Residents survive on minimal supplies

Residents living in low-lying areas have been forced to either stay indoors for days or move to another locality till the water level subsides.  Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Velachery, has been living out of his backpack for almost five days. He lives in a first floor apartment, but has chosen to stay with friends at OMR. “My road is flooded and water has entered the houses, vehicles are almost submerged and one cannot walk,” he says. 

However, there are many who cannot afford to do this as they have their families to consider and leaving the house is not an option. Water entered the ground floor of Prabhala Subash’s house two days ago and has shown no signs of receding. An RJ by profession, the Madipakkam resident and her family have placed all their electronic items and other belongings on top of tables and sofas. “Our entire furniture is spoilt,” she says. “Even our pet is not able to move around and is forced to sit on the sofa.” 

But anticipating such a crisis, she kept her house stocked with all the basic items. “My area has been facing this problem for years, but this time, it is worse. I have a decent following on Facebook and I appealed to people living in low-lying areas to stock up on food and candles. This came in handy as there is no electricity in our locality and people are unable to step out of their homes,” she says. 

Residents in many areas have built makeshift boats to get past roads that have turned into swimming pools. S. Raja, a resident of Pattalam, says, “A few kids in my area tied some wooden items together to create a raft-like structure to move from one place to an¬other. They even demanded Rs 30 from other kids seeking joy rides!” 

With their staff marooned at home, many companies have initiated their Disaster Recovery Plan, moving certain employees to another city so that their work can proceed in their offices there, says Pravin R, an IT professional, who had just received a mail, asking him to shift base to Bangalore for a couple of days.