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.
Hospital inundated
Among the major institutions that bore the brunt of the floods included the Technopark as well as the Cosmopolitan Hospital, with the ground floors of both establishments being completely inundated. Normal functioning of the Cosmopolitan Hospital was affected as the reception, pharmacy, blood bank, mortuary and the power supply room were inundated. Four bodies had to be shifted out of the mortuary. While the constriction of the Thettiyar Canal was one of the reasons for the flooding of Thettiyar, it was the silting and reduction in area of the Amayizhanjan canal that caused flooding at the hospital and surrounding areas, including Kannammoola, Thekkummoodu Bund colony, Puthenpalam and Gowreesapattom.
“A total of 39 of us from ten families are currently at this relief camp. Most of our belongings are inside the houses and probably covered in mud. We were caught unawares, and so could gather only our clothes,” says Rajini, staying at a relief camp near Murinjapalam.
Residents of the housing board flats as well as the houses located inside EMS Nagar in Pattoor were stranded inside their homes for much of the day as the flood waters from the adjacent canal brought down a compound wall and inundated the whole area.
“Flood waters rushed into the area in the wee hours of Sunday. The ground floors of most of the houses were flooded and the residents had to shift to the upper floor. Around thirty vehicles in the parking area were damaged as the flood waters entered inside. The drinking water sump located in the ground was also filled with flood waters. The Pattom Canal and Amayizhanjan Canal flows close to EMS Nagar, but we have never seen such floods in this area,” says Fathahudeen, president, Pattoor Housing Accommodation Scheme Apartment Owners Association.
Several parts of Anayara too remained without power supply throughout the day as power lines were switched off to the area following the inundation. To add to the woes, water taps remained dry since Saturday. The 2-km Kadakampally road remained submerged in water on most stretches as the courses of water that flows to Koorithodu remained blocked.
“Most of the drains in the area seem to have been blocked, leading to the whole area being inundated. A few of the residents shifted to their relatives’ houses and lodges,” says S. Parameswaran Nair, a resident.
Rail, bus routes affected
In Thampanoor, commuters had to wade through waist-high water to reach the Central Railway Station and the main Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus stand. The Peppara Dam on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city upped its shutters by 80 cm, given the heavy precipitation in the catchment area.
The Kazhakuttam KSEB substation was inundated leading to power cuts in many areas. The Vellayani Lake overflowed at many points, flooding nearby roads and houses. The rural regions of the capital district, including Kadinamkulam, Andoorkonam, Pothencode, Mangalapuram, Neyyatinkara, Vamanapuram and Attingal too witnessed considerable flooding in many areas. Floodwaters entered the Kochuveli industrial estate too. In Venganoor, relatively minor mudslips near residential areas caused a scare. Considerable losses are also expected in the agricultural sector in the rural regions of the capital district.
21 relief camps
A total of 21 relief camps have been opened in the district, with over 1000 people currently residing in these. The maximum number of 16 camps are in the Thiruvananthapuram taluk, with close to 600 people residing in them, while the Chirayinkeezh taluk has four camps and Varkala taluk has one camp. The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation opened a control room. Sanitation workers were deployed to pump out flood water from inundated areas.
According to Fire and Rescue Service department sources, more than 300 distress calls for rescue were received since Saturday night. Senior citizens, pregnant women and babies were rescued in dinghy boats from low-lying areas and shifted to nearby camps. All of the personnel who were on leave were called back into service considering the emergency situation.
The incessant rain abated by Sunday morning, and the skies remained clear through the day, saving the capital from what could possibly have been a bigger disaster.
