Hyderabad Flash Floods, 2020 - Some Lessons for Future

Abstract

When Covid-19 pandemic appeared to be showing signs of slowing down in many parts of the country, Hyderabad, among some other cities, was facing another challenge - Flash Floods. Debris consisting of cars , motorcycles, households and other items accumulated at random, along with the washed -away newly- built sections of highways and bridges over railways, all caused by accumulated flood waters presented a pitiful sight. The city and the suburbs were battered by unexpected spell of heavy downpour that lasted quite a long time, a phenomenon that meteorologists called an unusual weather event. The rain and resultant flooding left a trail of destruction and human misery. In the wake of the ravaging floods, settling and disposing of the insurance claims speedily and in an orderly manner had become a herculean task. This article attempts to summarize the Hyderabad floods and its consequences. It also attempts to present the views expressed by different stakeholders - the insurers, the insured, insurance officials and insurance surveyors on issues of claim settlement. This paper is divided into three parts. In part one, an attempt is made to analyse the possible reasons and circumstances that caused the floods which ravaged the city of Hyderabad. This is followed by part two that attempts to assess the havoc wrought by these floods on the citizens of Hyderabad and the huge losses thereby incurred by the insurance industry drawing parallel to the floods that ravaged the city of Chennai. Since the floods were unprecedented, stakeholders’ views are elicited and analyzed. In part three an attempt is made to summarize the conclusions wherein useful/practical inferences from the study are drawn.