Chennai does not get a proper monsoon like other parts of India but it does have a few months when rain is more likely, especially overnight. This then leads in to a 'winter' season with slightly cooler temperatures. However, after the rains of November which were caused by an unusual weather system off the coast Chennai received the worst rains for 100 years.
On the 1 December it started to rain heavily at about nine thirty in the morning. It wasn't letting up and by eleven the school was texting to say they were monitoring with a view to early closure. By lunchtime most of us decided to pick up the children and most of the offices took the decision to shut. Some companies bussed their staff straight from the Chennai office to Bangalore to work from there, others didn't shut and had workers stuck in the office for several days.
It rained nonstop all night and following the previous flooding our maintenance team brought in a huge lorry to pump water out of our compound, all night. We later learned that there had been ...... Of rainfall in that one night alone. Power went off fairly early on and the generators failed to cope so we were on limited power. By the time we woke the next morning the Internet and phone networks were done. But we were safe and mainly dry. Our only concerns were getting diesel for the generator and making sure we had enough food and also cash as the cash points stopped working.
Luckily we are surrounded by amazing neighbours and we all worked together to share car runs to get supplies. To our utter surprise Arun, our driver and Indumati, our maid made it to our house on the Friday. I went out on a supply run and we stocked them up too. Arun had horrific stories of the flooding in the city and the lack of food available.
Luckily the rain eased and then stopped over the next few days and the sun came out. However, the power was off in much of the city and we started rationing our diesel by switching the generator off overnight. At the end of the week we got together at our friends Natalie and Saki's house for a cook up and the power came back on!
Gradually things began to return for normal for us but as people who work in our compound, with Sam at Ford and at school returned we found out how badly affected people had been. Accounts were given of people who had been stuck on the second floor or above of apartment blocks, people who had lost their lives in underground car parks and hospitals where a large number of high dependancy patients died because of the lack of power. Countless people lost everything they own and around 500 lost their lives.
One thing became clear throughout the disaster and that was that the people of Chennai are amazing! Everyone rallied round and did what they could to help from donations to handing out care packages to providing accommodation. Rich and poor, Hindu and Muslim and locals and foreigners all worked together. The only blot was the Chief Minister who refused to meet with the heads of the Army and Navy to coordinate relief efforts and who also insisted on sticking her political stickers on relief boxes she had nothing to do with.
Luckily the rain eased and then stopped over the next few days and the sun came out. However, the power was off in much of the city and we started rationing our diesel by switching the generator off overnight. At the end of the week we got together at our friends Natalie and Saki's house for a cook up and the power came back on!
Gradually things began to return for normal for us but as people who work in our compound, with Sam at Ford and at school returned we found out how badly affected people had been. Accounts were given of people who had been stuck on the second floor or above of apartment blocks, people who had lost their lives in underground car parks and hospitals where a large number of high dependancy patients died because of the lack of power. Countless people lost everything they own and around 500 lost their lives.
One thing became clear throughout the disaster and that was that the people of Chennai are amazing! Everyone rallied round and did what they could to help from donations to handing out care packages to providing accommodation. Rich and poor, Hindu and Muslim and locals and foreigners all worked together. The only blot was the Chief Minister who refused to meet with the heads of the Army and Navy to coordinate relief efforts and who also insisted on sticking her political stickers on relief boxes she had nothing to do with.
