Experiencing the floods in Kerala

It was that time of the year again when there was a semester break at the university where I teach. My husband and I decided that we would go for a holistic, naturopathy treatment at St Tresa’s Nature Cure Centre in a small town known as Moozhikulam, about 10 km from the Cochin Airport.

Sep 07, 2018

It was that time of the year again when there was a semester break at the university where I teach. My husband and I decided that we would go for a holistic, naturopathy treatment at St Tresa’s Nature Cure Centre in a small town known as Moozhikulam, about 10 km from the Cochin Airport. We looked forward to two whole weeks of detoxification, massages and rest away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was definitely a relaxing time and we were feeling recharged and renewed. St Tresa is run by a group of nuns for those seeking rejuvenation of body and mind who are given individual attention, care and love by the Sisters. This time around it was wet, really wet. It rained every day, sometimes for hours on end. The centre is located next to the Chalacudy River, a tributary of the mighty Periyar River.

We could see how swiftly the waters were flowing. The dams holding the waters were also swelling.

It was Mass at 6.15am as usual on the Feast of the Assumption that fell on the same day as the Indian Independence Day (August 15). It had been raining from the evening of the 14th and the road in front of the centre was beginning to flood. The priest from a neighbouring town managed to make his way to the centre to celebrate Mass after which a prayer was dedicated to our Lady at her grotto located at the riverside of the centre. The Indian flag was raised to the tune of the national anthem of India “Janna ganna manna”. It was a happy day for all.

Rains however continued throughout the whole day. By the morning of the 16th, water levels were as high as 4 feet but no water had entered the grounds of the centre. We were scheduled to leave the centre on the Aug 17 for our cousin’s place in Cochin. We intended to do some visiting and shopping before leaving for Kuala Lumpur on August 20. I had spent time praying that God would get us safely out of the centre and we could make our way to Cochin as planned.

Hence I packed our luggage ready to leave the centre.

After lunch, as we were watching the river levels rising, we were suddenly alerted by shouts from the village safety committee members to evacuate the building immediately. We barely had time to collect our passports and a change of clothes when waters started entering the building. The water level on the ground floor was fast rising. We waded out of the centre and managed to get onto a dry road. There we were instructed to wade about two kilometres to a nearby town where flood relief centres had been prepared. There were so many villagers who were forced to be evacuated from their homes. This included many aged and young people all looking lost, not knowing what was in store for them.

There were 12 of us at the centre, three Malaysians and the others from various parts of India. We walked as a group through chest to neck deep waters. Our bags were placed above our heads to prevent the contents from getting wet. We reached dry land after wading through the flowing waters and met lots more people who had been similarly displaced. A jeep came by, picked us up and sent us to a nearby secondary school that was being used as a flood relief centre.

Thousands of people already there had occupied most of the classrooms as their private space. Crying children and older people were resting on the tables. Some on the floors.

Not one of the 12 of us had ever experienced something like this ever before. We were directed to a corner of a corridor outside the classrooms. We placed newspapers on the floor to stake that space as our own and sat looking really forlorn.

The biggest questions in our minds were how long we were going to be in this situation and when would we be able to get out. We tried asking those around whether we could get to Cochin but was told that all roads leading out of this town were inundated. “We are not going anywhere for a while” was all they said. Meanwhile we went looking for a place to relieve ourselves and discovered that only one toilet was available for the ladies. What were we going to do now? There were at least 500 ladies in the school not including the younger girls. By then I was starting to feel angry with God. I thought God could have saved us if he wanted to; he could have stopped the floods for another day and we could have escaped to Cochin. But now the floods had to happen just a day before we were scheduled to leave for Cochin. Somehow one of the guys in our group of 12 managed to speak to the local district council committee member and arranged for a hall just to accommodate the 12 of us. We got out of the school and made our way to an almost completed new hall without electricity and water. As soon as we got there the neighbours dropped by with lots of news papers and mats for us to lie down.

She gave what she could not give
A Hindu single mother with two sons staying just opposite the hall offered her wash room to us and brought hot tea for us. She then went on to get dinner ready for all of us. She had nothing much but gave her all. She reminded me of the poor widow in the parable who dropped her last shilling into the collection box.

This amazing woman was really God sent. There was no electricity in the area, no water as the generators were all submerged and there was no way of communicating with the outside world as all networks were down. Mobiles could not be charged either as there was minimal supply of electricity (two hours a day when the generators were powered on). We knew that our families and relatives would be extremely worried about us but there was nothing we could do except pray.
This amazing lady collected well water daily for us to make sure that we could freshen up in the mornings. She even shared her clothes with us so that we could get out of our soiled ones. There was no way of washing and drying our clothes as the rains were incessant. She tirelessly prepared morning tea, breakfast, lunch, evening tea and dinner from the produce of her vegetable garden and her kitchen supplies. Simple but satisfying meals. Serving us with her perpetual smile and positive attitude. She was doing something that she was not obliged to do. This “angel” is a daily waged worker at the pharmaceutical company earning INR 200 (RM 12) a day for a full day’s work and when absent from work she is not paid. However she decided to stay away from work to make sure we were comfortable. In fact she went to all her neighbours to collect sheets, mats and mattresses to ensure that the 12 of us were warm and comfortable as the floors and the walls of the hitherto unused hall were ice cold due to the wet weather.

There were Christians/Catholics and Hindus in our group of 12 but there were never any issues of religious beliefs etc. At the end of that day a 76 year old Hindu man, one of the 12 in the group said, “It’s a great lesson for us. Anyone with the highest amount of money and wealth and the one with nothing are brought together today to show us that money has no value in these situations. It cannot buy us a space to lay our heads, rest our bones nor buy us any transportation out of where we were”. This was so true especially when we went to the nearby shops to try and purchase some inner garments. Most shops had run out of supplies and no supplies could be brought in due to the floods around the area. In fact there were no vegetables, fruits or bottled water available.

More and more we realised how God had sent this “angel” who had no issues preparing our food. She had bottle gourd, tapioca, drumsticks and young bananas in the land around her house which she used to prepare delicious curries for us.

All 12 of us slept as one big family in the open space of the hall; humbled by this experience and grateful for all the little mercies that came our way. It was at the end of the first night in this hall when I told my husband that instead of being angry I need to be grateful to God as anything could have happened to us. He really watched over us and verse from Psalm 91 “He will not let your foot slip” was so true. We were kept safe from all calamities and at the same time were comfortable unlike the thousands around us that had lost most of all or all that they had. It was a great lesson. One that money can never buy. Of course I would never want to go through this experience ever again, but I would never exchange this experience for anything in the world. The love and grace of God and the love of humanity was made real to all of us.

After three days the Indian army boats came to take us to dry land as all roads were still inaccessible.

(At the time of writing both Rachel and husband were still in Cochin as the airport was still closed)

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