Although the floods brought Kerala to its knees, the community’s response to the calamity won praise as people witnessed the kind of rescue operations never seen before. People from all walks of life put themselves at risk to save the lives of others. People who were safe lent a hand to rescue others who were stranded, cooked food for the relief camps, supplied clothing, and much more. Vikrant, head of Sphere India, a network of humanitarian agencies, stated, “Regular, common people – right from your fishermen to students to judges – came out to help, and that contributed in saving many people...

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LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

No disaster response was valuable unless lessons were learned from it, and the Kerala floods, in particular, had shown an incredible example of perfect crisis management. The first lesson which could be learned from them was how important it was to empower local people before it was too late. Local people knew the lay of the land, had networks beyond those of the government, and hence proved to be the differentiating factor between disorganized and competent rescue operations. Temples, mosques, and churches, all turned into relief shelters. It was local people who looked out for each other and showed immense resilience ..

THE WAY FORWARD

Several experts believed that Kerala’s natural disaster was a bane which could be turned into a boon. They claimed that the huge amounts of money pumped into rehabilitation work could be used to not only create more jobs but also to revive the economy of the state and even to make it better than it used to be. This view was based on the simple axiom that if something was destroyed in a disaster, you wouldn't replace it with an exact model of whatever there was, but would rebuild a better thing, with better technology and better utility – something not prone to damage in a future calamity...

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I:Map of Kerala
Exhibit II: Rainfall in Kerala from June 1 to August 31 since 2013
Exhibit III: Various Central Disaster Management Agencies
Exhibit IV:Kerala State Disaster Management Authorities
Exhibit V:Rescue and Relief Measures