Posted on 12/27/2004 7:18:09 AM PST by dead
The tragedy was epic in scale. Philip Cornford and Connie Levett trace it from its first rumblings beneath the sea.
It was a tranquil Sunday morning, a Full Moon Day for Buddhists, Boxing Day for Christians. Along the coastlines of three countries which arc around the Bay of Bengal, fishermen and villagers went about their chores in a balmy sun cooled by sea breezes. The seas were calm and gave no indication that in the ocean deep, a colossal force was surging towards the shores.
For the vast majority of victims, there was no warning of the catastrophe that was to kill at least 22,000 people in India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Kenya, Somalia and the Seychelles. It would leave a million displaced.
The force that could not be stopped was a tsunami, a tidal wave or surge, and it was going out in every direction at a speed of about 800kmh, a deadly ripple of destruction triggered by an earthquake 40 kilometres below the seabed. At 9.0 on the Richter scale, revised from 8.9 yesterday, it was the fifth largest recorded since 1900. It was followed by multiple quakes along fault lines in the Earth's crust known as the Rim of Fire.
On the Indian shore, 1000 kilometres west of the epicentre, Brajita Poulose, 45, was strolling along Marina Beach near Chennai with her husband, two sons and four other relatives. Fishermen hauled in nets, young men played cricket, vendors shouted their wares.
"Behind me, suddenly, we saw a huge wave coming at us," Mrs Poulose said. A wave 10 metres high, now moving at 100kmh, overwhelmed them. Her husband, one son and four relatives were drowned, among at least 5697 dead in India.
To the east, an Australian, Edward Shields, was on board his yacht moored off Patong Beach on the Thai resort island of Phuket.
"We had no warning whatsoever," he said. "There was no actual wave that you could see come in from the sea. The whole sea level of the bay dropped dramatically and then rose to twice its [previous] height just as fast, and then this water surged straight inland."
The dead here numbered at least 800, including as many as four Australians. At least 5000 were injured.
To the west, on the island of Sri Lanka, disaster struck beneath a faultlessly clear blue sky. It came deceptively to the village of Dehiwaha, where fishermen had finished the morning's work and were taking it easy.
"All of a sudden, the water from the sea rose up close to our houses. Then it went out again," said J. W. Kanti. It went out 1000 metres, scraping the seabed clean."
"The stones looked like elephants," Emil Chandradase said.
Then the sea came back and destroyed the village. Even so, fortune blessed the people of Dehiwaha, for none of them was killed. But along the island's coast, more than 10,000 died and 1 million were left homeless.
The only victims to have any warning were on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. Its northern province of Aceh is only 160 kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake. In the capital, Banda Aceh, the earthquake shockwaves collapsed high-rise buildings. Thousands ran into the street panicking. Then the earth stopped heaving. They didn't know it at the time, but death was coming from the sea in a 10-metre-high wave. An estimated 4500 were killed, thousands more lost their homes.
Many of the dead were the young and old, drowned in a torrent so fierce it churned along huge rocks, logs and the remnants of homes felled in the original shock.
In Banda Aceh, more than 1000 homes were destroyed. The death toll is expected to rise. So bad is the destruction that many missing people are buried beneath wreckage. Others are lost in swamps and rivers not yet searched.
In all the countries hit, most of the victims were poor villagers who struggled for an existence, and when the deadly waters receded they left behind a landscape in which their poverty was sadly evident, crushed huts and their sparse contents: a tin plate, a battered cooking pot, a plastic cup, worn bedclothes, crude furniture, bundles of rags some called clothes. Among the destruction, there was little to attract looters, for life had brought these hardy people little of value, except themselves and their families. And for so many, their loved ones were gone, too.
Some of the victims heard the tsunami coming but many survivor accounts tell of two distinct phases. First the sea seemed to rush out, and then it reversed and came in again, the sea level rising so quickly it could not be outrun.
"We saw it sucked out, and it seemed to go on and on," said Les Broadman, 56, from Cronulla, who was strolling along Patong Beach on Phuket Island with his wife, Dianne, 53. "Then all of a sudden, it reversed and the boats started to come back in. My wife said, 'This is bad', and we ran."
They got 20 metres before the water caught them. Mr Broadman clung to a pole. A car and a utility were swept past him. Mrs Broadman, 53, was smashed to the ground. "A car came down on her, then the next wave took it off her and she popped up," her husband said. They found sanctuary on a balcony.
An Austrian, Andreas Grugl, his wife, Brigit, 39, and son, Sebastian, 10, were on the ground floor of a Phuket hotel when waves burst in on them. They ran but were blocked by a locked door. The force of the water broke the door open.
"I held my son with my hand and we were slithered onto the street and then I lost my son," he said. "I felt I was crashed against a wall, a sofa crashed on me, then a refrigerator. That was the one thing I could stand on. I looked around me and I saw nobody. There were no people. I was alone." His wife and son were drowned.
Jonathan Delaney, 13, from Dublin, was trapped in a room with water rising to his neck, pinning him against the ceiling.
A South African woman was in the same predicament. It was pitch black but they found a window and swam out.
At Marina Beach near Chennai, India, Dev Anand was one of the young men playing cricket when Mrs Poulose went walking with her family. Mr Anand, 22, and his four friends were swept inland by the same surge of water that brought tragedy to the Poulose family. Later, they could not find one of their friends. He, too, was taken by the sea.
In the Chennai shantytown of Pattinappakan, 50-year-old Ekambal Nayakar swam to safety while neighbours saved her 75-year-old mother. "The water entered the house neck-deep," she said. "Then I heard voices outside: 'Seawater! seawater!"'
In Sri Lanka, an elderly British couple and a teenage son wearing an England football jersey carried a bundle from which poked white feet. "My brother is dead," the lad said.
A Sri Lankan photographer, Gemune Amarasinghe, had planned a day of reflection to celebrate Poya, the day of the full moon, when Buddhists believe Buddha was born and attained enlightenment.
"People were running everywhere and the first waves hit the road," he wrote. "They were not huge, not too destructive. They brought fish to the shore and people rushed to collect them. Smiling boys ran with fish dangling in their hands."
But the waves kept coming, stronger and bigger. He struggled to high ground with others, some of whom were carrying their dead.
"White-capped floodwaters raced over the streets and between the houses. I counted 24 bodies in just under six kilometres. Bodies of children were entangled in fences."
One of them was a frail girl in a blue dress. But the emergency was so overwhelming, no one stopped to free her body. They were busy with their own dead, or their living.
"I was still in a daze and the enormity of the tragedy still hadn't dawned on me until I came upon the girl in the blue dress, caught in the fence," Mr Amarasinghe wrote.
It was not possible to get to her until the waters receded. The girl was between four and six years old.
Even in a great catastrophe, when the dead are all around, death is personal. One victim speaks for all.
More than 23,000 people were killed by a tsunami triggered by a 9-magnitude earthquake in southern Asia.
These figures are preliminary and in some cases rough estimates by local officials:
In addition, about 1300 people are missing in India's Andhra Pradesh.
QUOTES:
Indian vegetable hawker N. Arasu: "We are too scared to sleep. What if the sea rises again and takes us away in our sleep?"
American tourist Moira Lee, 28: "Our paradise turned into hell ... We saw a massive wave coming toward us and our waitress freaked out. She told us to run for our lives. So we just turned and ran for about a mile up the hill."
Boree Carlsson, Swedish hotel worker on Thailand's Phuket island: "As I was standing there, a car actually floated into the lobby and overturned because the current was so strong."
Sri Lankan hospital official: "We have got hundreds of dead that we have dealt with ... "I don't know what to do."
Marine colonel Buyung Lelana, Indonesia: "It smells so bad, fishy. The human bodies are mixed in with dead animals like dogs, fish, cats and goats,"
Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga: "We are not well equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude because we have never known a disaster like this."
Narasamma, Indian fisherman's wife: "I have been waiting for my husband and brother since yesterday. Around 40 people from my village have not come back from the sea. I am not sure they will come back as I can see wrecked boats floating in the water."
Mustofa, mayor in Sumatra: "We are making preparations for the funerals. Officials are being asked to look for coffins. I am hoping there are still enough coffins available."
Note to self: if you're ever walking on the beach and the tide suddenly sucks out hundreds of yards, don't stand there marveling at it. Turn and run.
The waitress helped save their lives.
What an awesome calamity
That must have been a hell of a sight. Would have made me run for dear life.
Incredible. It's just so massive that it's hard to comprehend.
Prayers going up for all affected by this horrid disaster.
Prayers bump. Just horrible...
But the waves kept coming, stronger and bigger. He struggled to high ground with others, some of whom were carrying their dead.
I have read accounts when the same thing would happen in ancient times (such as Alexandria). The water would churn and then go out to sea exposing the sea bed and fish. Many of the residents would run out for the "free meals" just laying there. Then the water would come back in...
Such stories. It really must seem like the End Times if you are caught unawares by something as seemingly uncomprehensible (the waters being so dramatically drawn out and then surging back in). But the question can't be escaped, Why weren't more people warned? Once an earthquake occurs, certain things happen, where was the warning of tsunamis?
Thanks for the updated news.
I finally spoke with my fiancee's sister last night. We were in Phuket and Phi Phi island 4 weeks ago visiting her.
The optical shop she manages on Patong Beach was closed for the weekend because of Christmas. She had planned to go to the beach that morning but decided to go back to bed when she woke up. (Very lucky for her). When she heard the news she rushed to the beach and saw cars stacked atop each other and destruction everywhere. Her optical shop was in ruins--she would have been injured or killed if she were working in the shop that day.
Since she is from the Philippines and speaks fluent english, she went to the hospital to volunteer to translate for the western tourists. She said there were so many wounded and so much blood, it was like a war zone. She saw one room stacked with dead bodies, including many children (mostly children of tourists). When she saw that, she broke down crying and had to leave the hospital. She said there were lots of injuries and deaths on the roads as people fled. She decided to walk instead of risk an accident on her motor scooter. She spent the night in the cold shivering on a hill because they were warned bigger waves might be coming inland.
I told her the media was reporting 500 dead in Thailand. She said the final numbers would be MUCH higher and that most of the dead and wounded would be Europeans, Australians, and Americans.
I'm still stunned at what happened---especially since I almost took my vacation over Christmas instead Thanksgiving. I only chose to travel in November because Cathay Pacific ran a special promotion to Thailand at that time.
My heart goes out to the families of the dead and wounded and to the local people who depended on the tourist industry for their livelihood. It will probably be years before Phuket rebounds, if ever.
Normal running just won't cut it.
I have been to Indonesia 3 times for diving excursions, dived in the Maldives too...we boarded a live aboard in Male (the largest island) and remained at sea for two weeks visiting many of the very small islands, basically fishing villages...and all I can say, I know how fragile their communities are...the simple buildings, no infrastructure. phones or electricity...very meager lil communities...
this is so very sad.
I've heard the waters off of Honduras (Roatan Island) are beautiful. Actually terrorism was my primary worry in Southern Thailand as Jemaah Islamiyah has been trying to work with local insurgents to attack the popular tourist spots. Fortunately the CIA and Thai intelligence services have disrupted attacks before they happened.
I'm also worried about the reports of buildings swaying in Bangkok. I wonder what kind of structural damage was done since they are certainly not constructed to withstand earthquakes as the buildings here in California are.
The waters of the Andaman Sea are so peaceful and Patong Bay is normally very calm. No one would have expected a tsunami to hit. Many more would have died if they weren't nursing hangovers from too much Christmas revelry. The beaches are packed later in the day.
I just got this email message from a friend who was concerned about some family members who were there and caught up in it but amaziningly survived with relatively minor injuries.
I'm sure many people are wondering about that.
On Fox News yesterday I saw two experts, one American and one Chinese, explain that
(1) tsunamis in the Indian Ocean are rare, so people are unprepared for them (unlike people in Japan, for instance); and
(2) the kind of sensors that are used to detect seismic and tsunami activity are practically non-existent because they are logistically very hard to place in the Indian Ocean, for some reason I don't remember.
Just can't imagine the people's bewilderment leading up to this event. I guess I now know to RUN.
But when you are a tourist how do you know WHERE to run to?
All of this is so very sad and scary.
Roatan is great for diving.
Actually normal running will do just fine in almost all cases.
If you start running...or even just walking fast...as soon as you see the sea recede you have about 5-10 minutes before the wave hits. In most parts of the world that will put you either high enough or inland enough to avoid the tsunami.
I highly recommend the new Michael Crichton book "State of Fear". There are some riveting scenes in the book that deal with trying to outrun a tsunami. It's so ironic--I spent Christmas afternoon perched on some rocks, near Big Sur, watching the gray whales migrate and observing the sun as it set into the Pacific. I was closer than I should have been to the water but watched the waves very carefully and wedged myself in to the rocks tight in case the water reached me. The biggest danger would be a powerful rogue wave. I was thinking of the Crichton book and how I would be toast if a tsunami hit the west coast while I was sitting there.
I had no idea that the planet had suffered a massive quake and a tsunami was already building and heading towards the beaches in other parts of the world.
I think the only defense is to gain altitude as quickly as possible by running uphill as fast as you can. If you see the ocean suck all the water of a bay---that's a sign it's time to run like he** because the water will be coming back hard and fast.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.