#ChennaiFloods: 'Our teakwood sofa and fridge were floating in water'

Priya Ramesh, a psychoanalyst and life coach, recounts how she, her husband and neighbours braved the floods by sheltering on the first floor of their villas in Chennai’s Sholinganallur suburb.

We had a prelude a week before of what we experienced now. It had been raining heavily, but it was quite unexpected and unnerving for us to know that water could enter our house even though the downpour was only a few inches.

'There was hardly any damage to the house or the property, but it was like a warning to us that if it rained heavily. there was a possibility that our house may be flooded.

'So, on December 1, when it started raining non-stop from 3 am, we knew what was coming if the rains prolonged.

'In a way, we were prepared for an eventuality. We quickly moved most of the things, including water cans, eatables, clothes, documents and some valuable items, to the first floor of our 2-storeyed villa.

'In the morning, when there was a short respite, we thought of moving to a safer place in the city, but the roads were so flooded and choked that we had to abandon the plan and return home.

'We felt it was safer to be at home than being stranded on a flooded street.

'By the evening, the water level on the road inside our complex was rising.

'What took us by surprise was the speed at which water rose.

'Once again, we salvaged whatever we could and took them up to the first floor.

'At 6 pm, the power went off.

'Though there were 50-60 families in the complex, only five families stayed back that day. Most of them had left after the first flooding itself and had not returned. But the five families who remained helped each other by talking to each other to keep the morale high.

'All of us were also constantly monitoring the water level. We saw the water rising on the streets, going up little by little and finally our gate almost disappeared under water.

'Its next destination was our house, we knew. There were five steps leading to our house and slowly, one step after another disappeared.

'We were watching all this from our first floor balcony and messaging our friends.

'By 10 pm, water entered our house though a small gap in the door but with great force. Somehow, the sight did not panic us as we were upstairs and we were expecting the water to come inside.

'Around midnight, when we went downstairs, to our shock, we found our heavy sofa made of teak wood floating inside the drawing room!

'Our dining table was totally under water. That was when we realised how high the water had come. It must have been around three-and-a-half feet high, I assume.

'We knew that the water would not come to the first floor; there was no point panicking. We also knew that we could not do anything more. It was a kind of wait and watch policy!

Next day morning, we saw the magnitude of nature’s fury. We came down the stairs to see the sofa, fridge, washing machine and many other things floating in water!

'But the water had not risen from the level that we saw at night.

'My husband went down and tried to fix the fridge somewhere. He came up and took a wash as the water was dirty.

'As independent villas, we had separate water tanks on the terrace and we could see how much water we had in the tank. That was a huge consolation.

'In fact, when our neighbour ran out of water, we passed on water from our tank across the terrace.

On the third day, the rain was also not that heavy. But the water level was chest-high for a tall person on the streets.

'When we looked from the terrace, all we could see was water, only water; it was like being in Venice.

'The sight was so beautiful, with trees on the pathway with water all around. We imagined that we were in the lake palace in Udaipur and tried to enjoy the beauty around us.

'One good thing was that the water was not dirty; there was no garbage as it had come from the nearby lake. Nobody in our colony threw any garbage into the water; we kept them safely on the terrace.

'One thing we were obsessed with was looking at the water level.

'What gave us positive energy was the lamp I lit in my house. All through the ordeal, the lamp was burning, day in and out, and I felt it gave us a lot of strength and energy.

'On the fourth day, some people made a raft out of old wooden doors and used it as a boat to go to the other road where there were more villas and some old people were known to be residing. They took the old people to a nearby school to safety.

When the water was at knee-level, some army personnel came to rescue us.

'One family with three children and two pets decided to go the refugee camp in the school. We decided to stay back as we had running water, candles and enough food.

'Help came when the situation was under control and if they had come when we had chest deep water outside, we would have gone to the camp.

'Since the third day, some people from the village nearby and youngsters from the colony used to wade through the water to supply us food.

'We decided to sit in the first floor of our house and wait for the water to recede.

'By the fourth day, many water birds had started flying in; it was a wonderful sight.

'Perhaps they were coming back after quite some time to see their old homes invaded by human beings.

'This area was part of the Muthukadu marshland and there is also a lake close to our colony.

'It was surprising to see that even during the floods, the lake had not got filled up. If there was a system for all the water in the area to go to the lake, our area would not have flooded at all. 

'Yes, it was intimidating to see water all around you but it can have a calming effect on you too.

'For the second time in my life, I realised that man is so helpless in front of nature. The first time was when we were caught in a cyclone in Puducherry.

Priya Ramesh spoke to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.