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In my memory, those terrible days of incessant rain and
flooding will never fade away. The heavy downpour seemed never-ending, and
the rivers Barito, Mendawai, and Kutai overflowed their banks, leaving
thousands of people homeless. It was a catastrophe of biblical proportions,
and it felt like we were all to be wiped out of existence.
At first, we hoped the rain would soon stop, as heavy rainfall was not
unusual in our area. But there were no intermittent flecks of sun, and the
rain just kept pouring down relentlessly. It felt like a punishment for our
lapses, sins, and failures, and no prayers could make it stop. By the fifth
day, life became very difficult, and no movement was possible except in
boats. The whole town had become like so many houseboats, and the ground
floors of every house were uninhabitable.
The flood dislocated everything, and no normalcy of life was possible.
People had to cluster together in safer places, in higher buildings,
abandoning any attempts to salvage their belongings. There was no milk, no
regular meals, no vegetables, and no communication with the outside world.
Dead animals floated in the streets, and there was no uncontaminated
drinking water. A few houses also collapsed, resulting in loss of life. Food
was air-dropped on one or two occasions, but the continued bad weather
hindered this aid as well. Poorer people who had to depend on their daily
earnings were starving, with no food, shelter, or other means of sustenance.
The heavily laden skies seemed to have shed a great deal of their burden by
the seventh day, and gradually it began clearing up. People heaved sighs of
relief as the rain stopped, and the level of the water started receding. It
became possible for rescue teams to arrive and to be organized, and for food
parcels to be air-dropped. People were collected from odd places, sometimes
hovering between life and death, sitting in limited space, sometimes on
treetops, and not getting any nourishment.
However, there was every possibility of an epidemic of cholera, and the
authorities asked for volunteer medical teams. The Red Cross Society also
organized rescue teams, and some arrived from neighboring areas.
Inoculations were given, and other help was rendered. But the epidemic did
break out, and many people died. It was soon checked, and that itself was an
achievement.
As most calamities come and recede, so did this. The town slowly crawled
back to normalcy, but many lives had been lost, and a great amount of
property had been damaged. It took time to repair the damages done to the
machines, to get vehicles on the road, and to repair telecommunications, but
human effort is capable of doing anything, and it proved resilient enough to
recover from the disaster. Surviving the deluge was a tale of a devastating
flood that taught us the power of nature and the resilience of the human
spirit. |
