From SOS to info, Kerala logs in Rahul requests Modi for ‘special financial help’
RAIN FURY Stranded families are seeking help through social media; locals are assisting in rescue ops
As roads turn into ‘rivers’ in many places in rain-battered Kerala, families trapped in high rise flats, students stranded in hostels and devotees in churches are using social media platforms to seek help and pass on information about their location.
Videos of people pleading for help with folded hands, are being posted and shared by hundreds of people on WhatsApp groups since last night.
Panic-struck relatives are also sharing the location of their near and dear ones trapped in various places using Google maps.
Various regional channels have also published their numbers through news bulletins for stranded people to contact them and share details of their location, to be passed to authorities.
“We are in the second floor of the house... the first floor is almost flooded... the mobile phone is running out of charge... please rescue us... please,” a man from Ranni said in a video which has gone viral on social media.
“There are tiny tots and senior citizens with us... water is now scaling up to the second floor,” he said. An NRI woman was heard pleading on a TV channel for help to rescue her relatives stranded in a house in Pathanamthitta district, which has been witnessing heavy rainfall since last evening.
In Pathanamthitta, a district in central Kerala which is submerged in water, students and devotees trapped in churches are seeking help through social media.
A family with a two-month-old baby is stranded at a house at Athani near Kochi and sought help via WhatsApp. Patients of a private hospital in Kozhencherry, the first floor which was flooded, also appealed for help.
Those stranded were worried about lack of drinking water and food and disruption of power supply. “We are awaiting rescue teams... TV channels are showing that the Army and Navy personnel will come to rescue us... we are trying to contact the emergency numbers... but nobody is picking up,” an anxious man was seen telling a television channel over phone.
With the flood situation going out of control, local people are also doing their bit helping police, fire service and other defence personnel in most places. With water overflowing on roads and national highways, people are using every possible mode from huge vessels to ‘vallam’ (wooden country boats) to rescue and ferry people especially women and children to safer places.
A weeping woman carrying her new-born twins was rescued from near Aluva, which has been battered in the monsoon fury.
Teary-eyed elderly men and women were seen thanking rescuers.
The death toll in the current phase of monsoon fury in the southern state has reached 100, while rains and flood water has caused extensive damage.
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Expressing concern over the flood situation in Kerala, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to make an appeal to people for help by contributing to the chief minister’s relief fund.
The Congress chief also said that he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “massively increase” deployment of Army and Navy personnel for rescue and relief operations in the state.
“I am deeply concerned for the people of #Kerala tonight, as the flood waters rise. Thousands are stranded. Relief camps full. Many have lost their loved ones. It’s time to step up & help. Please contribute generously to the CM’s relief fund (sic),” he had tweeted early Thursday.
In another tweet, he said, “Kerala is in great pain. I spoke to PM and requested him to massively increase deployment of the Army & Navy. I also said that it is critical that he gives the state special financial assistance as this is a tragedy without parallel in Kerala’s history.”
The death toll in the current phase of monsoon fury in the southern state has touched 100.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan once again called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the flood situation in the state. The PM has assured all help, Vijayan said.
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