World Vision Emergency Communicators: Into the Heart of a Tragedy

We wanted to share with you a little bit of perspective from the eyes of World Vision's emergency communicators - remarkable people who follow disasters to help us tell the stories of the affected people to the world to raise awareness of the challenges and help needed by the communities we serve.

Following Cyclone Phailin, the Uttarakhand area of India has also had to deal with flash floods washing away huge swathes of land, crops, homes and livestock. Annila was sent out on her first assignment to cover the aftermath and here sahres an eye-witness report of the destruction caused by the Uttarakhand flash floods and World Vision's relief distribution in the affected regions.

By Annila Harris, Emergencies Communicator , World Vision India

'Buzz, buzz, buzz,’ the phone kept beeping as messages came pouring in from ground zero as Sam, a World Vision Communicator, reported live about what he saw in Rudraprayag, one of the worst affected areas by the Uttarakhand flash floods. As I uploaded the information, I couldn’t help but wonder what would the agony of the victims be like?

While I was re-enacting the scenario in my head, the phone rang and I found that I would be travelling to that very place to capture the World Vision relief distribution.

This was going to be my first emergency communications trip. Like a solider gearing for battle, I prepped my bag. First-aidkit, check! Camera gear, check! Extra batteries in case there is no electricity, check! Packed and ready to be deployed into the field, I tried my best to prepare myself to embrace the enormity of the monstrous natural disaster.

A testament to the wrath of the river

Passing by the Indian countryside in all its glory, fields and farmlands, small towns and dented Indian roads, the journey to Rishikesh took five hours. As I entered Rishikesh, nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see.

The picturesque scenes of green fields and bustling towns faded to sites of the Ganges flowing in all its furry, the water gushing at top speeds. The city of Rishikesh portrayed the vibe of a gloomy abandoned city. There was no evidence to prove that it was one of the busiest seasons for the city’s tourism.

The sector from Rishikesh to Devprayag revealed glimpses of the devastation caused by the flash floods. Remnants of what was once a thriving tourism spot for river rafting at Byasi, along the banks of river Alaknanda, stood as testament to the wrath of the river. Broken buildings, empty resorts, seeing such sites made it hard to believe that there was heavy tourist activity during these months.
Landslides caused by cloudbursts and thunder storms left scars in the mountain ranges. At every turn, labourers worked, clearing fresh landslide rubble. Driving on dilapidated roads in the mountainous terrains made the journey to the top more treacherous and tough.

Treading into the Rudraprayag district, I was greeted with skeletons of lost towns. With houses buried in thick layers of silt left by the river and roads swallowed whole by landslides, the atmosphere shrieked of despair.

My brain was struggling to comprehend with what my eyes were seeing. Temple walls in the area were plastered with posters of missing people making the gravity of the situation more intense and real.

The blink of an eye

As we drove into the World Vision base camp in Rudraprayag after a 14-hour drive; loading pick-up trucks with relief material was the task at hand for our brave soldiers of the Humanitarian Emergency Affairs (HEA) response team.

It amazed me to see a team who had been in the region for over two weeks assessing the situation and travelling from one affected village to another on foot, still do their tasks meticulously, without an ounce of fatigue beaming off their faces.

The response team explained the conditions under which they had to work to get to areas cut off totally from the rest of the world. After an agonizing three-day journey, conquering the difficult terrains during their assessment phase, the team reached some of the severely affected interior villages.

Though the loss of life in these interior areas was minimal, the damage done to property, homes and farmlands was catastrophic. In many villages houses had been destroyed, schools washed away and farmlands dissolved in landslides. Just listening about the team’s ordeal, got me thinking the how with the blink of an eye the lives of thousands had been altered.

"People living closer to the river, their entire belongings have been swept away by the wrath of the raging waters. Buildings, houses, livestock have been washed away," said Relton, National Coordinator, Emergency Relief, HEA, World Vision.

Living one day at a time

I was determined to embark on the journey with the team to the relief distribution camp in Augustmuni, so along with the relief pick-up jeep, carrying relief distribution material, I left the next day in the darkness of early morn.

Hours on the road with rain and fog hampering visibility made the drive arduous. Frequent stops were inevitable and one was constantly devising momentary solutions of how to get the vehicle from one point to another without skidding on slushy mud roads.

Every time the vehicle tipped towards the edge of the cliff, my heart was literally in my hands. The only solution, at times, was getting off the jeep to reduce the load and walking for several minutes until the driver was confident to take our load back again.

Finally I had reached the inter-college for girls that had been converted into the World Vision relief distribution camp site. Within the campus, families lived in classrooms. Now the classrooms, their make-shift shelter, gave them some protection from the much dreaded Monsoon rains, living one day at a time.

The atmosphere near the camp site was filled with mixed emotions. Still in shock, villagers couldn’t understand how such a major disaster could happen in their area. There was no difference between the rich and the poor anymore.

Some shared their story of staring the floods in the eye and still living to share their experience. Fearing for their life, many ran away from their homes with just the clothes on their back, not having the time to turn back.

Showing the damage caused, villagers explained the scenario of what existed before the flash flood and relived the day the flood took away their entire possessions. Every corner I turned, all I could see was grief, pain and uncertainty that oozed out of the faces of the villagers of Silli, Augustimuni, Bhatwadi, Chamoli and Jaagot villages; each having a tale to tell, the memory of which haunted them.

Capturing experiences

My job was to capture people’s experiences as they narrated them out. As they started sharing their distraught tales, one by one, I was overwhelmed with feelings that were hard to process. I had no answers to their questions – 'why it happened to us?' All that I could do was to lend an ear to their tales of tragic loss.

Sunita and Deeplal, residents of a village in the Augustimuni block, were among the many who lost everything in the flash floods.

Sunita said, "We heard that there was flooding in the lower region, but never thought it would affect us. But then we saw the water rise. Grabbing whatever we could, we left everything behind; the vessels, our money, our home, everything. We walked all the way here."

The family had been at the temporary shelter for more than 15 days. Renting their horse for rides to the pilgrim places in the region was how they made a living. During the floods, their horse got washed away in the swift currents of the river, leaving its colt (named Chano) motherless and taking away the only source of earning for the family.

"Now we have no home, no source of earning an income. Our immediate need is food provisions," said Sunita.

As Sunita was elaborating on her ordeal, I glanced at her daughter, Manisha, 13; her face was clouded with thoughts of worry and anxiety. When asked about her preoccupation, she said, "My father has no means to earn. I have no school. It all got washed away. It’s all gone."

At that moment, there was silence the room and only the sighs of anguish were heard which worked as a means of releasing withheld emotions. That’s when Sunita voiced her hope for the future.

"My hope is that we as a family are able to start rebuilding somewhere and get some source of livelihood, which will be enough to feed our stomach," she said.

Now living in the temporary shelter at the college, Sunita and Deeplal constantly encouraged their children never to give up and think positively.

Never give up spirit

With the relief distribution starting, the villagers waited patiently to avail the benefits of World Vision relief operations.

Banners in Hindi enumerated the contents of the relief packets; essentials requested by the beneficiaries themselves. Tokens issued initially by the response team were produced by the villagers to get the relief packets. One by one, the villagers from Augustimuniand neighbouring villages of Silli, Bhatwadi, Chamoli and Jaagot flocked in; some the elderly, some lone women, some entire families and some widows with their children.

Sunita’s story was just one of many I got to hear over the course of the day. The relief distribution process was propelling forward in full speed. With a systematic and orderly distribution mechanism in place, the World Vision emergency response team carried out their mission with precision, stamping every token before handing out the relief material

Carrying the relief packets on their backs and heads, children, women and men left the relief camp with the assurance that the provisions would fulfil their immediate need. I watched them slowly leave the relief camp with the provisions and the most important thing – a "never give up" spirit.

We are constantly amazed at the abilities of our colleagues in the field to get to the hardest-hit places at the centre of disaster and to bring us stories of the people that your support is helping. Want to leave a word of thanks for the amazing work they do? Head to our Facebook page to join us in acknowledging them.