It is 11am. After nightlong vigil, locals are busy monitoring and strengthening a breach with sandbags at Srinagar's Bemina colony, first to witness a major inundation. This time, Srinagar residents are better prepared with on-street and online mobilisation witnessing convergence of resources for better tackling of flood eventuality.
A walk down from vulnerable points of Bemina to Shivpora, more than 10-km stretch next to the Jhelum, shows resilience and preparedness of the city residents. Around 6.5 lakh inhabitants stranded in September last year are resource persons now to look back at the staring floods in its eyes.
"We shifted patients in boats from Bemina. Mosques will regulate boats and rescue operation for better coordination," said Altaf Ahmad, a Bemina resident.
Locals, particularly, youth have formed special teams to monitor weak points of embankments. "We are well aware of food material required for those stranded or held up at community centres. We are preparing to meet the eventuality," said Arif Khan, a resident of Galwanpora area, which has a spill channel flowing in the backyard.
Parts of the once worst-hit Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar uptown colonies wear a ghost town look, many leaving homes behind for safer destinations. "We started shifting households from ground floor to third around 11pm. It was only around 2pm, we left home for Nowgam after water-level crossed 18 feet in the Jhelum river, above the danger mark," said MY Dar, a resident of Wazirbagh, whose family of around 12 members were stuck on the third flood for fours days in September last and were rescued by relatives with the help of security forces.
Scores of people once again abandoned homes in the Shivpora areas too. It took hours by locals and the police to fix a breach at Kursu Rajbagh, which was threatening to flood Padhshahi Bagh.
"There was more than 12 cuts due to washing away of embankments last year in the Jhelum in Srinagar, particularly in Raj Bagh. We are monitoring these weak points to ensure there is no major breach," said Ali Muhammad, who heads of team of youth to maintain a vigil on the river banks.
Besides on-street mobilisation, the virtual world dominated by social networking groups saw mobilisation too. "If you are in Kashmir, in areas which are flooded or within reach of the flooded area, leave Facebook alone and get yourself to safety, once you are safe, leave Facebook again and help others in getting to safety," suggested Arif Ayaz Parray, a scholar and a netizen.
Several Whatsapp groups are connected with authorities directly for better coordination and flow of information to stay vigilant. "From receding water levels to swelling rivers, we collect information online. The idea of running active social groups online is to have proper pooling of information and planning to meet any eventuality," said Peer GN Suhail, head of Srinagar-based think-tank Centre for Research and Development Policy.
Another online initiative jkfloodcrisismap.com sought registration from people as volunteers for respective areas with constant flow of news from the ground. Every breach, like one on marooning of highway near Drangbal, Pampore, in south Kashmir, was flashed within seconds to seek the government response from social networking sites.
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