Bangaloreans in the eye of the storm

27 May,2009 08:59 AM IST |   |  Priyadarshini Chatterjee

Cyclone Aila has left city residents visiting Kolkata shaken, stirred and quite stricken. With flights cancelled, they have no idea when they can get back


Cyclone Aila has left city residents visiting Kolkata shaken, stirred and quite stricken. With flights cancelled, they have no idea when they can get back

Charvi, 5, is cooped up at home in Kolkata, neither able to watch TV nor play games on the internet.

She was scheduled to fly out with her mother to Bangalore on Monday by the 3.15 pm Indigo flight. But the sound and fury of cyclone Aila that afternoon has left Kolkata all shaken and quite stricken.

Destruction: Pedestrians walk over an uprooted in Kolkata pic/AP Photo

Just minutes after the cylone raged at 12.30 pm, nearly 26 important roads and 50 key city crossings were blocked by uprooted trees. What normally would take this reporter one-and-a-half hours to cover took three-and-a-half hours on Monday as every arterial road to the airport was either jammed or closed due to fallen trees.


Stranded

Professionals who had perhaps clubbed work with the weekend for a quick trip back home from Bangalore have been stranded.


"There was no way we could make it to the airport in time for the flight. Throughout our struggle with the inclement weather, we kept calling the Indigo helpline and were told 'Sir, flight is on time'," said Raja Goswami, 37, a chartered account living in Koramangala and who was visiting his ailing mother in Kolkata.

"I was amazed as our driver could barely drive the car and there was no way our flight could take off," he added.u00a0

The wind speed at the height of the storm was 110 km per hour but this reporter too heard the same from the Indigo customer care.

"Why couldn't the customer care service tell us the flights were cancelled? We risked our lives to go to the airport," said Rajesh Gustav, 30, a Bangalore-bound passenger who had come on work last week and was scheduled to fly back on Monday with his wife.

Scenes of chaos

At the airport, the scene was chaotic. Tempers were frayed, young lone flyers confused and those standing in queues for refunds totally disgusted. Airline staff was trying their level best to listen to every grievance and guide the passengers but their patience was often tested.

"How can you simply cancel the flight? I have to go to office tomorrow. You must get special flights to accommodate us. This is not done," said a very irate Bengali babu who was flying to Mangalore.

He didn't seem to realise that hundreds of others from the 38 cancelled flights were in the same soup.

Take it or leave it

A worried Genia Bandyopadhyaya, 18, a student from Bangalore, was one of them.

"My parents flew back the day before but I am stranded here. I don't know when they'll reschedule my ticket now," she said.

This reporter had a tough time rescheduling her ticket. The airlines staff didn't even give the option of tickets for the next day on any flight. There was no way she could take a refund and stand in another airline's queue as the passengers of those flights were being given priority and rightly so.

People were forced to accept whatever dates were dished out even if it meant leave without pay or an unwanted extended holiday.

Extended agony

And the nightmare didn't end there. Last seen, Puloma Bannerjee, 20, was frantically trying to get back home.
"There are no cabs. The few that are here are asking for the moon. From the airport to my house in Jadavpur takes Rs 270 normally. They are asking for Rs 1,000."

Caught in a storm: Kolkata thrown out of gear
>>Aila, a cyclonic storm of severe intensity originating in the Bay of Bengal, is the first cyclone of such intensity to hit Kolkata in 28 years. The maximum wind speed recorded in Kolkata was 120 kmph.u00a0
>>The Telegraph, a daily, couldn't even print its edition yesterday due to snapped wires and communication lines.
>>Power was disrupted in many parts of the city and internet connectivity down.
>>Rail services metro and railways which were disrupted started yesterday.
>>Four international and 38 domestic flights were cancelled.
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Cyclone Aila Kolkata Residents shaken flights cancelled people stranded Bangalore news