Tsunami Stories – SE Asia

By: Courtney S. Ries

Tsunami Stories
SE Asia

The following are collection of excerpted stories from people who have been affected by the tsunami on December 26. They are, for the most part, unedited. If you have received an e-mailed account from a person affected by the tragedy and wish to pass it on, please contact us at court at BootsnAll dot com

I want to thank all of you who have e-mailed or called my parents. I am OK, just really sad. I don’t know how my friends and I are alive—I’m still trying to remember what happened, but all I can hear is the sound of wave and shattering glass. We hadjust walked from the beach where there was a huge sweep of sand and into a restaraunt composed mostly of windows. Right after we walked in we looked back and the water was lapping up on the porch, but it all looked pretty harmless—kind of like a lake splashing the shore.

People started running out, but I walked back to get my flip flops which I had taken off a the front. They cost about $1. I just didn’t understand what was happening. I mean, there was no warning. It all seems so dreamlike now. Anyhow, a wave came crashing in and the tables out front just exploded into the windows and the water came racing in. All I can hear in my head is the sound of wave and smashing glass. Still I was confused, and kind of figured it was a tidal surge caused by the full moon. So as the waves came in, I jumped up on the wooden bar that was swept violently in to the corner of the room. One more window was in tact, and I was wedged between it and stackes of bottles—cokes and beer and stuff. There was this 85 old man Sri Lankan man who owned the place and he was quite a fixture, always asleep at a table after having eaten breakfast. His chair swept past and I was able to wrestle him onto the bar. Buildings were collapsing all around me, but I didn’t notice.

I am traveling with two of my close friends—now I feel like they are brother and sister—and Simon climbed up a tree and Rachel, she ran off. Simon was yelling at me to get out of there as roofs were falling, but I couldn’t hear b/c I am so deaf, and, like I said, building were being swept away. But I was wedged in the corner and the water wouldn’t let me out. Plus, glass was shooting pack and forth in the water in sharp pieces like huge knives. The window was right in front of me, and I had this old man to deal with. The window finally crashed on us, but I only got a few cuts is all—I don’t know how. With that I was sucked out, and I managed to hang on to the old man. I held him afloat with my head below water, coming up for breaths. Another wave rolled though, and I lost him. He just sunk right there, and I didn’t see him again until I ID’d his dead body that was wedged under some debris. The water finally receded, and I got my bare feet on the ground and got out. I don’t know how, but my feet only got cut up a little bit, but I didn’t feel the glass in my feet until this morning. My friend Nathan and I searched through the rubble, while Simon searched for his girlfriend Rachel.

Parents came back crying hysterically searching for infants and toddlers, and frantic spouses for partners. Everyone took to the hills expecting another series of waves, which did come, but later, fortunately. We found a man wedged naked and face down under a roof frame. A few of us managed to pry him loose. He must have been stuck there under water for a long time, but managed to come out ok. Rubble was everywhere. It was at 8 am so a lot of people were sleeping in their bungalo’s after a x mas night party. No telling how many were stuck. One family escaped through the roof b/c you just couldn’t open the door with all the water in the room and pushing from outside. Simon came back and said he couldn’t find Rachel. We searched everywhere for the next three hours, going to all the hills and the more elevated areas, but couldn’t find her. We managed to keep it together pretty well throughout the process, Simon more so that me, really. We found her finally and just laid on the grass on a hill sobbing.

People were naked having lost everything—no money or passport or clothes—Sri Lankan mothers beat the ground with their fist screaming, houses were totally washed away, businesses smashed. Nothing on the beach was left standing. We are still trying to figure out why, you know, the mechanics of the waves that hit us—they were not the crashing type that blasted all around us like dynamite, but more like the rising, surging type. Had they been of that nature, we would have been dead instantly. I don’t understand it at all. Why? Just up and down the beach bodies were lying by the road, buses were turned over and cars were in trees. Boats were all over the roads.(People had been out diving, snorkelin and surfing—Simon and I planned on getting up early for a surf, but overslept.) The water smashed 3 story buildings, in some places washing 2 km’s inland.

Our guest house was up a hill away from the beach—we had decided to stay there b/c the family owners were so nice, but a few days before we almost moved to a little shack right on the beach which was obviously pulverized. Anyhow, afterwards we packed up our dry belongings and sat on the street looking for a ride to Colombo, the capital. All the gas stations were wrecked so every driver was out of gas, or their car was totalled. A huge truck drove by with an 8 member family in the cab. I flaggged them down, and they asked if we were going to Colombo, and I said hell yes, so we all loaded into the flat-bed. We drove inland b/c, of course, the roads and bridges were destroyed.

After a 7 hour trip we made it to the airport at 2 and managed to get out on the first flight to Bangkok at 7. We didn’t sleep for two days or eat much. Power and phone lines were down, but I was able to text message my parents which made me feel better. But we were in shock for a while afterwards. We were just stumbling around last night virtually hallucinating b/c we were beyond sleep, really. It is just hitting us today after having seen the footage. Sri Lanka got hit the hardest, and when it’s said and done, I can’t imagine how many will be among the dead, but it will be much higher than the numbers indicate right now—I’m guessing 3 times as many or more. We feel really bad that we left them like that, but we’re trying to figure out what we can do.

So many lives are ruined. The homeless survivors…I don’t know how they’ll rebuild or with what—they don’t have insurance here or anything remotely comparable to it. We were thinking that we could help by telling people like you what we saw, and encouraging folks to make donations to the Red Cross or some relief organization. Sri Lanka is the poorsest country hit, I think, and they are just emerging from a long civil war. The toursit industry really just took off at the end of the fighting. All the Sri Lankans were apologizing to us! People who had lost everything were apologizing to us. They kept telling us not to forget about Sri Lanka. So we are safe trying to find all our other friends who are scattered around Asia on the islands—everyone went to the islands for X mas.

We are trying to see if we can go back to do anything to help, but I don’t think we’ll be of much assistance. Our thought process is that we would consume resources, diverting food and water from the Sri Lankan people. But we’re looking to see. Otherwise, I’m flying home Thurdsday, and I’m ready.

Cov

As most of you know, my homeland of Sri Lanka was hit by a devastating tsunami yesterday, December 26th. What you may not know, is that it was my mother’s home town of Galle was one of the hardest hit towns. As of now, I have personally lost an uncle, aunt, and cousin.

They were all on a train bound to Galle from the capital city of Colombo, where they had gone for a weekend getaway. The train was swept out to sea when the tsunami hit. My oldest cousin, Padmal, who was also on the train, managed to swim to safety, however, my uncle, aunt, other cousin, and thousands more that were on that train, were not so lucky. They have already found the body of my cousin, Taja…she was only 17 years old and a budding artist. They have yet to find the bodies of my uncle and aunt…and many more Sri Lankan that have been either washed out to sea or buried under rubble of destroyed buildings.

Darshana Sarathchandra

I am sure you have heard about the tsunami over the news- our family is all ok but the country here is absolutely devestated (as you have seen). We arrived in Sri Lanka on the 21st after a stop over in Krabi, Thailand (near Phuket) which was also hit terribly (60 confirmed dead). On the 26th we were actually heading down to the south towards Galle on a day trip… About an hour later, we heard some shouting outside the car, people started running out of their houses panicked, screaming, a woman was hit by a truck coming in the opposite direction and then water started to flow under the wheels of the vehicle in front of us… we made a quick u turn but the road we had used to come down followed the coast and had already been blocked off.

The alleyways were brimming with water and after what seemed like an hour detour and probably only traveling just over a kilometer, we made our way up a side road headed north. Traffic was still heavy and crowds filled the streets, men were banging their fists on the windows and the hood of the van, and one opened the drivers car door and turned off the ignition. so we let them in… about 22 tear streamed faces, the children became sick several times along the road… and we passed back empty boxes, and paper tissues and bottles of water until nothing was left. one man kept prayed frantically that we would not be enveloped by the sea on one side and river on the other… and eventually we made it to where they wished to be let off- a distant relatives’ south of colombo, and left them with nothing but their clothes, and the money we had in our pockets.

it is going on our 8th day in colombo- and i have long forgotten about our own experience in comparison with the others… the hotel where we are staying with our sri lankan family friends is a center of transition for refugees from the south who inhabit the lobby 24 hours a day. the last man we spoke with was in his beach bungalow when the waves hit- the first washed away the entire structure, the second his wife, and the third smashed both his achilles and severed the tendons in his feet… when the water subsided, an ambulance dropped him off in front of a theatre where he was made to lie down on a rusted metal stretcher and wait for an hour in line in the midday heat. before the operation in which they reset what was later found to be unfractured, he only pleaded that they not amputate… he crutched himself out of the theatre due to lack of wheelchairs and managed to clothe himself in a small towl he found on the street… at every hospital he tied this securely so that he would still wake up with clothing, and he hid his one waterbottle under his sheets so it would not be stolen…

i hope that these accounts give you a better idea of what is going on. even from our hotel room in colombo the news on BBC seems so distant- too many countries at once to be able to identify with, and too many needs to know where to begin to help. i sent this email to anyone with whom i have ever communicated, in hopes that this may allow you to see if for one moment how deperate sri lanka needs help. we have been volunteering here with the red cross and set up a booth in the hotel- the director of the sri lankan red cross is very reliable and careful with the money- and we have seen the funds raised translated immediately into medical supplies and transfered to the south. You can donate to them through www.helpSL.org a website that two sri lankan family friends have jointly set up from colombo and the united states.

natalie

How can you help?

Hundreds of organizations are collecting money, clothing, food and other forms of aid for the victims of the tsunami disaster. Government officials urge citizens to donate responsibly and be wary of scams. Check out this informative article by Newsday for more info.

Red Cross Red Crescent
UNICEF
Mercy Corp
USAID