Bengaluru rains: Women forced to take refuge on tractor for 7 hours to escape floods
- Unexpected rain took Bengalureans by surprise on the eve of Independence Day
- Homes in the low-lying areas were completely inundated
- A group of women found a tractor parked by the side of the road and took shelter on it till the rain fury subsided
FollowWhen heavy rain pounded the Bengaluru city on the night of August 14, and the wee hours of August 15, many Bengaulureans scurried for a place to save their lives. While those who were on the first floor and beyond that felt lucky to have escaped the rain wrath, those at the low-lying areas had to bear the brunt of the rain.
They had no place to walk, forget even escaping from the rain fury. Such was the fate of a family here who eked out a living by ironing out clothes in their neighbourhood.
The family who lived in a small house in a low-lying area found itself inundated when the water had entered into their house. "I was asleep when my husband noticed sewage water gushing into our house at 4.40 am. This happens almost every time it rains here," reports, The New Indian Express quoting Chitra, a 42-year-old resident of ST Bed Layout in Koramangala 4th stage. Chitra's family was shocked to see sewage water inside their house, but they never thought it would scare them out of their lives.
Chitra was helped by her son Muthu to somehow get out of the house. But they had nowhere to go as the whole road was flooded and even the fate of their neighbours too was no different. With no place to go, she found a tractor parked on the roadside and took shelter on it. "Five other women, who are my neighbours, had also got onto the tractor with me to save their lives. We stayed put on the tractor for nearly seven hours," Chitra told the New Indian Express.
In fact, this was not the first time that Chitra and her family was facing such a situation. They have been living here for the past 20 years, and every year it rains, they have to find their way out. "But never had we feared for our lives," her neighbour Alamelamma said. Chitra and other women had brought some food with them from their homes and that kept them through the day.
It is reported that Chitra's son Muthu had sought BBMP officials' help but in vain. "A few BBMP and fire department vehicles were making rounds in the vicinity but nobody came to help us," Muthu told the Express.
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