Rain Rain, Flooding in Kolkata!

From Craig...

Before I left for India, my Indian friend advised me to bring some gum boots or some hip waiders. I thought that was a bit ridiculous and decided if there was really a need, I could buy them over there, but what could I possibly need knee-high boots for?! The day before we left Kolkata for New Delhi it began to rain and it continued all through the night. The next morning we awoke to standing water in the streets 3 inches to 1 1/2 ft deep, and, as deep as 3 feet in the alleys (not exaggerating!). It was crazy. Now, I didn't want to overreact like cities in the south do when they get some snow flurries and the whole town shuts down. I asked a local how bad of a flood this was. "Flood? This isn't a flood, this is just bad drainage. It will go down once it stops raining. Now if it continues to do this for days and the drains are plugged up and there is no flow, then that's a flood." We took a bus for our last goodbyes through the flood. That was pretty crazy. You could have easily water skied behind the buses... No Joke!! (We should have tried it!!!) Seriously, there were wakes created by the buses... we were praying that the bus would stall, b/c then we would have to walk in water up to our knees and how would we get back to our house? We were a ways out! But thankfully we made it safely there and back - God is good. Buses were the only mode of transportation (which have a very high axle clearance…now I know why) through certain areas of the city because the water was so deep. People were pushing their cars out of the 2ft deep waters because they had stalled out. Now keep in mind that the drainage is synomous with the sewer system… yummy!!! And the smell was nice!! But it really was fun and an ADVENTURE... India just keeps them coming!!! It is now officially MONSOON season, which means it rains a lot. And I guess b/c of all the trash, the trains get blocked up so it makes it worse for drainage... lots of flooding. It kind of looks like Venice (what I would imagine). The sad thing is when it destroys peoples' homes - when we were in Goa, 50,000 people were displaced by a big storm that came thru!!! 50,000!! That's almost as much as a stadium full of people. And I think it would happen every year, b/c each year the rains come. But I am thankful for the rain, b/c it cools the air down...