WORLDS 09 - Flood at Players' Hotel Seals Off Eventful Week
WORLDS 09 - Flood at Players' Hotel Seals Off Eventful Week PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 18 August 2009 20:52
The lack of drainage system in the surroundings of one of the players' hotels in Hyderabad led to a flood in the hotel's lobby on Monday night just when the Korean team was departing for the airport for their flight home.

It was a nightmare of an experience as the water, which rose to ankle height outside the hotel due to a heavy downpour, gushed into the hotel lobby without warning.  This threw the hotel staff and management into chaos: the lobby furniture was piled up and the Koreans, who would have been waiting at the hotel lobby for their bus to the airport, were cordoned off.

It was also a race against time as the hotel management and staff, rolled up their trousers promptly on a task to "drain" out the water in less than 30 minutes, so that the Koreans could step out of the hotel as the scheduled departure time of the bus was in less than half an hour from the time of the flood.

The Korean team and several journalists (including us) were safely evacuated 45 minutes later to much, much relief.  The hotel stay in Hyderabad, on top of the various issues that surfaced at the Championships, have made the overall experience at the 2009 World Championships an unusually "eventful" one indeed.

To see photos of the flood, check them out on Badzine's Twitter (and follow us on Twitter too!) - http://twitter.com/Intlbadzine

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