A 30-year-old mother’s struggle to keep her two sons alive in a flooded cement-roofed house in West Tambaram before being rescued by a team from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has gone viral on the social media.
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The woman, identified as E. Umamaheshwari, a native of Villupuram, and her husband Elumalai were daily labourers. Recounting the event of the fateful day on Monday (December 4) when heavy rain lashed the city and a few other districts, Ms. Umamaheswari said that she asked her husband not to venture out fearing water would enter the house. But he had assured her that it would not as their house at Sasivaradan Nagar was at a higher level. He had also told her that he would return as early as possible with the daily wage.
However, as she feared water started entering the house by noon and with her husband not returning she had to manage on her own to safeguard her two sons. She placed the elder son on one side of the loft in the single-room house and was holding the other one in the loft, standing on the gas cylinder for more than 12 hours.
In an interview to a Tamil news channel, she said she fell into the water twice but managed to get up and stand. Her ordeal ended on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. when an NDRF team led by Sub-Inspector S. Rathna Kumar along with four constables including P. Srinu, L. Nagarjuna, Shyam Bhonsle and Chandru Naidu, rescued them.
The video of the NDRF team rescuing the family gained positive reviews on social media. The team headed by Deputy Commandant Praveen S. Prasad in Tambaramevacuated more than 350 residents from flooded houses and flats located in West Tambaram, Mudichur, Somangalam and other localities.