Eye Witness Account of Flood
By Lalita devi dasi

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Maybe you have heard that we are going through the biggest flood in the
history of Mayapura. There is incredible damage and great losses everywhere in
Mayapura. The local people are starving and living in trees and on banana
rafts. You are lucky you moved up because all the bottom flats were flooded.
Even in my building, which is so high off the ground, the water was 3 feet
inside the bottom flats. You would have had water up to your ceiling if you
had stayed where you were.

The Day School was totally covered and all the thatched buildings are
destroyed and will have to be rebuilt. You wouldn't believe the damage. Even
our switchboards and motors were under. We couldn't get to them quickly
enough. The flood came so unexpectedly. Even Navadwip was totally flooded.
There was no warning. Only now you can get to Krisnanagar by boat and then to
Calcutta. When my husband left it was just in the nick of time. He went with
Bhakti Caru Maharaja and it took them 10 hours. A few days later nobody
could leave. Today there is current in the Long Building for a few hours
which is why I am writing to you. We need help. Please see what you
can do about raising funds We will probably need a couple of lakhs just to
get ourselves out of the water and up and running. It was so ironic, the
floods came the exact day I was planning to start school again. Everything
was set up. Desks down, almirahs down, and the cow back - she is now upstairs with the chokidars. Please help us. I am totally stuck here for a while. We
don't even have electricity to pump water and are drinking filtered Ganga
water. It's pretty austere.

Please send e-mail to your friends and ask for help. An SOS so to speak!!
Thank you so much!! I know everybody in Mayapura will need money, but we are
always the school that seems to be forgotten, so I'm appealing to you to
help us.

Your servant
Lalita DD

© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003

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