It’s over. At least the worst of it is, I hope.
Hey guys. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks and if you’ve seen the news
recently, you’ll know why. My city is
underwater.
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| Accurate representation of the mood over the last two weeks. |
Rain poured for nearly 3 weeks,
strong and unrelenting – rain like I’ve never seen before. In the beginning it never
occurred to me the gravity of the situation – I was just happy we had a rain
holiday! But then the stories came pouring in (no pun intended) and it hit me
just what was happening - for the first time in my life I was bearing witness
to a massive natural calamity. I looked on horrified as people lost their belongings,
their homes, and some their lives. Then the power went out. The cell towers
lost connectivity, and the internet and phone lines were down. The roads around
my home filled up and for the first time I understood what it meant to be
trapped. I was suddenly made aware of the importance of things like warm water
and electricity – things I take for granted every day.
It’s safe to say Chennai wasn’t expecting
this either. The city hasn’t seen anything like this in over a century. The city was
consumed and, well, blindsided. We lost over 260 lives.
You never really understand situations
like this till they hit your city. You never really grasp the gravity of natural
disasters till you live through one yourself. I never truly understood it till
now. And I can honestly say in my 16 years, I have never been prouder or felt
closer to this place I call home. The people rallied together and as rescue
missions carried on, the stories that came to light truly restored my faith in
humanity. The military came to the rescue, the government pitched in all its
resources, and kind souls from surrounding states flocked in to help. This city
came together in a way I’ve never seen before, bound equally by shared tragedy
and shared hope. Slowly but surely things got better and as the sun rose over Chennai
again, I think all of us who live here rose with it, changed by this forever.
Between this and my last post, it
seems like terrible things keep happening to the world. Sometimes it’s hard to remember
that good things are happening too. But seeing the way people react to
situations like this and the way in which they so freely help one another has
me convinced that everything is going to be OK.
What happened was truly a tragedy and I cannot
express how grateful I am that no harm came to me or my loved ones. Thank you
to everyone who checked in and everyone who came to help my beautiful city get
back on its feet. There is still a long way to go, but together we’re going to
make it.
Today, I looked out onto my
street and saw the water level receding, as people from my neighborhood headed
to the local shop to pick up supplies. As I watched everyone around me return
to normalcy, one very happy thought entered my head:
Chennai is back!
It’s going to take a lot more
than rain to hold my city down.
Until next time,
Bianka
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