Jyothi and her family, living in a small two-room house located adjacent to the Amayizhanjan Thodu near Murinjapalam, had not slept till 2 a.m. on October 15. The water levels in the canal were rising following the incessant rains that began around 8 p.m. the previous night. But, when they woke up around an hour later after a short sleep, the water was about to enter their home, sending the family into a mad scramble to gather their necessary belongings and shift to drier land.
The family’s experience is representative of the plight that thousands of others living in the low-lying and even relatively safer areas of the capital faced in the wee hours of Sunday. Flooded neighbourhoods, inundated homes, swamped roads, and protracted power outages caused by intense overnight rain threw life out of gear in the capital and left thousands of residents in the lurch. More than a thousand residents were shifted to relief camps across the district, while six houses were completely damaged, and close to fifteen partially. Fire and rescue services personnel and local volunteers rescued families from flooded homes and shifted them to makeshift relief camps in nearby schools.
