17 – 20 Sep 2008, Supaul, Bihar
After the successful start of the first flood relief camp by the math we set forth to more interior and more heavily affected districts and finally reached Supaul district on 18th morning. As before we started visiting various camps and looked for an ideal place for setting up our camp so that we could run our camp in an independent manner and provide better service to the flood affected people residing in our camps. After two full days of traveling in Supaul district we came across places where the water level was still very high in the villages and the villages were still uninhabitable. In many places the powerful flow of the Kosi river had split open the roads and swept away huge parts of the road to and created a new course for itself to flow. Locals say that had that not happened, many more 1000’s of villages would have been inundated and many more lives would have been lost. The villages located in the panchayats in the immediate vicinity of the dam breach had been completely washed away leaving no trace of the geographical existence of them. These villages were still inaccessible. Seven such panchayats had been completely washed away, taking away the lives of at least 50,000 people, say the villagers.

Seeing the ferocity and height of the water even after a month had passed, I leave it to your imagination to visualize the havoc and loss of property and lives, the flood had wrought on the people of Bihar a month ago. Most who could manage left everything and ran to higher grounds, vehicles, etc to save their lives and those of near and dear ones. Story after story could be heard how of how the waters chased them as they ran to higher grounds, climbed on roof tops and called out to their near and dear ones to escape. Many flood affected villages for hundreds of kilometers around, were still only accessible by boats. Many times we were roving over 4 ft of water on paddy fields to reach the lesser affected villages.

On the 19th evening after a frenzied search, because our construction team was awaiting movement instructions to Supaul, we finally reached a place called as Bootiya Pool, in Triveniganj area of Supaul district.  There was a 200-meter chasm where the waters had breached the road and the locals said that in the middle of the path where the road had been, the dept was about 40ft and the current was still so strong that no boat could cross there, without being tossed about. There were 1000’s of people living or trying to live in makeshift shelters made of Tarpaulins, saris, or cloth. Some did not have even that and were waiting for aid. These people were located on the narrow embankment on one side of the river and one could see these makeshift shelters as far as the eye could see. It was several kilometers long. The Govt. had managed to provide at least a meal or two everyday to these displaced people. On meeting the locals, we found them to be friendly lot and found a good patch of land close to the river and decided to start the next relief camp there.

In the evening we met the District Magistrate and Collector of Supaul and conveyed our intentions to him. He welcomed us, and within an hour we had the written permission to commence work on the temporary shelters. The construction team had arrived late night, and next morning we started the work early and spent the whole day mobilizing people, material, etc. With Amma’s grace it should be completed soon.
– Sadasiva Chaitanya