATER IS NOT GONNA RISE THIS TIME TOO.
We shifted to chettan's house by around 8.30 PM. It was a total fun mood for b-6/ children. Everything was candle lit. They also had finished their dinner by that time. Chettan called up his friend who was staying opposite to their house. We got to know the shocking news that they already had shifted to their flat in Kakkanad by evening. Then we called our cousin nearby. He had already shifted his car to Paravur town area. And he was forcing his mother and father to join him. They were not at all willing to go. But by 7 he managed to get their permission and they all walked till main road carrying their bags bcoz roads were flooding and no auto was willing to come. Once they reached main road, they took an auto to Paravur town to their car. When we called them at 9, they already had reached their tharavadu(Aunty's own house). I was bit tensed to hear that too. Bcoz I felt like everyone is running away.
At night, when my husband called we couldn't talk much because none of us had a powerbank for charging. Battery had to be kept alive :(. When he asked about the documents, I said its safe above the almirah. I was expecting that I could go back home in the morning. But he scolded me too much for not taking it with me. What if water rises by morning and we wouldn't be able to reach back to take the documents. Every single document is in it. :'( Hearing every possibilities my BP rised up. I couldn't sit or stand. I was shivering and was afraid about the safety of documents. As I was pregnant, everyone asked me to calm down and sleep fastly. I couldn't sleep and couldn't help my tears rolling down too. Later my husband called me and asked me not to worry. And that chettan will get the documents in the morning. Whatever, I couldn't sleep. By around 12 I felt like vomiting. In the darkness I rushed towards the bathroom. And aimed in dark towards the closet. Somehow I managed to vomit. Hearning my roar sound sister and amma rushed to the bathroom with torch lights. They got me back to bed and asked me to relax. My health status became another reason for their tension now. Because when I am with them, if something happens to me its them who has to rush. When my hus is not with me, they are care takers of me, mom and my son. I tried to sleep. They all were in the mainhall discussing this and that. By around 3 AM I woke up. I went near the windows to see how much water had rised up. We didn't have a torch of our own. We had invertor to support electricity. So even if our torch was not working, we didn't care. Same with the emergency. We never cared :(. With the help of my iphone's torch light I managed to guess that water has reached our car shed. As I was back to bed, I heard the sound of brother's window opening. I rushed towards our window to see the water level. Yes, I was correct, water had rised till our car shed. Tears hadn't stopped :(. I somehow wanted to watch the sun rise :(
In the morning, water had rised by about a feet in the car shed. By around 6 am, water had reached brother's car shed. Where we thought water may not come at all. Ok that made brother and family a bit tensed. They started to pack their documents and shift it upstairs. I couldn't ask them to take mine unless their documents were safe. As brother was a contractor, they had lot many files to be shifted. And his laptop, printer and all necessary things were shifted upstairs. Their new house had lot of interior works and their stairs were also luxuriously twisted. 3 turns are needed to reach upstairs. And the ...... kaivari was not so strong unlike what we see. So they needed to be careful while taking things upstairs. By around 8.30 they finished their first set duty. Then chechi(sister) handed over the final touch up of kitchen activities to me. Chettan, chechi and amma went to our house for their next mission. They didn't allow me to step out of his house for my child inside. My chechi is 5 ft 5 and water was till her knees in her backyard. Chechi bought the documents to home. Some buckets and necessary utensils were shifted too. Chechi was the carrier. She crossed the running water. In the meantime, chettan and Amma shifted the oven and TV upstairs. Upstairs was open, but the roof was covered with ..... sheet. Its safe from rain. Fridge and Washing machine is too heavy for them. Brother disconnected our invertor and they took it to his house thinking we could make use of it somehow. Either to charge our phone or atleast to light a bulb. He is a master of everything. He can do anything.
We had a Labrador doggie- Rocky. What to do with him. Chettan opened up his gate so as to let him free. Let him be free and find his way out. But seeing the water to his cage level he was even frightened to come out. Brother rushed back to him and somehow managed to pull him in water and reached our Varandha. But he was still frightened and was behaving odd. After all what he and amma could do inside our house, he fed Rocky's tummy full and locked Rocky inside keeping the upstair doors open. So that he could save himself if water rises up. That's all what we could do. On the way back home, chettan slipped and had a minor injury to his hand and leg. :(
In the meantime, we could see people walking in the road across the running water with a small bag of all necessary things. They were shifting from a church camp nearby to next camp as they all were asked to do so by the authorities. My mind wanted to run away somewhere safe. But all in the house were not willing. They all are ready to be at home. Amma said whatever be it, we are in our house. We will be safe. My mom and brother asked me to tell everyone to evacuate as early as possible. But no one was ready. Chettan was the only adult male with us. Us- His mom in her 60s, His wife, His daughters: elder one in 9th standard and younger in 3rd standard, A pregnant lady, my 4 yr old son. What could he decide further.
After having our breakfast, chettan's family started shifting their dresses and whatever they could to upstairs. Curtains, dresses, cussions etc. All the clothes from their huge almirah were put into a flat bedsheet and rolled into bundles. Easy to carry and shift. I could do this yesterday to save mine and my son's clothes. Not even once did this idea strike into my mind. I was so stupid. But I never thought that such a situation would come. I was expecting to go back home in the morning. That was why I kept the documents above the almirah :(... :'(... In the meantime, chettan started removing the batteries from Brezza, Figo, Royal Enfield Bullet, Swish and Access. All the documents from every vehicles were taken out and kept safe upstairs. Then only I remembered that my Swish's documents are kept safe in the main hall. Now I can't even imagine to ask chettan to go back home to get that. I didn't tell anybody about that. My phone battery was getting low. Not just the phone battery. All the call networks were out of coverage. And it was just my Vodafone in iphone which had range. Amma's old phone too had vodafone. But it was showing poor network. My hus called and asked chettan to shift to my native home which was the safest for the time being. But chettan couldn't decide. Because the water was running heavily by that time and to walk to such a distance, we didn't know if we could. I told I am ready. But then Mom, and kids.. And above all they were not ready to risk with a pregnant lady. Just in case I felt something bad, we were not sure if we would get the medical attention in time. So we just waited inside watching people going through the road in small manual boats, walking through the water which was above the knees in road. Children were still excited to have another night together that too may be upstairs with no lights. I was really frightened thinking of being stranded alone. Almost everyone in the area had already evacuated to may be safer places. We didn't know. We didn't know what was happening on the other side. We just waited.
Chettan's brand new house was yet to celebrate anniversary. Almost all walls had lovely wall stickers. All the furnitures were brand new.. custom made for his designer house. The sofa set was very heavy for them to carry and even thinking of those being drowned in water, I was getting tears in eyes. Then what would be chettan's reaction. Our house is very old one but we had also painted and had bought new furnitures. Kitchen drawers and cupboards were also new. And our house had actually started to drown :( . Water had raised to 2nd step in the front area of chettan's house by that time. No water inside yet. We were all tensed and all our mind was blank. Then at that moment, an angel came... My God.. We saw that Ilayachan (My huband's fathers's younger brother) who was forced by his son yesterday to shift to his mom's native place came back to see our situation. To help us get out.. :) :) I really felt sooo soooooo thankful to God for sending him as an Angel. He travelled all the way from his wife's native to Paravur in bike and from there he walked all the way to our house to see us. My God.. that was almost more than 2 kilometers :O .. He suggested to get out of house as early as possible. There is nobody in the whole area and its better that we evacuate asap. Now chettan has a good decision. He asked me if I could walk. I said no problem we can go ahead. Then he was the commander in charge :). He asked all of us to carry a shoulder bag full of just necessary dress and quickly pack up. My shoulder bag is drowning in our house :( His daughter gave me one of her old school bag. I packed 2 of my dress and achu's too. And just the necessary items like my medical records and achu's medicines and a bottle full of water. Chettan's family too packed up. so did my mom too. Then we changed ourself to comfortable dresses to go into the water. Most of us didn't know to swim :( Only chettan and his daughter's knew. They were in their shorts. Me and chechi in tracksuit and salwar tops. Though it was raining, we were not sure if we would be able to carry umbrella with us. We had no idea how strong the running water would be. And we had a shoulder bag and a handbag with us. So we took caps and a plastic cover over it to be safe from getting wet.
Chettan still had duties to fill up. He took lot of large ropes and got out of house to tie all the vehicles to whatever places he could. He tied our Figo to one of the pillar and brezza to another. Enfield was also tied to a pillar in the parking area. He and chechi dragged swish & access to the varandha and he tied that too to his window bars. We can't afford anything floating away in water :(. But doing all these, his injured legs were paining a lot.
[More to come.... Main Flood is on its way]
