As it poured, Chennai found an innovative way to stay above water: crowd-sourcing.

With power and telephone lines down and cell networks iffy, social media stepped in to relay messages and SoSs from people stranded across the city. Social media used crowd-sourcing effectively to provide by-the-minute information on flooded roads/localities and those offering accommodation and other assistance.

Consider this; Flooded Streets, allows anybody to report an inundated road by zooming on to the stretch on a map and clicking on it. This proved invaluable to road-users and a guide for the authorities to act. The map shows up over 1,000 inundated roads and gives information about affected areas and flood relief camps.

Similarly, www.togetherchennai.com is a platform to offer help in any form and also send information about those seeking help.

If one person said he was willing to offer shelter for 3-5 people in suburban Mandaveli, Shravan Krishnan was ready to deal with dangerous reptiles; he posted a message about rescuing a cobra and a checkered keelback (water snake) from Palavakam.

A Google spreadsheet document listed the city’s Good Samaritans willing to accommodate those who were stranded. Volunteers shared their details and NGOs chipped in to offer help.

As usual Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp were super active in tracking people and helping in the rescue effort.

Desperate messages

‘Elderly couple needs to be evacuated urgently in Ekatuthangal’. ‘Sister family with a two-year-old at Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, Velachery’. ‘Need boat to rescue’. ‘Help needed for a family of six stranded on the first floor at Perungalathur’. Such messages flooded social media, which had replaced mobile phones as the crucial link between people.

In October 2005, the last time Chennai was flooded, cell phones had played a key role.

“I have been trying to reach 100, 101, 102 and 108 for the last three hours. I could not get through any of the numbers. It is continuously busy or unreachable,” said Ramprasath, who lives in Triplicane and was trying to get help to rescue his father-in-law and his family, stranded at Perungalathur, just outside the city.

“I tweeted for help, and was happy to see that the message was forwarded by many of my friends, who, in turn forwarded it. I hope some rescue team will reach soon,” he said.

Even the government machinery and the Southern Railway relied on social media to communicate information, including on train cancellations and diversions.

“Social media was the best bet this time, and we used it effectively. One message on the social media, every media picks it up. Usually, we send mails and faxes to each media house,” said a senior Southern Railway official.

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