ekha, a resident of Anakaputhur, recalls how a man died after he perched himself on the loft of his house to escape the rising waters.
“He never expected the waters to reach this height. None of us actually expected it,” she explains.
“In many houses, portions of walls and roofs have been washed away. Even now, none of us go to our homes to eat or sleep. We have chosen to sleep outside during the nights. It would be many days before our homes become habitable again,” said Hameeda, another resident.
There were cases of ceiling fans being bent, says Mohideen, explaining the intensity of the flooding.
The floodwaters that devastated Anakaputhur have led to a sense of disbelief, a fear of the future. And, mounds of garbage.
Residents say that during the recent flooding, water from the Anakaputhur canal nearby washed in mounds of plastic waste into the area and their houses.
Mohideen says that only in the last two days had families begun to return to their homes to clear the waste.
On Friday, many residents were seen cleaning their homes and replacing asbestos and metal sheets on the roofs of their houses that had been blown away. Outside many small houses, possessions ranging from table fans, grinders and utensils to albums have been put out to dry in the sun.
In the locality, piles of garbage greet the eyes of visitors.
All that remains of a community hall which was under construction at Quaid-e-milleth Nagar in Anakaputhur is the skeletal foundation with heaps of garbage and debris covering it.
The community hall, which was being constructed, says Mohideen, was to aid the people in the locality to conduct marriages and other functions at a nominal cost and was a community-funded project.
Nowhere to go
There are 105 families at Quaid-e-milleth Nagar. 300 families in the nearby Stalin Nagar and 270 families in Thirumalai Nagar in Anakaputhur have been similarly affected. Most of them have nowhere else to go and said that they were employed as daily wage labourers.
“There are college students and people from voluntary organisations distributing food for us and promising books and bags for our children. But, we are more worried about how we are going to make our homes habitable again and rebuild our lives,” a resident says.
