Andhra Pradesh: Teachers turn warriors at flood-hit school, save 640 students

Last week, on August 31, around 1.30 pm, the Venkatapuram brook overflowed and flood waters pushed down the school compound wall of the Social Welfare Residential Girls’ School and Junior College in Kuntamukkala in NTR district. (Kuntamukkala is 40 km away from Vijayawada town).

The students had just finished their meal and were resting in their dormitories. Suddenly, water entered their rooms, and they found themselves wading through waist-deep water. Meanwhile, the college principal, Vijayalakshmi, quickly rounded up the teachers and students and herded them into the dining hall, which is elevated.

The entire college was surrounded by flood waters and the petrified students started crying. The principal did not lose her cool and immediately alerted he local authorities, the district officials, and the local fire station. Srinivas Rao, project director, district rural development agency (DRDA) swung into action and informed the authorities to send a State Disaster Response Force team and boats to rescue the students, the faculty and principal from the school.

Meanwhile, even as they waited to be rescued, ten tractors arrived at the college. The teachers then started moving the students one by one, some were carried on their shoulders and shifted to the tractors. Some were carried to the boats and all the students were safely taken to a nearby school.

Villagers were taken aback when some of the 640 female students were carried by the ten teachers on their shoulders. According to the villagers, the teachers served as warriors during the crisis. The villagers praised the teachers and the principal and said that but for the presence of mind of the educators, there would have been a major tragedy.

“The canal began overflowing due to heavy inflows from Telangana, NTR and Eluru districts. It was a Herculean task and many boats were used to evacuate about 600 girls," said a villager. The students had to leave their books and trunks back in the dormitory, which were all completely submerged in water. But the teachers kept the morale of the students up as they were shifted to the Chevuthuru High School next door.

The villagers in Kuntamakkala too displayed a community spirit and gathered together to organise lunch for the girl students.

Small humanitarian acts: Jail inmates pitch in for flood victims

Thousands of victims of the recent Vijayawada floods had to grapple for food and water to sustain themselves as they battled continuous heavy rain for three days. Even as government relief operations were slowly reaching the victims, small acts of humanity kept people in flood-battered Vijayawada afloat.

Recently, help for the Vijayawada flood victims came from an unlikely quarter.

The inmates of Rajahmundry Central Jail came forward to help the flood victims by preparing tomato bath (upma) packets for nearly 25,000 people.

This was done under the leadership of jail superintendent S Rahul, and dispatched to Vijayawada early on Thursday (September 5) morning.

The prisoners worked hard to cook the upma and then parcelled them into separate packets each containing 300 gms of upma. Notably, even during Covid-19, the inmates of Rajahmundry Central Jail had made one lakh masks and gave them away for free.

Superintendent Sriram Rahul appreciated the inmates' good intentions and efforts to support victims during such calamities. The Central Jail is playing its part in providing humanitarian assistance, he said.