Hi,
A firsthand tsunami report.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:43 AM
Subject: Account of Tsunami
I went to highschool with Vei Chi - she barely escaped the tsunami in Sri
Lanka.
>
>Dear all,
>
>sorry for the impersonal email, some of you might not know and some
>do, but just wanted to let you know that we are back to Hong Kong
>safely from Sri Lanka.
>
>We were in an area called Yala in Sri Lanka (it's in the southern
>coast of Sri Lanka and one of the worst affected areas) when the
>tsunami hit. We were caught in the middle of it but managed to escape.
>Luckily we were in Yala Safari National park when it happened, but the
>tsunami also hit inside the park. The 7 of us had to climb on top of
>our jeep and as the water rushed into about 8 feet the jeep was
>immersed and started to buckle, at this point we though we were about
>to get dragged away by the current but then the water began to recede.
>At this point we had no idea what had happened and were being told of
>possible sand dune's bursting or melting icebergs. The Jeep couldn't
>be started and we began to walk we started joking about it when the
>driver and guide began to pick up all the fish that had been thrown
>onto the road to cook for their families that night. At this point a
>second wave began to come in and we were told to run as fast as we
>could to higher ground, we managed to avoid getting caught up in this
>one but when we got there were a number of locals and tourists who
>were also there and a number of people who were badly injured. Getting
>any accurate info at this point was impossible and communication with
>the locals, who don't speak much English, was difficult. We did know
>however that the whole area we were in was surrounded by water and
>there was no way out at this point, we started to get really worried
>when the locals began climbing trees for fear of another wave.
>
>After about an hour there we were told to get in the back of a van and
>were taken to a large rock, were we stayed for another couple of
>hours, we could see the majority of the surrounding coastline being
>battered by huge waves. There were a number of injured people there
>also including one Japanese woman whose head had been cracked open and
>who was missing her 3 year old son (who we later found out died).
>Seeing the waves batter into the coastline and all these injured
>people with their stories of being washed into, what is effectively
>jungle land, and missing friends and family made it very very scary,
>We still had no idea at this point the scale of the thing. We were
>then bundled into a 6 seater van with about 16 other people and driven
>for 90 minutes to a small town inland called Tissa and the house of
>one of the staff of the hotel. We were told that the hotel we were
>staying at was completely flattened and wiped out and 75% of people in
>the hotel were dead. This place is a Safari hotel on the beach and
>basically anybody who didn't go on safari that day died. At this point
>I want to say how amazing these people are, there were men, women and
>children screaming and crying having heard there family members and
>friends had died and there were about 50 people in this little shanty
>house and they kept coming to us with tea and biscuits and telling us
>they would get us to safety. The courage and generosity of these and
>many other people we met over the next 4 days will stay with me for a
>long time.
>
>We were crowding around a tiny tv set listening to the Sri Lankan news
>and one of our local heroes Kumel, was translating, we soon realised
>the scale and magnitude of the devastation, not only in Sri Lanka but
>across the SE Asia region. The enormity of what happened was beginning
>to dawn on us, as was our situation, we had lost our luggage, clothes,
>tickets, passports and most of our money, we had two phones between us
>and about 100 quid in US or Sri Lanka Rupees, we had credit cards but
>as you quickly find out these things aren't much use when all the
>phone lines are down.
>
>We were then taken to a little guest house that evening and started to
>try and get in touch with our embassies, work, families and friends on
>the two mobiles we had, connections were difficult and we had no
>mobile chargers. We were told by the corporate security people at
>Merrill Lynch's and by the British Embassy to get to Colombo as
>quickly as possible. After spending 8 hours trying to get a car to
>drive us the some 350Km to Colombo from the south coast through inland
>mountain roads, we finally made it to Colombo on the 28th. Colombo
>wasn't that badly affected but there was obviously a sense of panic
>and alarm there too, as the whole country was in a state of national
>emergency. We then had to get to our relevant embassies to get travel
>documents. Merrill's had made sure that we had our flight booking
>secured for the 29th and they also managed to get us into a hotel.
>Just as we were starting to calm down, we got a message that the
>driver who was with us for the first 4 days, who was this beautiful
>Sri Lankan man called Christianthan, who we laughed and joked with,
>was found dead. I had asked him to come and meet us in our hotel in
>Yala, as we flew down. He was driving down the coast when it happened.
>He was married with two children.
>
>We just got home about an hour ago and the whole experience was so
>surreal, frightening, horrific and sad. I cannot begin to tell you how
>lucky we are to have got out of this tragedy unharmed.
>
>So all in all we are ok.
>
>But, we have just left a country that has been devastated by this with
>the death toll in Sri Lanka alone at 25,000 and the numbers expected
>to rise to over 100,000 in the region. Once all the bodies are found
>the next problem the are likely to face is the diseases that can come
>with such a large number of dead who cannot be buried and homeless who
>have no access to clean water. The WHO is already saying the death
>toll could double due to this alone.
>
>We are trying to contact the family of our driver and to see if we can
>do anything to help, we plan to send money and anything else we can.
>
>If there's one thing I can ask you all, at the start of this new year
>is to PLEASE PLEASE send whatever you can to any of the charity or aid
>organizations that are trying to help, I am sure there are a number of
>hotlines were money can be donated. We have seen things that we never
>thought we would see and it was awful, truly awful, we managed to get
>out. Tens of thousands of people didn't. Many more are still suffering
>and will continue to do so. Please do what you can.
>
>Take Care all of you. Have a Happy New Year.
>
>love,
>Veh Chi
>
