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Top1. Introduction
The south Indian state Kerala was affected with heavy floods due to the unusually heavy monsoon during August 2018. It was the worst flood of the Kerala history (Manoramaonline, 2018; Chris, 2018). Millions of people were evacuated and over 480 people died. One sixth of the Kerala population was affected directly or indirectly due to the flood (Times of India, 2018). There was 75 percent more rainfall in the monsoon season which resulted in exceeding reservoir capacity. For the first time in Kerala’s history, 35 out of 54 dams were opened. This lead to the flooding of low lying areas of the Kerala state (Swati, 2018). As per National Disaster Management of India reports, 776 villages and 5 million people were affected, and 5645 relief camps were opened during the flood in Kerala. It destroyed a huge number of houses, agriculture, live stocks, about 10000 Kilometers of roads, and the Cochin International airport suspended operation (Aljazeera 2018).
The government machinery was not able to single handedly take up the rescue operation with most of the infrastructure damaged. Many places were facing such calamity for the first time. So there were not enough materials or expertise to tackle the situation. The incident happened within no time. That made the rescue operation difficult (Subodh, 2018). The rescue forces available near the affected areas were not well equipped to tackle this situation. The people of districts like Alappuzha were experiencing the flood every year so that they were having some precautionary measures. But the people in other places were affected very badly in terms of their belongings, and physical and mental health (BBC, 2018). Strangers from many parts of Kerala gathered together and coordinated the rescue and relief activities which were effectively handled the situation. The fisherman from the coastal areas were used their boats in affected area to extend their help to the flood victims. They rescued thousands of people stranded in the flood affected area (Sajin, 2018).
The role of social media in rescue and relief work was commendable. People from different parts of the globe actively participated in coordinating all the activities through the social media applications like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter (Nikita, 2018). The facilities in the applications which enabled the users to mark them as safe had given much relief to the in-laws living away from the affected areas (Jacob, 2017). During Kerala flood, Twitter had come up with a user friendly “Twitter Lite” with data friendly functions to communicate with the government officials, NGOs, and rescue operators (IANS, 2018).
After flood water descended from the affected area, the major concern was the debris left after and the rehabilitation of the affected people. Government feared that the dead remains of the people, animals, and other wastes would lead to the spread of many epidemics (Sreedevi, 2018). The poisonous gas in the shelters may affect the health condition of people returning to their house. The flood affected areas also had deadly snakes and other poisonous creatures stranded around (Jeemon, 2018). Government had issued guidelines to people returning after flood. The healthcare professionals, NGOs, social activists, and other individuals actively participated in the after-flood relief activities like cleaning the premises and reconstructing the damaged houses. (Kamala, 2018). Social media was largely used for the information sharing among the flood affected people. Around 70 people died of leptospirosis after the flood. The death toll increased due to the ruining of health care centers and the destruction of medicines. That made health care activities strained in the affected area (Maria, 2018). Social media groups collectively coordinated the cleaning and other health care activities after the flood. Distribution of medicines, cloths, and other antiseptic materials were properly distributed in coordination with government authorities to tackle the emergence of epidemics after flooding (Anjuly, 2018).