Real Story: Tsunami Experience

Dear OliverMD Friends,

The following is a letter from one of the employees where I work. His wife was born and raised in Shrilanka and they were visiting there with their two children ... I know the letter is kinda long, but reading it would make you realize how fortunate our families are and how bad the tsunami was (and the effect of the tsunami is).

God Bless,
Oliver - MOM & DAD

Thanks for your thoughts and best wishes. I can't tell you how relieved
I am to be able to read them!

We had an extremely narrow escape...

The first wave was much smaller, in that it barely made it more than a third of a mile inland and did limited damage to the village as a whole. As nobody knew the cause, many folks thought it was a "freak" one-off incident. However, the properties right on the beach did take a bit of a beating and there were a few casualties. I went right down to the beach to see what was going on and to assist where possible. A few tourists had been visiting the turtle sanctuary by the beach and had some minor wounds from being battered by the first wave. We put them
in my cousins van and sent them off to the district medical officer.

Once I got to the beach, I soon realised something was wrong. Where had the sea gone? It was like the most amazing low tide you could imagine, the sea had retreated probably about 200 metres beyond it's normal low-tide point, exposing huge amounts of sand. I mentioned to one of my local friends that this suggested that another wave was coming (although we had no idea that it would be any larger than the first one). Anyway, despite this most people stuck around to watch or help. I went back inland to our land where the house and seafood processing factory is located to give folks the news. I stopped on the way at the junior school to chat quickly with the village tailor and his daughters to tell them that another one was probably coming, then went on my way.

Once at the gates of the factory, I met up with Lakshmi (who had my elder daughter Ayesha with her) and told her what I had seen. As we were talking, we heard screams behind us (from the beach side) and turned to see a massive amount of water come bursting up between the houses. Lakshmi grabbed Ayesha and started running up the stairs to the office above the factory. She yelled at me to get Chaya (our baby
daughter) who was sleeping in the house across the land from the factory.

I ran to the house, got baby, mother-in-law and the two kitchen girls and we started running back to the factory office. However, we barely made it half way when the wave hit the big concrete wall that runs along the front of our land (in front of the factory and house). It simply disintegrated right in front of us! We couldn't make it to the office so we turned and ran towards a water tower behind the factory and literally just leapt up the steps as the wave crashed past beneath us. I later
found out that poor Lakshmi was going beserk in the office because she couldn't see us and had no idea that we made it. Vehicles, debris, etc., rushed passed causing serious damage and the wave went on another mile or so inland. Fortunately although the walls were collapsing everywhere the tower remained upright (less resistance from pillars than a wall, plus it was built to take the weight of a 5000 litre tank) so it stayed upright.

Unsurprisingly, the phone system collapsed partly through physical damage but mostly through being overloaded. I had my mobile/cell phone with me but it took about 20 attempts before I could get any word out.

Once the bulk of the water subsided, we waded to the office and started to look around. The destruction was terrible and the loss of life horrific. The tailor and his two daughters that I spoke to earlier were gone. His body had been washed inland and then back again to the roadside near us. The two girls were later found inland. Many, many others also lost their lives that day. It was a heart-rending scene. So many children! Each time I saw one I couldn't help but think that there but for the grace of god (and 10 seconds) lies my baby. These poor people had no chance.

Anyway, the immediate priority was making some kind of shelter. The roads were naturally impassable and we could be stuck there for some time. We did salvage some snacks from the local shop (what was left of it) but the big worry was drinking water. In that heat, it wouldn't take long before people started dropping with dehydration. We set up "base camp" in the office and I managed to salvage my first aid kit from the house. I got one of our factory boys to cut down some coconuts, as
they would probably provide the only drinking water as there was no mains supply and the ground was still flooded with black,contaminated water. We did our best to get the "cut coconuts" message to as much of the village as possible.

Then came the waiting and if anything, that was harder because of the uncertainty. Many people were fleeing inland in panic but, of course, this had to be done on foot and given the distance the previous wave had gone it was going to take a fair amount of time. Hmm...was another wave coming? If so, how big? Should we take the family and make a run for it or stay put and ride it out? The consequences of making the wrong decision are severe and it was probably the hardest decision I ever had
to make. If we venture out, then another wave (even a smaller one) would be fatal if it came in while we were walking. You cannot outrun these, they're frighteningly quick. On the other hand, perhaps our building was weakened? We'd lost the exterior walls and had no idea if there was another, possibly bigger, wave on its way right now.

By then I had received an SMS telling me about the quake and given the high probability of aftershocks etc., it was very likely that another wave could come in. On the other hand, the factory was fortunately build very sturdily with steel-reinforced concrete, not the cheaper and less substantial stuff that the outside border walls were. On balance, rather than risk getting caught outside with the kids etc., I decided we should stay put and dig in. I managed to get through to my
brother-in-law in the UK and informed him about my decision, so that he'd know the "what and why" should my decision turn out to be the wrong one. Fortunately, the ensuing waves were substantially smaller and didn't make it far enough inland to put my decision to the test.

We holed up there for 12 hours until one of our guys (in Colombo) made it down to us in a 4x4 to get us out of there. I managed to recover our passports (wet but legible) and a few personal effects but basically everything had gone. The house was trashed - only the walls remained in the same place. What clothes remained were buried in inches of black mud.

We got back to Colombo around 1am, showered and put the kiddies to bed. Then I spent an hour with a bottle of scotch! :) It's only once it's over that the sheer luck of our escape sinks in. Poor old Laksh got very faint and nauseous, partly with shock mixed in with relief.

Anyway, the rebuilding effort is already underway (spent yesterday planning out generators, tube wells, etc.) and now we're home - safe but tired. On the plane, the flight staff organised an impromptu whip-round and raised 300,000 rupees (approx US$3000) from the passengers. That's enough to start building very basic housing! Laksh and I will also be helping to rebuild her mothers and younger brothers home, not to mention the factory on which about 60 local villagers depend for employment and income.

Our money, particularly western money (dollars, pounds and euros) goes a long way over there. For example, I'm told the average salary in Sri Lanka for a police officer is about US$60 per month! If you can donate anything at all to help the affected countries, be assured that even a modest donation will make a BIG difference.

Thanks again to all and we're glad to be back.