The picture of Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac atop a relief boat, holding a rescued infant in his arms, is one of the most moving images of the Kerala floods. Isaac was amid the waters in his constituency in Alappuzha, helping coordinate rescue efforts.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s press conferences, twice a day have helped soothe frayed nerves as well. They are calm affairs, devoid of theatrics of any kind and are both live telecast and live streamed, considering many areas do not have power supply. The Kerala chief minister’s social media presence is also an important storehouse of information, designed to blunt the menace of fake news and rumours as well.

Kerala’s bureaucracy is leading by example, be it from inside the control rooms set up in Thiruvananthapuram Secretariat or in the districts. Photographs showing the collector and sub-collector of Wayanad district unloading rice sacks from a relief truck by carrying them on their back, are proof of a zero white-collar ego.

If one isn’t hearing complaints of official apathy and lack of government help in this hour of extreme crisis in Kerala, the worst floods since 1924, resulting in the death of over 300 people so far, it is because of people like Isaac, Vijayan and the officials. What has been one of the most remarkable aspects of this flood rescue and relief effort is that civil society has partnered with the administration instead of pointing fingers.

“The government also is formed of people like us, from within the same society. The homes of officials also may be underwater and yet they have to work for us. This is not the time to criticise but help Kerala together,” says Anil Joseph in Palakkad district.

Even the Opposition that usually points an accusing finger at the government in such situations, has been pitching in with help, using its cadre network. Vijayan made it a point to take along with him Ramesh Chennithala, Leader of the Opposition in Kerala, on an aerial tour of flood-affected districts, to send across the message that there will be no politics over rescue and relief.

Usually, the government response to natural disasters like these plays a big role in deciding their fate in the next election. Omar Abdullah lost power in the elections soon after the devastating Kashmir floods of 2014. There was widespread anger with the state government accused of being missing in action when the deluge came and displaying tardiness with the subsequent relief work.

In fact, the Kerala template is in stark contrast to how Tamil Nadu government reacted to the Chennai floods of December 2015. The administration first made matters go out of control by releasing water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir without sufficient warning and when low-lying areas were flooded, AIADMK MLAs and corporators were nowhere to be seen. In fact, such was the anger in flooded localities in Chennai, that the governing party politicians were scared to step in even after the waters had receded. The people of Chennai responded by voting for the DMK in 10 of the 16 seats in the city in the 2016 elections.

What’s worse, the AIADMK cadre was accused of intercepting private vehicles carrying relief material crowdsourced from neighbouring states and forcibly pasting Jayalalithaa’s posters on them in order to convey the impression that the government was providing the largesse. In contrast, the Kerala administration is using social media effectively to communicate on the release of water from dams to warn people downstream to move to safer locations. Several NGOs are working closely with the government of Kerala to ensure relief material reaches people who need it most.

The Kerala template in terms of its efficacy is similar to that employed by Chandrababu Naidu, in dealing with cyclones. It was during his first tenure as Andhra CM between 1995-2004 that the state fine-tuned its strategy on handling cyclone rescue and relief. Naidu would always lead from the front, plonking himself in the district hit most badly by the cyclone, like he did during Cyclone Hudhud in 2014 in Visakhapatnam, operating out of a bus. Naidu’s style is to be hands-on, micromanaging every bit ensuring the government machinery did not slacken.

The preliminary loss to Kerala is put at around Rs 20,000 crore and it will be a herculean task to build the state back from the destruction. Could the Kerala government have done better? Could it have anticipated a dramatic increase in water levels, aided by Meteorological department’s prediction of the quantum of rainfall? Should it have released water from dams in smaller quantities instead of emptying a huge mass downstream in one go? Could it have asked for NDRF personnel in advance from the Centre? Could it have forced people from low-lying areas to move out of their homes early enough to prevent loss of lives? These are not easy questions given how many parts of Kerala, like Alappuzha, are full of waterways and living amid water is a way of life, making people reluctant to move out. Moreover, for most Keralites, this kind of a flood is a never-before-seen phenomenon, making them disbelieve government warnings of a deluge at their doorstep.