Around 4 AM on the 5th of October there was a call from Amma enquiring on the on flood situation in Andhra Pradesh. I conveyed the information that I had gathered from the media and also our devotees circle in AP. The situation there was pretty bad and it was said that this was the worst floods in a 100 yrs. The AP administration was totally unprepared for this kind and this scale of flood, though it is said that part of it was due to their making.

Amma than sent me to AP to co ordinate the relief work there.

I arrived there late evening on the 6th  and after meeting the relief commissioner, and other govt officials of AP concerned with the flood relief management on the 7th set out for Kurnool dt to identify the likely places for our medical and relief camps. After meeting the District Magistrate and Collector at Mehbub Nagar we visited a village Alampur near Kurnool about hundred kilometers from there and were appalled at the sight there. It was one unholy mess. The village was still inundated under 3 to 5 feet of dirty water. The village roadsides were full of trash from rotting food grains, vegetables, clothes, carcasses of dead animals. The village was still unoccupied as it was still flooded with dirty muddy water and filth. The villagers were collecting food packets and other household items being distributed by various NGO’s. Tuck loads of discarded old clothes were strewn around as the flood victims were not happy with these old clothes. There were media personnel, policemen, onlookers, politicians and other sightseers at the village. As the roads were mucky the village roads were being cleaned and washed with fire hoses by firemen. This was intended to prevent outbreak of epidemics due to slush and filth. After returning form there we got the Hyderabad centre organized and set forth with a truckful of rice, provisions, vegetables, drinking water etc. A medical team of 20 doctors, paramedics and nurses along with out Tele medicine ambulance and another Mobile ICU set forth to Kurnool from our hospital AIMS in Cochin. After reaching Bangalore they halted there for the night and reached Kurnool on 9th Morning.

We were asked to meet the District Medical and Health officer at Kurnool Govt. hospital to find out about our place of service. After some hiccups and delays we started our Medical relief service on the same at old Kurnool which had also been submerged under 8 to 10 feet of water.

Kurnool City was a very old city and served as the Capital of Andhra Pradesh even after the independence till it was freed from the Nizam’s control by Shri Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Kurnool city, known as the gateway to the Rayalaseema, on NH7,(Kanyakumar to Varanasi) on the South banks of the Rivers Tungabhadra and the Hundri was the capital of the first linguistic state in free India, Andhra State from 1st Oct.1953 to Oct.31st 1956.  It is a densely populated and unplanned city, like many other Indian cities. The unprecedented floods had evened out the social differences between the rich and the poor as both had lost everything to the floods. Everywhere people were trying to clean their houses of dirty water and try to bring back their lives to normalcy. Thousands had fled their houses during the floods and were staying at different locations with relatives and friends. Kurnool which falls in the Rayalseema region of AP is better known for its yearly droughts. In the name Rayalseema the word ‘Rayal’ means rocks and ‘seema’ means boundary i.e. a region having a rocky boundary. The people of this region were hardy and industrious by nature and were mostly dark complexioned as an indicator to the extreme heat in this region. Summers were literally unbearable as the Sun God bore down on the people of this region with full blast. The unprecedented floods had taken away hundreds of lives, destroyed 1000’s of homes and rendered millions homeless. It also left thousands of cattle dead. The place where we were asked to conduct our medical camp was known as Buduwarpet and was bang in the middle of a Market and we had great difficulty managing the patients, etc. After seeing around 300 patients the doctors wound up for the day around 8 PM.

The next day we were taken to a small ground where a shamiana had been erected and it seemed to be more organized here. Around 10 AM the doctors started seeing the patients and by 5 PM around 500 patients had treated. This time in the team we also had two BDS doctors who were having good time extracting teeth!

Munagalapada, Nidju and Mamidalapada villages are within a radius of ten to twelve kilometers. Having population of around 2500 each.

– Br. Sadasiva Chaitanya

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