On Tuesday morning Pradeep and his four colleagues opened the Volvo Service Centre at Guindy at 9 AM. It was business as usual. It had been raining since the night before and parts of the city were water logged, but the rains had not impacted them much... till then.
By noon, water had started seeping into the centre. A couple of hours later there was over one foot of water. If the water level rose it could ruin machinery and electronic equipment worth a couple of crores. More importantly, rising water levels could impact the two dozen Volvos parked in the centre for servicing.
Pradeep and his colleagues had their work cut out for them -- use water suction pumps to pump out the excess water. As it rained persistently, water continued to pour into the centre and the men worked tirelessly to prevent the water level rising. By late evening it seemed the men had won the battle. The skies had opened up and though it was still raining, the rain gods seemed to be less furious.
Unfortunately for them, their victory was short lived. Later that evening some 29,000 cusecs of water was released from the Chembarambakkam Lake on the outskirts of Chennai to prevent the lake walls from breaching. The excess water found its way into the city. By 3:30 am, the Volvo Service Centre had hip level water. By 6 am, the water was neck deep.
Realising they could not do anything to prevent the centre from sinking, they moved to the first floor. “I asked them to leave the centre and find accommodation somewhere nearby where it was safe. The city was in such a bad state they couldn’t have gone back home,” say Nrithya Shetty and Sivaganesh Balasubramaniam, owners of Artemis Cars, dealers for Volvo in Tamil Nadu. Pradeep called Balasubramaniam later in the day to say they were safe. “I haven’t managed to touch base with any of them since then. I hope they are fine.”
While the machinery and equipment in the service centre is insured, the cars parked there for servicing are insured by individual owners. Whether or not natural disasters are covered under their individual policies will determine if the car is a complete loss or if they at least get some amount from the insurance company for it.
In spite of the losses that Shetty is likely to suffer, she is doing her bit for the city. The Volvo showroom at Tynampet is open for passersby looking for food, water and shelter. “We have clean drinking water, our gen sets are working so we have power. Anyone wanting a dry place to relax, and charge their phone, eat and drink something is most welcome,” says Shetty who has been offering help through her Facebook page.
No Power, No WaterOn Tuesday afternoon when Priti Garg a resident of Velachery – one of the worst affected areas of Chennai-- returned home after purchasing groceries, she asked her driver to park the car away from the building’s parking lot at a higher ground. When Chennai faced heavy rains just before Diwali, water had jammed the wheels of her car and she had got them repaired recently. “I wish he had listened to me,” she says despondently. By Tuesday evening the entire parking lot of the building was under water. “You could just about see the roof of the car.”
As Garg saw the rain pounding on the windows of her 8th floor apartment, she desperately tried to get in touch with her husband who was at work at his office near Marina Beach. Phone networks were down and a few hours later power was also cut. Sitting alone in the dark with her two children aged 8 and 5, Priti wondered what to do. “I couldn’t get in touch with my husband or anyone else. If I looked down from the window I just saw water all around. It felt like we were marooned.”
But it is in situations like these that even strangers become friends. Garg had not met her neighbours in the past one year that she had been staying in the building. They were strangers for her. But on Tuesday night, they became her friends as they called her out into the corridor where everyone gathered, sipped tea and weighed their options.
One of the biggest hassles was lack of drinking water. “I suddenly realised the importance of rain water harvesting as I collected rain water in big vessels and used that to wash the dishes. We even boiled that water and drank it as the power cut meant the RO system stopped working,” says Garg.
For two days she could not contact her husband who was stuck at office. It was only on Thursday morning that he finally managed to reach home. They carried their children and waded through 5 feet of water for 15 minutes to reach dry land from where they took a vehicle to a guest house where they are now staying.
“The flood water is not only rain. Sewage water has also seeped into it. The water we waded through was black and there was a very real fear of snakes,” says Garg as she describes her travails with a tremor in her voice.
While Garg managed to reach safety there are several others who are stuck in various suburbs of the city without electricity, phone networks or worse, drinking water. A friend with a two-week old baby sent an SOS message yesterday asking for help and rescue from his first floor house in Velachery. The ground floor was completely submerged in water and he was afraid water would enter his house. There has been no contact with him since yesterday afternoon and I pray and hope for his and his family’s safety along with those of several others who are battling this crisis.
