Jithin Mohandas, 26, spent a week stuck on the terrace of his house in Chengannur, Kerala state, in a prosperous region of southern India after torrential flooding in early August.The event management worker said: “We got stuck in the terrace of our house; the water was so quick that we were unable to move to a safer place.”Many of Jithin’s friends and blog followers presumed he was dead due to his lack of online activity.The flooding, thousands of landslides and other destruction also cut the electricity and mobile phone networks which made it hard for people like Jithin to call for help and to organise rescue efforts.Jithin was one of the 220,000 people displaced during the flooding. The disaster started on 8 August after exceptionally high monsoon rains mean that the government had to order the opening of the Chengannur dam. This was the first time the dam has been opened in 26 years. With increasingly heavy rainfall in the area, which some scientists blame on global warming, The likelihood of another catastrophe is real.A million people were forced to travel to relief camps for help which were based in all areas across the state of Kerala. Jithin lives in one of the most affected areas. Other areas such as Thiruvanvandoor, Budhanoor, Chengannur were destroyed.Kerala is a state in Southern India and the capital is Thiruvananthapuram. It traverses the Malabar Coast which is 360 miles long and also borders other states: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mahe and Puducherry.The climate does not change much during the different seasons with temperatures of low 20s to low 30s. The country has two monsoon seasons. One during the months of July to September and the other during the months of October and November.The average rainfall for the state is 3,000mm which is ten times more than the UK. The people of this state are known as the 'Malayalis' who speak the language called Malayalam. The Malayalis are descendants of the 'Dravidians' who were early natives of India.Encyclopedia Britannica states that: “More than half of Kerala’s residents, including most of the Malayalis, follow Hinduism. About one-fourth of the population practices Islam, with the Moplah (Mapilla) people of the Malabar Coast constituting the state’s largest Muslim community.“Christians, who account for nearly one-fifth of the population, belong broadly to the Syrian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches as well as to various Protestant denominations.“Kerala also has tiny Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jewish communities; there is an ancient synagogue in Kochi.” which shows that there is a vast number of different religion within the small state.In the state of Kerala there are many different threats similar to what you would find in a lot of other areas in the world.When the dam was opened first people did not realise how serious the situation was. In Chengannur, where Jithin lives, the local government member Saji Cherian stated on The News Minute that thousands of people in his area would die and requested for the military to be sent in.He said: "Please give us a helicopter. I am begging you. Please help me, people in my place will die. Please help us. There is no other solution, people have to be airlifted. We did what we can with fishing boats we procured using our political clout. But we can't do more. The armed forces need to come here, please help us."Dr Thomas Oommen, from Michigan Technological University in America, is a researcher who focuses on the areas of developing improved susceptibility characterization and documentation of geo-hazards. These include earthquakes, landslides and spatial modelling of geo-resource (e.g. mineral deposits) over a range of spatial scales and data types.Dr Oommen was surveying the land and the area in Kerala after the flooding. During an interview he stated his experience in Kerala was: “What we saw was the devastation from the August 2018 rainfall events in Kerala. One of the districts that experienced major flooding is Alleppey. We visited Alleppey on September 4th, roughly 10-12 days after the rain, and we did not expect to see houses still flooded. However, to our surprise, there were over 3,500 houses still flooded in Kainakary area.“The flooding was caused by the destruction of the mud/embankment that secure the paddy polders from the Vembanad lake. This region is known as the ‘Rice Bowl of Kerala’ for its paddy fields.“ The fields were almost ready for harvest and were destroyed by the rains. In areas where the flood water has been receding, we saw that the houses have experienced settlement. In Idukki district, which is mostly mountainous, there were several landslides. An initial estimate reported that Idukki district experienced over 300 major and over 1,000 minor landslides.”The devastation to the country has left people clueless on what they should do with themselves. The relief support came at a slower pace than expected, this was simply because the mobile networks were down which prevented communication with people from other parts of the state.They did not realise how serious the situation was. After many appeals for help from the locals and government officials the army and rescue teams came in boats to assist people who were on roofs waiting to be rescued. When the networks came back the locals used social media to put out requests for help. The power of social media really helped in this disaster.Anand RM is a renewable energy engineer and sustainable development practitioner. He works within the fishing community to help supply and improve the fishing boats. He is also a relief worker and helped supply the aid to the areas affected. He stated in an interview he worked in the government and non-government organisations supplying the relief aid such as supplying food, clothes and medicine to the relief camps.He stated that many people provided others with shelter in nearby homes away from the flood waters. Anand RM and his teams mission was to distribute food, clothes and medicine to affected people, many people queued near the vehicles to obtain food and clothes.Anand RM stated with is job he has to: “Visit a lot of relief camps which were set up by the government in my district, as it was the only place unaffected in the calamity and was reachable by road.“People enthusiastically participated in the collection camps donating money, food, clothes and other necessary goods. Youngsters mainly students were the volunteers in the camps. They worked with authorities to segregate materials to make relief kits to various camps. It was an overwhelming experience altogether”With all the rescue work happening from locals and government officials the volunteer rescue members set up a website called KeralaRescue to allow volunteers communicate with each other.For example, the website let volunteers post what items are required at different relief camps and it described where the closest relief camp was to them and what type of help it provided. People posting on social media led the rescue volunteers to set up a Facebook page to keep people updated and provide general information.After many appeals the Air Force came to aid residents who were trapped on the roofs and terraces of their houses. This highlighted how serious the situation was with 18, Air Force helicopters being directed to winch people to safety.Many people like Jithin wanted to assist in the rescue efforts and making a decision to go and work in an environment that put them under so much destress would be an overwhelming experience to anyone who is not used to that type of work.Jithin was amazed by the true comradeship that was displayed by a group of people from a small fishing village. Despite having lost their homes in a previous natural disaster this group supported the residents affected by the flooding. They donated money and any other materials that was required to help others, ignoring their poverty and issues. This demonstrates how society can survive with pure determination.The flooding also increased the risk of a disease called Leptospirosis which derives from the urine of rodents and dogs and is carried by water and can enter the body through cuts and grazes.Quartz India a news website reported that at least 66 people have died from the illness. People are more vulnerable to contracting the disease during a bad Monsoon season as they would be walking in flood waters, which lets the water enter the body via cuts and through natural passageways such as the mouth.Medical website Webmd said: “Leptospirosis is unpleasant but not life-threatening, like a case of the flu. It rarely lasts more than a week. But about 10% of the time, when you have a severe form of leptospirosis, you’ll get better, but then get sick again.“This is called Weil’s disease and it can cause much more serious issues, like chest pain and swollen arms and legs. It often requires hospitalization.”As the flood waters receded people went to relief camps set up in various public places such as schools and religious buildings. There are 3,200 camps in the state which provide flood victims with somewhere to stay, food and medical aid from compassionate volunteers who are willing to assist.Supplies started to arrive from Kochi Port from all over the country. The neighbouring state of Maharashtra sent some aid weighing in at 30 tons which contained ready meal food, blankets, clothes and other necessities to help people survive this massive ordeal.The disaster affected many people in various districts and when the water receded transport to the disaster sites became more accessible.Dr Oommen stated that some areas were more feasible that others for example transport to Alleppey was accessible by boat, however, in the worst affected cases roads were either completely destroyed or severely damaged.Destruction was caused not just by flooding but by landslides which destroy and kill anything that gets in the path of it.Dr Oommen said that he felt really disheartened by what happened in the state of Kerala. He visited people who lost loved ones in landslides, he said you could see the fear in their faces, that they are traumatized because they live in constant fear of the rain.Most of these families live on low incomes and they would spend all their savings on improving there homes. Dr Oommen believes that if early warning was provided it would reduce the risk of such hazards like this in the future.Jithin joined the flood rescue team which included people from all backgrounds. Jithin said that the fishermen were the real heroes as they came from other districts with their boats and aided in every aspect.Right wing parties prevented the assistance coming to the state. The state government was trying to re-build Kerala while the central government tried to cut all helping hands, the central Government offered the state of Kerala “£55,245,000.00 when we faced a disaster worth £179,685,990.00” stated Jithin. Outside organisations such as the UN and The Redcross offered help but the central government denied the requests. Jithin can be no longer reached for comment.Dr Oommen gave further comments on what people should do who live in the badly affected areas and should start over again: “It would be better to identify susceptible areas and not rebuild there. However, land is expensive in India and it is not going to be easy to find safer areas easily. This will have to be planned and implemented by the government so that common people can afford such changes”.With the people living in fear of the rain Dr Oommen stated that: “An event of similar magnitude had happened in the 1920's in Kerala."He thinks with the increased rainfall intensities seen in many parts of the world, the likelihood of a similar event is high. So for Jithin and hundreds of hundreds of thousands of others living in flood planes and who cannot afford the huge cost of protecting their homes climate change has already affected their lives.