BENGALURU: Even as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams frantically searched for a mother-daughter duo who were washed away in a drain outside their house during Friday rain, the official death toll remained three on Saturday with the two women being feared dead. What’s worse is all these deaths could have been averted.
A steep downhill ride on Kurubarahalli 19th Main Road near Mahalakshmi Layout leads to the house of 65-year-old Shivarudrappa alias Shivadoddaiah. His wife Ningamma (45) and youngest daughter Pushpa (22) were swept away in a flash on Friday night. On Saturday, a sense of grief hung heavy over the locality.
On the parallel road is where the couple Venkatappa and Kamalamma died after a wall collapsed on them due to the flooding. The Nagarabhavi Thore drain flows behind these houses. Many houses dot the 40-foot-wide drain. And every time it rains, the drain overflows.
The residents claim the embankment was built after prodding the officials for five years but it proved insufficient. When it started pouring around 6.30 pm, the residents had to evacuate in the blink of an eye. They had to leave everything behind and reach higher ground as soon as possible. Had the weather forecasts been taken seriously, residents could be evacuated.
Raghu Sringeri, a local, lives a few houses away from Shivadoddaiah’s house. “It happened in two hours. There was no use sitting on rooftops. The water was too high. We left everything and fled. We came back in the morning and took stock of the damage. The drain separates two wards – Nagapura and Rajarajeshwarinagar. The MLAs just pass the buck between each other when it comes to taking up protective measures along the drain,” he said. One-and-half hours of rain from 6:30 pm to 8 pm on Friday changed their lives.
Bholanath (18) lives right opposite Shivadoddaiah’s house. Behind his house, the coffins that were used to carry the bodies of Venkatappa and Kamalamma lay empty on the road on Saturday afternoon. Nobody is flustered by the presence of high-profile visitors to the area. Everyone, right from the CM to senior bureaucrats, flocked the area. He and other children in the areas have lost books, school documents, identity proofs, computers and all other electronic gadgets. Shanthamma, a neighbour said, “Nothing remained. Everything from ration to clothes to valuables was washed away. One house in front of mine was completely flooded.”
As of Saturday evening, residents were grieving and picking up rags, clothes, electronics gadgets, gunny bags, bedspreads and anything that could be used. Labourers were stacking bags of mud and cement along the drain to prevent flooding.