KOTTAYAM: By the time the water level started rising in Kumarakom on Thursday evening, the residents were already aware of the ordeal faced by those living in Chengannur and Chalakkudy. So, they voluntarily started shifting to relief camps set up by the district administration in no time. Three days later, as the floodwater has almost swallowed the entire 16 wards of the panchayat, approximately 6,500 houses stand empty as around 25,000 have been shifted to relief camps.
As the water level continues to rise, Kumarakom is literally seen as an extension of Vembanad backwaters, with almost 95 per cent of houses inundated. Though 15 camps had been set up on a comparatively higher ground, water entered many of them by Sunday morning, forcing the authorities to shift the inmates to other camps in Kottayam, especially the one set up at Government Arts College, Nattakom.
As the only road connecting Kottayam with Kumarakom has submerged, people are being shifted to safer places in Taurus lorries. For Shaima G, hailing from Kadukkara in Vaikom, it was her first experience of a natural disaster. When the water level rose, she shifted to the house of her elder sister Omana, which is near Kumarakom Jetty. Shaima’s younger sister Suma, living in Eroor near Tripunithura, also came to Omana’s house, to escape from the flood.
“Now, we sisters and our families are moving to a camp in Kottayam as Kumarakom is flooded,” said Shaima, while on board a lorry heading to Kottayam. C R Jaboy, hailing from Palathra house, Chengalam South, tried to stick around at his flooded house till Sunday morning. However, when the water level continued to increase, he, along with his wife Sini, mother in- law Annamma and son Alvin, shifted to a relief camp in Kumarakom. However, the water reached the camp as well, forcing them to shift to Kottayam on lorry.