Chengannur, known as the Gateway of Sabarimala, is experiencing an unprecedented flood situation over the past four days. Thousands of people, including pregnant women, children and the elderly, have been staying on rooftops begging for help. Our reporter, Anuja Susan Varghese, a native of Chengannur, had returned home on August 14. Though the water did not enter her house, the entire area is flooded. A witness to the havoc, Anuja narrates her experience from a safe ground.
These are days of horror and heartache for the residents of Chengannur. Four days of life, death, devastation and the battle for survival. The mayhem the floods unleashed on our town is unprecedented. The agony and tribulation of the flood-hit is almost inexpressible. When a rescue boat of the Fire and Rescue Services arrived at Parambathoorpady, an elderly couple was struggling to stay afloat on the first floor of their house. They were standing in neck-deep water and struggling to breathe. They shouted and banged on the doors to attract the attention of the rescue workers. Finally, they were rescued.
Independence Day being a holiday, I returned home to Piralassery, around 2 km from Chengannur town, on August 14. I was supposed to return to Kochi on Thursday morning, but it rained heavily on August 15 and the entire area was marooned. On 16th evening, the floodwater had reached 100 m from my house and most people didn't get the time to shift.
The shops at Puthenkavu Junction, merely half-a-kilometre from our house, lay submerged and the flow was so heavy that it was difficult for country boats to reach the area. Places like Arattupuzha, Neervilakom, Angadickal, Malakkara, Aikattu on the southern side of river Pampa were inundated on the 16th morning and the ground floor of the houses was submerged by evening. Water had entered around 60 per cent of the houses at Edanadu, Koyipuram, Kumbanad and Othara on the northern side of the river. Neervilakom, a low-lying area, bore the brunt of the flood and almost all houses lay submerged. The water had risen to the level of a two-storey building here.
50-member team from the Indo- Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) had arrived in Chengannur on August 16 morning. They had two fibre boats and a speed boat with them which they pressed into the rescue mission immediately. The Fire and Rescue Services personnel and the police also joined the rescue operation. Georgy Varghese, an agricultural officer, and his wife Bindu were staying in a two-storeyed tiled house at Malakkara. As the water entered the first floor of the house, they shifted to the wooden ceiling of their house.
They removed the tiles of the roof and sat on the wooden ceiling for three days waiting for help to arrive. It was frightening during the night as the flow of the water echoed like a roar. Trees swept away by the running water crashed against the house and the compound wall collapsed. Each sound was deafening and the wait for dawn looked unending. On Friday, as the water was inching closer to the ceiling, the rescue workers arrived. Shifted to safety, Georgy still shivers at the thought of the tormenting night. There is no news of Georgy's 86-year-old father Baby, his mother and brother who stayed just two houses away.
Elsa Mariyam, a Malakkara resident who was rescued by the NDRF team on Friday, said she kept her daughter's 40-day-old child on the ceiling of the toilet as water entered the first floor of the house. There were snakes and centipedes in the water and the family kept awake all through the night to escape from the reptiles. Mariyamma John, 61, a resident of Puthencavu, was staying alone. She was rescued as the water level started rising on Thursday. Within hours, the house was submerged completely.