Chennai Floods 2015 – a snapshot

  • Total of 1,049mm of Rainfall
  • 1 billion USD damages
  • 421 people died
  • 30 Lakh homes adversely affected
  • 4 lakh hectares of crops destroyed
  • 100,000 livestock and poultry dead

The unrelenting rainfall caused by the northeast monsoon in November-December of 2015 caused the Chennai floods. Chennai received a total of 1,049 mm of rainfall, the highest ever recorded since 1918. Chennai was declared a disaster area on the 2nd of December.

The preliminary flood damages, as estimated by the state government was close to 1 billion USD. The state government, in their statement announced that 421 people died as a result of the floods, nearly 30 lakh homes were partially or completely damaged and close to 4 lakh hectares of crops were lost due to the floods.

Bhoomika’s Relief Efforts

Chennai cares by Bhoomika Trust

Helpline for rescue and distress calls
A 24 hours helpline to facilitate rescue of stranded people was set up by Bhoomika. Volunteers scoured social media for distress messages in addition to answering calls round the clock. Rescue was facilitated through the Government officials.

Immediate Relief
Networking with several other NGOs, Bhoomika was in the forefront offering relief through its massive community kitchens from 3rd Dec to 9th Dec distributing food every day. 1,90,000 food packets were distributed through volunteers to suburbs and remote locations. The Community kitchen was predominantly coordinated with volunteers, citizens of Chennai. It involved collaboration of cooks in one centre along with creation of individual eco-friendly dried leaf packages by volunteers. This was put together overnight and volunteer coordination done through social media. The large community kitchens had over 10000 volunteers clocking more than 1 lakh man hours. Awareness drives with local roadside eateries, which was a popular recourse since most kitchens were not functional, encouraging them to use donated chlorine tablets to purify their water also took place.

Relief kits to people going ‘Back home‘ from the camps
The devastation caused loss of materials at home which meant that they could not go back home to restart their lives. The immediate relief of cooked food was followed up with 70000 dislocated families being offered assistance to go back home with a 15 days ration kit. 5000 families were provided with vessel kits. All families were provided with cleaning material including bleaching powder to clean out the muck accumulated, post the rains.

Chennai Floods Map
Chennai Floods 1
Chennai Floods 2

References:

  1. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/chennai-floods-rains-jayalalithaa-imd-reasons-rescue-news-updates/
  2. https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/05/chennai-floods-death-toll-rises-to-280.html
  3. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/151206/nation-current-affairs/article/chennai-floods-caused-loss-50-thousand-crore
  4. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/347-dead-in-rainrelated-incidents-since-oct-1-in-tn/article7969839.ece

Image Source:

  1. http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/economy/chennai-floods-milk-prices-soar-to-rs-90/litre-fuel-supply-disrupted_1830507.html
  2. http://www.udayfoundationindia.org/chennai-flood-relief-2/
  3. http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Latest-News/2015-12-07/Two-Sides-of-Chennai-Floods/191501
  4. http://indpaedia.com/ind/index.php/Floods_in_Chennai,_December_2015