KOCHI:When the floods came knocking at the doors of the people in the state, relief camps took in a countless number of them. But, there were some who opened their homes for a large number of displaced neighbours and relatives.
On August 16, autorickshaw driver Thomas Lawrence, who lives in Palarivattom, was on a trip when he got a call from his relative in Kongorppilly. The call was about the weather situations at the time and the possible aftermath of it. “I went there once to see their conditions. By evening, water was entering their compound and my relatives had no choice but to move. I got them to my home,” he says. A few other relatives from Panayikulam, Alangad and Varapuzha also came to Thomas’ house on the same day. “By the next morning, there were eight families living along with us in our two-storeyed house,” he says.
Around 15 people were staying at the house for almost four days. Thomas’ wife Viji says, “We had stocked some supplies. But I don’t think it would have been enough. We also did not have electricity and enough water. We rationed and managed.” Currently, the couple takes turns to go to the relatives’ places to assist in the cleaning process.
Moving to Idukki, government school teacher Sunny Kollamparambil, who lives in Thankamany, welcomed 12 neighbouring families into his house after their houses were fully or partially destroyed by a landslide.
“There were almost 40 people living in my house for four to five days,” he says. “They even brought their cattle and livestock to our compound. We had stocked our supplies. In the last minute, we even brought in a generator to cope with the electricity shortage.”
In Chalakkudy, when the water levels began rising, Mukesh Menon’s home and his neighbouring households were cut off from a rescue.“The water was coming in slowly since the evening of August 15,” says, Mukesh. “We knew we had to move, but couldn’t. The phone network was down as well. So we asked our neighbours to move into our home which is two-storeyed. Consequently, around five families moved in. When they came, they also brought their necessary supplies.”