Amateur Radio Volunteers Respond to Flood Emergency in Southern India:

Amateur Radio Volunteers Respond to Flood Emergency in Southern India:

from The ARRL Letter on December 10, 2015
Website: http://www.arrl.org/ 
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Amateur Radio Volunteers Respond to Flood Emergency in Southern India:

In the wake of severe flooding in Southern India resulting from several days of torrential downpours earlier this month, volunteer radio amateurs jumped in to provide emergency communication and other disaster assistance. Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSIhttp://www.arsi.info/) President Gopal Madhavan, VU2GMN, said hams swung into action soon after flood waters -- 3 to 4 meters deep in some places -- overwhelmed India's fourth-largest city, Chennai, and the surrounding region. Power outages in many parts of the affected area hampered Amateur Radio relief operations, and some radio amateurs were caught in the flooding. Hams with emergency power were able to pitch in, however, via two local repeaters. An HF network remained on standby.

Local hams, several belonging to the South India Amateur Radio Society (SIARS http://www.siars.org.in/) in Chennai, contributed to relief and rescue operations, working in part with ALERT, a non-governmental relief organization "Once it became possible to move, hams started going out assisting with delivery of food and water to stranded individuals and assisting with rescue from tall buildings, where people were trapped," Madhavan said. ARSI National Coordinator for Disaster Communication Jayu Bhide, VU2JAU, said the flooding was one of the city's worst disasters and was unexpected in a metropolitan area. 

Most of the cell phone network, Internet, and other communication systems were knocked out due to power failure and flooding.

The emergency network supported communication for distributing food, tracing missing people, and providing other assistance as needed. With the conventional communication infrastructure disrupted, ham radio was a mainstay. The flooding also cut off access to several bridges, dividing the city.

Bhide said this week that Chennai is slowly recovering as the flood waters recede, but recovery is expected to take a long time. More than 300 people were reported to have died as a result of the disaster. -- Thanks to Jayu Bhide, VU2JAU, Jim Linton, VK3PC, and Gopal Madhavan, VU2GMN

Source:

The ARRL Letter