Thalassemia Patients and Friends

Miscellaneous Forums => Older Chatter => Topic started by: Narendra on August 11, 2006, 07:37:36 PM

Title: Flood and Thal Center in Surat
Post by: Narendra on August 11, 2006, 07:37:36 PM: Hello Everyone,

I wanted to share with you all the news of Flood in Surat, Gujarat, India. It has been flooded since 4 days now and what worries me is the news I have heard from some of my relatives/friends. Phone lines are down, No Electricity, 90% of the city of 4 million was submerged in water. The water level has started going down, but what scares me, is there is going to be a massive death toll once the water level comes down. I have heard there were people who were on top of roofs for days together without food or water. There was around 15-16 feet of water in some parts of Surat and some of my friends had to shift to their 2nd floor as the 1st floor was filled with water.

Hope, Surat Thal Center (http://www.sagmtrust.org) is NOT affected - where there are about 250 plus patients coming for blood transfusion and treatment.

For your reference:-
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/specialcoverage/1843610.cms

-Narendra
Title: Re: Flood and Thal Center in Surat
Post by: Andy Battaglia on August 12, 2006, 08:08:09 PM: Hi Narendra,

This is very sad news. Mumbai went through this last year and we asked for prayers then too. Usually everyone prays and is supportive but I am a bit surprised once again at the lack of response. There are many problems besides thal that affect people and I hope the strength of our prayers is with those affected by the floods.

We will pray for these people and their safety. Also, please keep us informed about the effect on your friends there and also if the thal center was affected.
Title: Re: Flood and Thal Center in Surat
Post by: Narendra on August 16, 2006, 07:44:54 PM: Andy and All,

I just got off the phone with my friend and I was quite happy with what I heard. People are helping each other out. Some of my friend's do NOT have their houses cleaned up yet, but are preparing and delivering food packets to the needed. He said, we are NOT going to die of hunger, but there are people who need much more than food, shelter.

Another person told me there are thousands of people coming to town to help clean up the mess due to the flood water's. He went with 10 to 15 helpers who usually work in his farm and said that people cried hugging him and other's who came to help.

My sister mentioned the Thal center did NOT have water in it, so that is good news, but she mentioned due to the flood and no electricity in the city for days together - all the blood stored had gone bad. She mentioned, there was no blood in the blood bank - but again, she mentioned there are blood camps going on and blood would soon be available.

Quote
I hope the strength of our prayers is with those affected by the floods.

It seems like our prayers definately helped.

-Narendra
Title: Re: Flood and Thal Center in Surat
Post by: Andy Battaglia on August 16, 2006, 07:49:16 PM: Narendra,

Thanks for the info. It's always good to hear about people helping each other out. Hopefully, things will normalize and maybe even something good will come out of it for the thal center if they can find some new regular donors as a result.