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A Tale of a Devastating Flood |
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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. |
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