Flood Diary I: Water rushing in at a great pace while making sound like sea waves, writes Moumita Gupta

Aug. 2: “River water entering Silchar town; public asked to take precautions & shift to safe place.” This was stated in a notification by Additional Deputy Commissioner cum CEO, DDMA, Cachar on 19 June, 2022. The rest is, ofcourse history. It was around 4.30 AM on 20 June. Suddenly I woke up to the grinding noise of my ceiling fan. Well, there was power-cut and due to some inherent defects, this ceiling fan makes noise whenever it operates by means of invertor. Anyhow, I tried to sleep once again, but just at that moment, I could hear some commotion on the street.

By that time, it was almost 5 in the early morning. Immediately, I opened the door to the balcony and rushed there. As I reside at the 4th floor, I could see below 3 brothers who owns a shop near Public HS School busy in vacating the commodities. And just then, I saw water rushing in through the streets of Public School Road. Infact, water had accumulated already here due to torrential rains since the last few days; and now I could clearly see muddy river water mixing with the already stagnant rain water and flowing at a great speed.

My husband and my son was then in deep sleep. I immediately woke him up and told him that flood water has started to rush in through the streets. Both of us stood at the balcony and was watching the level of water gradually rising. But not for once, we could fathom the fact that within a few hours, we would witness one of the greatest disaster of our lives.

Due to rising water level, Transformers at various locations like National Highway, Das Colony, Sonai Road (opp. Rangirkhari Out Post), Link Road area etc. have been isolated for safety reasons. “We are constantly monitoring water level and all DTRs will be reconnected once water level falls below danger level,” stated Assam Power Distribution Company Limited  (APDCL) (CAR) in its official Facebook page of Silchar Electrical Sub-Division-II on Sunday morning. But on that morning, as new areas were inundated, electricity was snapped in almost entire Silchar town.

Just then, the caretaker of our flat came to inform that due to power-cut, all the families should use water judiciously. He said, “Didi, it will take 3 to 4 days for the water to recede.” At once, I started to fill drinking water in the bottles from the water purifier. At around 7.30 AM, I along with my husband went downstairs near the main gate of our flat. Water then was flowing at almost knee-level in the main street of Public School Road and the level was constantly rising. However, the thing which was scary was the speed at which the water was flowing.

The previous night, I sent my husband to purchase some essential commodities. It was then raining cats and dogs. On coming back he said, “Tomorrow in the morning, the local shopkeeper will deliver at home one full cartoon of drinking water. It’s safe to keep store of drinking water.” However, on Monday morning, as water began to rush in so it was not possible for the local shopkeeper to deliver home the cartoon of drinking water.

On coming back to the flat, I filled up 4 buckets of water for emergency. Meanwhile, I opened my refrigerator and thought of cooking. Just the previous day, I brought fish and chicken from the market. All these were stored inside the deep freeze. But as there was no electricity, so I was thinking what to do as these would perish. As I was busy in the kitchen, my son who was downstairs, suddenly came running. He came and told, “Ma, water has entered our parking slot and many small snakes could be seen. Baba’s bike is almost half submerged in water.”

By mid-afternoon, it was almost 6 feet water on the street. Moreover, the pace of water was so much that the streets looked like river. It was not possible for anybody to move about in the rushing water. By that time, it was dusk. I checked and found that there was only 1 packet of candle. We switched off all lights and fans so that the invertor could give back-up for 2 to 3 days. We only made use of 1 plug point to charge our mobile phones.

At night, it was very difficult to sleep without fan. My son too was unable to sleep. From 4th floor, we could hear the sound of rushing water. Suddenly, I remembered that last year when we went to Puri, we stayed at a hotel very close to the sea beach. The whole night from our room we could hear the sound of the sea waves. And believe me, tonight the sound of rushing flood water was similar to the sound of sea waves which I experienced in Puri.

But somehow we passed that night. Lying down on the bed, I was just wondering what would happen the next day! We knew not at that hour that more misfortune awaited us in the coming days….

To be continued……