Saturday, December 17, 2016

Cyclone Vardah

On Dec 11 whats-app got bombarded with messages of "Chennai will see severe cyclone with 100 km/hr winds since 1994, IMD (indian meteorological department) is advising to stay inside". Ironically "team group" started "login tomorrow from velachery ,rtsc as feasible ;please be prepared". Checked weather report and it showed rain between 12th 6am - 13th 3am.

Hearing the bristles in background ,feeling the change in room temperature gave a thought of going to hibernate mode but due to bodily needs forced to open the eyes- its 10 am. Egg Maggi preparation was underway ;I have placed myself in the porch with only short on and "Ayn Rand - The virtue of selfishness", in-front a view of devastating wind showing its power on the trees.

Heard a scream from upstairs saying that water has entered the house (due to poor design of upper back porch and its adjacent room). Remediation activity has started in the porch which resembled like drawing off water with a bucket from a boat.

https://www.facebook.com/419-131353193725354/

 Had fun capturing videos with running commentary(by Vamsi) and removing strangled branches from TV cable and internet wires.

https://youtu.be/tvXIho34vlo

On the flip side seen people sleeping on the pavement on 13th night as their homes next to it were uprooted. Though situation came to normalcy on 13th, as there is no power it got interlocked to money which in-turn to food (there was no cash in ATMs' and POS machines are not working). Luckily Little App came to rescue but even that at few merchants (Paradise) as others do not have signal to scan the QR code(here Airtel came to rescue- Sasha Chettri can definitely make an ad on Vardah). Cafeterias in office changed their business to trust mode (just write down your name and item). We have experienced candle light dinners and torch lights came to rescue (which were bought for Rajmachi trek). Power restored at 2:30 pm ,Dec 16th at my area. Everyone's face had lit and entire house as well (reverberated with music system and AllOut replaced coils).