5 ms·

Chennai floods: The Hindu not published for first time since 1878

156 points by devnonymous 11y ago

kshatrea 11y ago
Like many other people, I have family there and there is no doubt about it, this is one of the worst disasters to hit Chennai. We will have to wait out the storm to see the cumulative damage, but most of my family and friends are reporting Venezuela-like conditions of empty store shelves and lack of mobile and internet networks. In such a condition, I don't think The Hindu had a chance. On a more positive note, here is how startups are helping: http://yourstory.com/2015/12/startups-rally-help-chennai/ http://yourstory.com/2015/12/startups-rally-help-chennai/
- jeswin 11y ago
  >but most of my family and friends are reporting Venezuela-like conditions of empty store shelves and lack of mobile and internet networks What is a Venezuela-like condition? Never heard such a phrasing before. Also, don't agree with negative associations to a country/people in a wholly unrelated discussion.
  - kshatrea 11y ago
    I can only apologize - I presume I heard it somewhere and internalized it. Not like I am making fun of Venezuela, at least not intentionally.
    - late2part 11y ago
      You're making an analogy (simile/metaphor?) based on a supportable fact. Folks can argue about the veracity of your fact, but it's extremely supportable: https://www.google.com/search?q=venezuela+condition&oq=venezuela+condition https://www.google.com/search?q=venezuela+condition&oq=venez... Don't give in to the politically correct folks. Support and back up your opinions, and don't shrink from asserting facts. Next thing you know, people will say we should outlaw words like antediluvian.
  - martincmartin 11y ago
    THE queue is perhaps a thousand people long. It snakes around the dusty, rubbish-strewn back lot of a giant supermarket in the heart of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. ... “I came here for milk,” says a young mother from El Valle, a working-class district a few kilometres to the south-west. “In El Valle, there’s nothing.” She is carrying a tiny baby, while her four-year-old daughter helps with the modest purchases she has managed to make. Today the Bicentenario has sugar, maize flour, chicken and toilet paper at giveaway, government-controlled prices—but no milk. It is 9.30am and customers who began queuing at six o’clock are just emerging. Hundreds more wait outside a narrow gate in the 3-metre-high railings around the lot. Uniformed police keep order; most customers seem resigned rather than belligerent. http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21640395-government-offers-no-solutions-mounting-economic-crisis-empty-shelves-and-rhetoric http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21640395-government-o...
  - mc32 11y ago
    That's being extremely sensitive. It's like an American complaining at "a Katrina-like response to the disaster." Or soviet-like queues. It's not complimentary of course, but it's also not untrue. Moreover, many, if not most Venezuelans would complain about the market conditions there themselves.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
aidos 11y ago
The first I heard of this was yesterday when Chargebee (our subscription billing provider) responded to a support request saying that they're running a skeleton staff and only dealing with urgent issues. A couple of hours later they then went on to help me out anyway (they have amazing support for anyone who hasn't dealt with them). It's made me stop and think a little about the vulnerability of the services you rely on to run your business. The situation could have been different and they could have been put out of action temporarily or permanently. It's all too easy to ignore the risk of services going down (for whatever reason) when you're doing your evaluations. In this case I'd still use chargebee in a heartbeat but I do need to put something in place to snapshot all my billing data from their system on a regular basis (thankfully they make it very easy). Horrible situation for those involved (my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones) and I wish the region a speedy recovery.
- skrish 11y ago
  Thank you. Krish, cofounder of Chargebee here. We were worried about couple of team members who were specifically in areas that were worst affected but glad to know that everyone of them is safe. Thanks to distributed infrastructure the services were at 100% and we had DR plans in place. But support wasn't very distributed. Lessons learnt. Having our San Francisco team member onboard was very helpful to get to urgent call back requests but still limited. Some of us stayed in office to provide support, as it was one of the safest places with power backup for weeks for such eventualities, internet and most importantly food. We also had a few folks who needed a safe place to stay. As a critical infrastructure provider we do have our disaster recovery & business continuity plans, but thankfully the service availability was not affected. But I think it is equally important to ensure we distribute team more globally as we continue to grow, so that data safety & availability is not dependent on what you as a customer plan for, rather something we have also baked-in as part of service. Thank you for the support and shoutout. Cheers.
kasapisa 11y ago
Well, technically speaking, that's not true exactly because, they are off, 4 or maybe 5 days a year during major festivals. Remarkable achievement, nonetheless.
- manojlds 11y ago
  Unplanned stoppage of publishing maybe the right term.
noipv4 11y ago
Friends have been reporting that the ground floor of their homes are 3/4th submerged.
antoaravinth 11y ago
My mom stays in Chennai, I should say the situation is worse. No phone networks makes it even worse. Its been almost 19hrs I spoke with her. Pray for Chennai.
- manojlds 11y ago
  I am in Chennai. Twitter is good place to reach out with hashtag #chennairainshelp. Tell me if I can do something to help.
  - antoaravinth 11y ago
    Thanks for your reply. Mom called me from landline few mins ago and said she is safe.
mknits 11y ago
The flood in Chennai is man-made. http://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/chennai-floods-a-man-made-disaster-say-experts-1246050 http://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/chennai-floods-a-man-made-d...
- eitally 11y ago
  And besides what's stated there, there has been at least one case where the state intentionally flooded an area in order to prevent a dam burst that would have had an even worse impact. (I have friends over there, too, and it's been ... hard to maintain contact.)
simonh 11y ago
I have a colleague over there. What with transport blockages, loss of power and communications, etc it's been a rough few weeks. My colleague's home has now flooded and the family has moved in with relatives in another city, so at least they are safe. The team over there has done brilliantly, with people staying in each other's homes when they got cut off and the company putting people up in hotels, but it's been a losing battle. The office is shut down now and everyone's just getting to safety. The next problem is going to be sanitation and disease prevention, with the drains blocked you can imagine the issues.
- allpratik 11y ago
  Yes, I too fear for rise of diseases after this disaster. Though still now we don not have any staff there but We are currently in process to deploy EpiMetrics epidemics intelligence engine to report and predict on disease outbreaks. http://www.epimetrics.in http://www.epimetrics.in
sudhirj 11y ago
Chennaite here. Large parts of the city are submerged and a lot of phone networks and lines are down. The rains have stopped for now, though, so the situation can only get better until they start again.
univalent 11y ago
My mother is stuck with some neighbors on the second floor of my house. First floor is 3/4 flooded. They are OK for now but food and water is going to become a problem if the rains don't let up :-( My aunt had to be evacuated by boat from her place. I haven't lived in Chennai over 15 years but it is surreal to see the pictures. Very frustrating that the government spent money on laying fiber and setting up a subway system over the past few years without doing anything to improve the drainage system. The city faces cyclones every year. This was just waiting to happen.
- praneshp 11y ago
  I empathize with you (my dad lives in chennai, and we are yet to make contact with one of my friends). The worst seems to be over, so hopefully the city will be fine. I moved out 3 years ago, so I wanted to reply to the fiber/subway part of your comment. Those two were absolutely essential, and a better drainage system would not have helped much in the floods. In the last 10 years or so, there has been ridiculous construction on what used to be lakes, and today the worst affected areas are those. See my comment here on HN from almost 2 years ago . (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7881544 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7881544). This was waiting to happen, but not because the drainage system sucks, there is literally nowhere to drain the water off to.
  - univalent 11y ago
    A dumb question: Shouldn't they be able to setup drainage into the ocean?
    - praneshp 11y ago
      I hope they will do that with the (1000Cr - corruption) they got as relief package. It's clear the lakes aren't coming back.
user_no_2 11y ago
Huge problem this. My family member had surgery on Monday and got stuck at the hospital along with my wife. Over night the hospital turned into an Island. Spent all day today trying to get people to get some food and water for them. They are home now, safe. Must mention: Chennaiites really came together for this one. People helping each other with everything they have. Made me proud. And it helped me relax a little knowing that I can reach to people for help. Amazing all around. Any number I called, everyone tried to help. Everyone took the info and did what they can.
markplindsay 11y ago
I arrived in Chennai on the evening of the 30th. The rain really got started later that night and it poured all day and all night on the 1st. On the 2nd I realized it might be a good idea to leave if I could—but I couldn't. No trains, no buses, and no taxis were willing to try. I was very lucky that my hotel was situated in a relatively unaffected area (near Spencer Plaza) and we did not lose electricity. But obviously most people were not so fortunate. I was finally able to get someone to drive me and another guy to Bangalore on the 3rd, but even then we were almost unable to find a route out. It took us 2 hours just to get out of the center, and we had to drive through many completely flooded stretches. It was a scary experience, but I was so impressed at how Chennaites and concerned folks from outside Tamil Nadu were helping each other out on Twitter. Twitter was actually essential in my own escape—there was a lot of discussion of open routes out, and I was able to pass along some key street names to my driver.

156 points by devnonymous 11y ago

Like many other people, I have family there and there is no doubt about it, this is one of the worst disasters to hit Chennai. We will have to wait out the storm to see the cumulative damage, but most of my family and friends are reporting Venezuela-like conditions of empty store shelves and lack of mobile and internet networks. In such a condition, I don't think The Hindu had a chance. On a more positive note, here is how startups are helping: http://yourstory.com/2015/12/startups-rally-help-chennai/ http://yourstory.com/2015/12/startups-rally-help-chennai/

jeswin 11y ago
>but most of my family and friends are reporting Venezuela-like conditions of empty store shelves and lack of mobile and internet networks What is a Venezuela-like condition? Never heard such a phrasing before. Also, don't agree with negative associations to a country/people in a wholly unrelated discussion.
- kshatrea 11y ago
  I can only apologize - I presume I heard it somewhere and internalized it. Not like I am making fun of Venezuela, at least not intentionally.
  - late2part 11y ago
    You're making an analogy (simile/metaphor?) based on a supportable fact. Folks can argue about the veracity of your fact, but it's extremely supportable: https://www.google.com/search?q=venezuela+condition&oq=venezuela+condition https://www.google.com/search?q=venezuela+condition&oq=venez... Don't give in to the politically correct folks. Support and back up your opinions, and don't shrink from asserting facts. Next thing you know, people will say we should outlaw words like antediluvian.
- martincmartin 11y ago
  THE queue is perhaps a thousand people long. It snakes around the dusty, rubbish-strewn back lot of a giant supermarket in the heart of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. ... “I came here for milk,” says a young mother from El Valle, a working-class district a few kilometres to the south-west. “In El Valle, there’s nothing.” She is carrying a tiny baby, while her four-year-old daughter helps with the modest purchases she has managed to make. Today the Bicentenario has sugar, maize flour, chicken and toilet paper at giveaway, government-controlled prices—but no milk. It is 9.30am and customers who began queuing at six o’clock are just emerging. Hundreds more wait outside a narrow gate in the 3-metre-high railings around the lot. Uniformed police keep order; most customers seem resigned rather than belligerent. http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21640395-government-offers-no-solutions-mounting-economic-crisis-empty-shelves-and-rhetoric http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21640395-government-o...
- mc32 11y ago
  That's being extremely sensitive. It's like an American complaining at "a Katrina-like response to the disaster." Or soviet-like queues. It's not complimentary of course, but it's also not untrue. Moreover, many, if not most Venezuelans would complain about the market conditions there themselves.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

aidos 11y ago

The first I heard of this was yesterday when Chargebee (our subscription billing provider) responded to a support request saying that they're running a skeleton staff and only dealing with urgent issues. A couple of hours later they then went on to help me out anyway (they have amazing support for anyone who hasn't dealt with them). It's made me stop and think a little about the vulnerability of the services you rely on to run your business. The situation could have been different and they could have been put out of action temporarily or permanently. It's all too easy to ignore the risk of services going down (for whatever reason) when you're doing your evaluations. In this case I'd still use chargebee in a heartbeat but I do need to put something in place to snapshot all my billing data from their system on a regular basis (thankfully they make it very easy). Horrible situation for those involved (my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones) and I wish the region a speedy recovery.

skrish 11y ago
Thank you. Krish, cofounder of Chargebee here. We were worried about couple of team members who were specifically in areas that were worst affected but glad to know that everyone of them is safe. Thanks to distributed infrastructure the services were at 100% and we had DR plans in place. But support wasn't very distributed. Lessons learnt. Having our San Francisco team member onboard was very helpful to get to urgent call back requests but still limited. Some of us stayed in office to provide support, as it was one of the safest places with power backup for weeks for such eventualities, internet and most importantly food. We also had a few folks who needed a safe place to stay. As a critical infrastructure provider we do have our disaster recovery & business continuity plans, but thankfully the service availability was not affected. But I think it is equally important to ensure we distribute team more globally as we continue to grow, so that data safety & availability is not dependent on what you as a customer plan for, rather something we have also baked-in as part of service. Thank you for the support and shoutout. Cheers.

kasapisa 11y ago

Well, technically speaking, that's not true exactly because, they are off, 4 or maybe 5 days a year during major festivals. Remarkable achievement, nonetheless.

manojlds 11y ago
Unplanned stoppage of publishing maybe the right term.

noipv4 11y ago

Friends have been reporting that the ground floor of their homes are 3/4th submerged.

antoaravinth 11y ago

My mom stays in Chennai, I should say the situation is worse. No phone networks makes it even worse. Its been almost 19hrs I spoke with her. Pray for Chennai.

manojlds 11y ago
I am in Chennai. Twitter is good place to reach out with hashtag #chennairainshelp. Tell me if I can do something to help.
- antoaravinth 11y ago
  Thanks for your reply. Mom called me from landline few mins ago and said she is safe.

mknits 11y ago

The flood in Chennai is man-made. http://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/chennai-floods-a-man-made-disaster-say-experts-1246050 http://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/chennai-floods-a-man-made-d...

eitally 11y ago
And besides what's stated there, there has been at least one case where the state intentionally flooded an area in order to prevent a dam burst that would have had an even worse impact. (I have friends over there, too, and it's been ... hard to maintain contact.)

simonh 11y ago

I have a colleague over there. What with transport blockages, loss of power and communications, etc it's been a rough few weeks. My colleague's home has now flooded and the family has moved in with relatives in another city, so at least they are safe. The team over there has done brilliantly, with people staying in each other's homes when they got cut off and the company putting people up in hotels, but it's been a losing battle. The office is shut down now and everyone's just getting to safety. The next problem is going to be sanitation and disease prevention, with the drains blocked you can imagine the issues.

allpratik 11y ago
Yes, I too fear for rise of diseases after this disaster. Though still now we don not have any staff there but We are currently in process to deploy EpiMetrics epidemics intelligence engine to report and predict on disease outbreaks. http://www.epimetrics.in http://www.epimetrics.in

sudhirj 11y ago

Chennaite here. Large parts of the city are submerged and a lot of phone networks and lines are down. The rains have stopped for now, though, so the situation can only get better until they start again.

univalent 11y ago

My mother is stuck with some neighbors on the second floor of my house. First floor is 3/4 flooded. They are OK for now but food and water is going to become a problem if the rains don't let up :-( My aunt had to be evacuated by boat from her place. I haven't lived in Chennai over 15 years but it is surreal to see the pictures. Very frustrating that the government spent money on laying fiber and setting up a subway system over the past few years without doing anything to improve the drainage system. The city faces cyclones every year. This was just waiting to happen.

praneshp 11y ago
I empathize with you (my dad lives in chennai, and we are yet to make contact with one of my friends). The worst seems to be over, so hopefully the city will be fine. I moved out 3 years ago, so I wanted to reply to the fiber/subway part of your comment. Those two were absolutely essential, and a better drainage system would not have helped much in the floods. In the last 10 years or so, there has been ridiculous construction on what used to be lakes, and today the worst affected areas are those. See my comment here on HN from almost 2 years ago . (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7881544 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7881544). This was waiting to happen, but not because the drainage system sucks, there is literally nowhere to drain the water off to.
- univalent 11y ago
  A dumb question: Shouldn't they be able to setup drainage into the ocean?
  - praneshp 11y ago
    I hope they will do that with the (1000Cr - corruption) they got as relief package. It's clear the lakes aren't coming back.

user_no_2 11y ago

Huge problem this. My family member had surgery on Monday and got stuck at the hospital along with my wife. Over night the hospital turned into an Island. Spent all day today trying to get people to get some food and water for them. They are home now, safe. Must mention: Chennaiites really came together for this one. People helping each other with everything they have. Made me proud. And it helped me relax a little knowing that I can reach to people for help. Amazing all around. Any number I called, everyone tried to help. Everyone took the info and did what they can.

markplindsay 11y ago

I arrived in Chennai on the evening of the 30th. The rain really got started later that night and it poured all day and all night on the 1st. On the 2nd I realized it might be a good idea to leave if I could—but I couldn't. No trains, no buses, and no taxis were willing to try. I was very lucky that my hotel was situated in a relatively unaffected area (near Spencer Plaza) and we did not lose electricity. But obviously most people were not so fortunate. I was finally able to get someone to drive me and another guy to Bangalore on the 3rd, but even then we were almost unable to find a route out. It took us 2 hours just to get out of the center, and we had to drive through many completely flooded stretches. It was a scary experience, but I was so impressed at how Chennaites and concerned folks from outside Tamil Nadu were helping each other out on Twitter. Twitter was actually essential in my own escape—there was a lot of discussion of open routes out, and I was able to pass along some key street names to my driver.