#Thread Went to Vizhinjam coast to meet the fishermen who took part in rescue mission in #KeralaFloods . We were filled with positive energy and happiness hearing their experiences (1/n)
We dedicated almost 2 pages for celebrating their mission.On Thursday 8.10 pm Fr.Justin Judin,vicar of Vizhinjam church announced the requirement for boats through public announcement system. In 20 minutes almost 50 boats and 100 fishermen were assembled. Military like formation!
Just see the Engine fan of a fishing boat which participated in the #KeralaFloods rescue mission. Most of the boats are damaged and they won't be able to go to sea for a while. I was blown away by their sacrifice (3/n)
Yohannan, a fisherman from Vizhinjam was repairing his boat after the rescue mission in #KeralaFloods. Single engine costs Rs. 90,000. Boats are fiber made and they are fragile. Most of the boats hit on walls, trees, gates etc (4/n)
Despite of all their efforts to reach houses in narrow roads, many were reluctant to get into the boats since they 'are fishermen'! Some people tried to beat them saying as protest of not being attended for 4 days. #KeralaFloods (5/n)
These are the youngest members from Vizhinjam who went for rescue. Robinson just told his son Robin 'During the time of Ockhi they came with Pothichoru, now its our duty to serve them back'. Robin and his dearest friend Denson went for the mission with Robinson's boat. (6/n)
It was the 50th birthday of Joy Fernandez, a fisherman from Anchuthengu. His son Sajay was all set to launch a big party, then the news came out. Joy told his son 'Pirannal okke pinne, nee vallam irakkeda mone'! #KeralaFloods (7/n)
Meet Mr. Joseph who was been miraculously rescued in Ockhi after 3 days of survival in sea. He went for the rescue mission at Chengannur. May be he got his second life to rescue almost 470 people! #KeralaFloods (8/n)
#KeralaFloods Here's Malayala Manorama Metro cover page dedicating its cover in respect for the fishermen's bravery. #Kochi
Fishermen from Mariyanadu rescuing stranded people at Chengannur. Interesting fact is that Mariyanadu team who went to Chengannur took food for 100 people along with their boats. They distributed it in Chengannur. Kudos #KeralaFloods (10/n)
Due to gates and big walls in some places, they couldn't move the boat near to the house. Instead they tie a rope from boat to the house and give life jackets for the inmates, with the help of fishermen they reach the boat. #KeralaFloods (11/n)
Clicks of fishermen from Mariyanadu (12/n)
See how risky their operation was. This video shows their care for others. Kudos of all those lovely people. #KeralaFloods (13/n)
Another sight from Poonthura. Ladies of Poonthura coastal village is making brooms for the relief camps. #KeralaFloods (14/n)
This is heart breaking! Anybody know the owner of this boat? #KeralaFloods (15/n)
Another positive story from coast! First boats from Trivandrum were started from Valiyaveli. They were initiated by Thumba SI KG Prathapachandran (Third from Left) and team. The rare story of cooperation between police and fisherfolk made the whole mission possible. (16/n)
Joseph and Team from Valiyaveli showed their willingness to go for rescue for the first time. Prathapchandran and team supported it wholeheartedly. Along with the fishermen, whole police station lined up to lift the boats (17/n)
Next day morning a rumor broke out in Valiyaveli saying the fishermen went for rescue died in an accident. SI Prathapan went to every house and assured their families- 'Kindly Trust me, They will come back happily. This is my word'! (18/n)
Meet the first team from Trivandrum which went for the rescue. Police team was their backbone hence we captured this happy frame when police team came to inspect the damages on the boats. #KeralaFloods (19/n)
We came across two NRK's who came to Kerala for their vacation. Shiji and Dileep joined the rescue team as soon as they heard the news. Shiji who is an underwater diver at Qatar has to return on 25th after 15 days vacation! 4 days he spent for his homeland. Lovely people. (20/n)
#Thread As Kerala is recovering from the devastating floods, a Kasargodu native is heading India's first comprehensive flood monitoring system in Kolkata funded by Asian Development Bank. Follow the thread for more about the project which will be functional from next month.(1/n)
Gopalakrishna Bhatt, A hydro geologist from Badiyaduka is the technical consultant of the project. It has been designed to provide forecasts as well as real-time updates from sensor
nodes installed in key points throughout the city. Read Here:manoramaonline.com/news/latest-ne… (2/n)
The system includes: weather forecasts; flood models for various intensities of rainfall; real-time information on
pump status, sump and canal water levels, actual rainfall, inundation levels,; and messaging system to provide warnings to officials and citizens. (3/n)
#Thread During #KeralaFloods many of the people lost their crucial documents. It was a big mess to recover these documents since they don't even remember the document no. Hence, Kerala IT department came up with an API architecture to retrieve the documents. (1/n)
The idea was generated jointly by IT secretary M.Sivasankar and KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath. The target was to retrieve the documents by taking the basic inpit values known to the public. It startes working last day (2/n)
Incase of Aadhaar, govt will take your biometrics as the input value to generate E-Aadhaar if one doesn't remember the ID number. This will be pushed into Digilocker account created. Also will get a print out for free of cost. (3/n)
#Thread Here's an incredible story about a young man who was busy with loading and unloading in #KeralaFloods relief centres. Only days later people came to know that he was none other than, Kannan Gopinathan, the Collector of Dadra & Nagar Haveli! (1/n)
He travelled in KSRTC buses and covered 5 districts in 10 days without revealing identity. He took leave for serving his homeland in the time of crisis. Kannan is a native of Kottayam. Even his relatives were not aware of his unofficial visit! (2/n)
It was only after Eranakulam Collector Y.Safirulla's visit to centre at KBPS press, the volunteers of the camp came to know that the guy who was helping in loading goods was an IAS officer! (3/n)
#Thread#KeralaFloods Detailed thread to document the historic efforts of various online groups in rescue and relief operations. Trust me, Whatsapp and Google sheets were the powerful weapons we had. Pic: An online control room set by NRKs in house at Abu Dhabi (1/n)
It was the time we truly realised the power of social media and instant messaging services with regard to disaster management. Many were stranded on roof-tops without any other contact to the world other than their mobile phones. Whatsapp brilliantly solved the issue. (2/n)
Before going in detail let me point out the problem statements. 1) Govt issued some helpline numbers but most of them were busy with numerous calls 2) Thousands of SOS requests flooded in social media which were not addressed in a systematic manner, hence turned spams (3/n)
#Thread We started our series on online bank frauds and data security with @LukasStefanko 's revelation on three fake Indian bank apps stealing sensitive data of hundreds of Indians. (1/n)
We also published an exclusive email interview with @LukasStefanko in which he alarms India regarding the upcoming bank frauds. (2/n)
We were shocked to know that per day bank frauds are looting 1.5 lakhs from Kerala. In 8 months starting from last August Rs 3 crores went to their accounts. Ernakulam and Trivandrum tops in the list with 80 and 70 lakhs respectively. (3/n)
Short-lived are the marks sea casts on a shore but not the memories it leaves on a coast. After a sail off the Poonthura shore with Rinku chettan (Photographer) on the hundredth day of Ockhi, we returned home with a heavy heart. (1/n)
After all the discussions about fishermen's safety and the promises government extended to the fisher-folk, not a single measure has been adopted to practicalise any of it. (2/n)
Our companion Andrews told us that a similar calamity can cause a graver damage even after a hundred days from now. (3/n)