A personal view of the Tsunami

The following is a précis of a daily diary from the Tsunami that we witnessed on the 26 th December 2004 and the days following until our return home.  

Sunday 26 th December 2004

8.30a.m. Kelvin and I decided to go for a swim. The tuk tuk man was coming to collect us at 9.30 as we had arranged to visit our friends for the day.

The sea was very calm but I was very uneasy, I didn’t know why, a voice in my head said that’s enough, get out now, you’ve had your swim, go back to the hotel and get changed. I thought, oh dear, Sally being Sally, on holiday and still rushing around. The voice became louder and I gave in.

9.00a.m. We arrived at the restaurant for breakfast and as we were hungry, we ordered the works. Fruit, toast, eggs and tea. We had our usual chat with our friendly waiter and went back to the room to pack a bag for the day.

9.30a.m. A time that will stick in my mind forever. I could hear the sea – loud like it was just below us. The sound of sticks cracking, and voices screaming, getting louder and louder. Next, people from the village were running up the hillside – going nowhere – they were screaming and I did not know what they were saying. I called to Kelvin to come out of the room – Kelvin whats happening – I shouted to a young boy running up the steps of the hotel – he said Sea coming. By now people were running up the sides of the hotel to the top of a 6 story block of villas, ours was number 1. It was 42 steps from the swimming pool. The next thing was hell on earth – we refused to run – we held each other tight on the balcony until the roar subsided – we glanced down to the restaurant and could see the sea lapping and this was about 300 yards from the beach. I could see a tall fridge freezer bobbing up and down in the water and then it spun round and round. Kelvin said you stay there I am going up the steps to see if I can see anything. He came back with another man and said the lady at the top really needed me and I must go straight away.

11.30am in the next 30 minutes a lady on the top floor managed to get through to her brother using her mobile phone. She then gave me the phone to ring Helen. We knew a tidal wave had hit Unawatuna and we knew it was big. We wanted to let the family know we had survived. Eventually I got through to Helens answer phone and left a message. It was 5.30 in England . There were people all over the place – sat on the steps refusing to move. Kelvin and Tarquin returned to say things were very bad, and we must stay here in the hotel and said they must leave to help more people.

12.30. I followed Kelvin down to our room and as we entered the room we heard yet another commotion – the second wave struck. A lady and two children stopped on the steps at the side of our balcony – she was wearing only a bikini and the two children had swimming shorts on. She had gripped their hands so tightly that their hands were white. I asked her where she was going and she said she didn’t know – I pointed her in the direction of Tine and the children and started to pack a bag of clothes for her. All she had was what she was standing up in. Her husband was missing. She would not let go of the children. I gave her a drink of water and the boys some coke a cola and said I would follow her up with some clothes.

I stuffed clean clothes into a hotel laundry bag and as I looked down to the restaurant I could see Kelvin carrying a young boy on his shoulders – Kelvin was wearing his bright orange tee shirt – from then on he was know as big man in orange tee shirt. I took the laundry bag up stairs squeezing past people all refusing to go back down. Kelvin made several trips and each time came back with more people.

2.00 p.m Kelvin and Tarquin got a working party together to try and get the mud out of the hotel entrance. The plan was to keep the hotel as clean as possible using the swimming pool water – by this time we knew we were going to be here a while. Kelvin reported that the roads were no longer roads. An elderly lady arrived on a bed. She had a broken arm and broken ribs. Her husband was missing. The husband of the lady with 2 children arrived, he had been in the water and had cuts to his legs. He had been looking for his wife and children and broke down and wept when he found them. A lot of people were frightened and a lot were suffering from shock. Women on the next floor had lost her daughter and son in law. They had gone off alone for the day and not come back. Another family had been split and gone off in different directions to look for each other, only to be caught in the second wave.

4.00p.m.I went down to the restaurant and handed out water to people arriving from nowhere. The hotel owner Prashan was telling all the people they could stay at the hotel, only one of two hotels still standing at this side of Unawatuna. During the day I saw very little of Kelvin – he returned now and then for drinks of water and each time with a very heavy heart. Prashan said that the chef in his hotel by the beach had died in the first wave and he could not ask his staff to cook today, but he really wanted to provide a meal to everyone that had turned up at the hotel for shelter. I said I would cook and Kelvin said we could help to sort out a meal.

6.00 p.m.When I went to the kitchen it was under two inches of water. Black mud and debris, mostly from people walking in and out and spilling food on the floor – No electricity since 9.30 did not help and we first set about cleaning the place up. Candles everywhere and Mr gadget Doble produced a torch. Someone suggested Pasta and Kelvin began to stir up the biggest pan of pasta you could imagine. All sorts of herbs and spices were put in and when it was served it doubled as a moral booster for everyone and we all sat in rows eating together as if in a dream. After the meal Prashan announced that there were beds for everyone and urged an early night to try and settle the children down. Everyone agreed. Bottled water was handed out to people for the night.

Tine was coping much better now and had started to get a list together of all the names and next of kin to contact of everyone in the hotel. All this seemed more promising.

That night a number of people slept on our balcony, they were Sri Lankan people and I watched them come and go. 200 people stayed over in a 15 room hotel.

Our used to be very cheerful waiter Anura, had been able to reach is family by phone and know they were safe. He said he would stay and help in the hotel. I said that his family would be very proud of him if they new how brave he was and how much he was helping the tourists. He said that is the Sri Lankan way. You have to help others so that others can help you.

The other remaining hotel The Rock, was being used as a mortuary and also a hospital for seriously injured people. The bodies were wrapped in sheets waiting to be buried. I asked Kelvin how many there were he said too many to count. Six people died in the house next door to our hotel and their bodies were laid outside the hotel. They would be buried today.

27 th December 2004 – Day two

The old well is uncovered and we are assured that when boiled, the water from the well will be OK to drink. The pool water is more than adequate to keep the toilets clean and we are boiling water to wash up the dishes. The owner calls to come to the restaurant for morning coffee. He was making such a huge effort to maintain the comfort for his guests, he never ceased to amaze us. There is some bread left and cheese and fruit and this is given to the children. The plan of the day is to try and salvage any belongings possible from the other hotels. During the first hour of the day – Gordon arrives looking worse for wear. He was washed up by the wave and taken to the Rock hotel. He thought his wife was lost. She was at our hotel nursing a broken arm and ribs. Another joyous reunion.

The SriLankan people are convinced that the wave will come back again today. I try to tell them that this is not true, and tell them we are staying here because we know it is safe. We can hear a digger on the road below and hope that the injured people will get help today. The digger starts to clear the ground and digs a huge grave. A doctor arrived on foot from the other Hotel to give first aid to those that needed it and said a helicopter would be coming later that day.

At lunchtime the chef returned to our hotel to work for the owner for nothing in return. He told me he wanted to honour us for our help. Very moving, he had buried his friend that morning and was now getting on with his life. A lady I met at the hotel Linda had a friend arrive on a motorbike with a bag of bread for the children. Linda and her husband then left on the back of his bike. Anura comes to the room with two bottles of water and tells me he must go home and look after his family. The next stage of panic I still do not understand.

A lady came to our room and said we must not stay any longer. The air was polluted and we could catch a disease. Within minutes a whole load of people that had been camping on other balconies left the hotel saying they were walking to the hill county, the only chance of survival. Kelvin said this was not the case but to let them go as it would ease the situation for the rest of the hotel. Later that day – some came back – some didn’t. Unless you had knowledge of the area there was really nowhere to go.

Kelvin and Tarquin try to boost the batteries on a mobile phone using some wire and 4 pp6 batteries. This they do and we retrieve some very odd messages on his phone. We try to send messages to our family and this is all very reassuring. The lady with the broken arm is taken on her bed to the helicopter field but waits 3 hours only to be collected by a truck and taken to Koggalla air base and then airlifted to Colombo . The hotel owner tells us to be very careful now as food and water is running out and some of the boys in the village are very scared.

A young boy tries to climb over the balcony and tells me I must leave as the water is coming. I know it isn’t and I tell him to go back down. He needs a firm word and I held his arm and said do not panic. Be brave your father will be very proud of you. He looked puzzled and fled. Later that evening the young couple that had gone missing turned up. They had gone in land for the day on Boxing Day and could not get back to the hotel. At 3 am the same night a representative of the British Commissioner came to the hotel and said to make a list of evacuees and he would send transport tomorrow. He left a number to contact him with the two lists. Elderly, injured and families. Others. What he overlooked was that we had no telephones and now way of contacting him with the lists.

28 th December 2004 – Day three

The bottled water had now run out and a number of people were getting anxious. The food in the hotel had run out and we are now relying on handouts from the truck. During the morning we hear that the family separated during the second wave had been reunited. This means that everyone from the hotel had survived the wave. Prashan the owner is so relieved. Plastic bags of cooked rice were being handed out to anyone that wanted it but as yet no bottled water. After long discussions with Tine and Tarquin we agree to join them in their minibus when their driver arrives. We will go with them to Kandy . The driver arrived and immediately left saying he would get more petrol and return. Two hours later he had not returned and Tine and Tarquin decided they must go with the British Commission transport as part of the evacuation program. They are told to leave their bags at the hotel and then walk to the Rock Hotel and wait for the cars to arrive. We do a second sort of our luggage and take what we can comfortably carry and set off to walk to the main Galle Road

Along the way we meet up with Roy and Tuk Tuk man and his son, they have arrived to retrieve the tuk tuk that was washed away in the flood. Roy says he can take us to Malas house there is another vehicle on the main road for us. We walk towards the main road and the others push to tuk tuk. When we got to the main road the vehicle was no longer there and so the men pushed to tuk tuk with me inside it for a further 3.5 miles to our friend’s house in Kaduraduwa.

This village was higher than sea level and was unaffected by the wave. Mala was very pleased to see us and asked where Asha, her daughter was. She should have been in the vehicle that had come to collect us. Within minutes yet another frightening scene. The high tide had brought fears that another wave was approaching and this had set off a panic among the people along the road below. Fearing Asha had been caught in this wave, Mala was inconsolable. Minutes later the screaming subsided and it was evident that another wave had not arrived. We proceeded to Malas house and she made some tea. An hour later Asha and Wasantha arrived home safe.

When Roy and the tuk tuk man returned we discussed the next stage of our journey. My priority was to get to a telephone and phone home. We were driven to the International Direct Dialling office just a short distance from Kaduraduwa and got through to my sister Joy. This was Tuesday 28 th and we now had a plan to get to Colombo the following day. Roy put a bed up for us and in flowers wrote welcome across the sheets.

Asha’s friend Wasantha said he could not drive us himself but would get someone else to drive the minibus to the British Embassy. We left early the following day and arrived at the British Embassy at 11.30 a.m.

We complete forms and the embassy rang the Galle Face Hotel so we could negotiate a room. Colombo was filling up very quickly. We had stayed at Galle Face before and this was in our favour. The end result was a very comfortable room which was greatly appreciated. Next day we went to SriLankan Airways and changed our flights to come home on the 2 nd January.

The events of this 9 day period of our lives will be with us for ever, and we have no doubt that the experience has made us better people. We are grieving for the friends we made in SriLanka that did not survive the wave. Throughout this 9 day period the SriLankan people looked after us in such a way that we could never repay. Kelvin and I feel that our presence in SriLanka at this difficult time was fate and we hope that in time, we can strive to repay some of the care and kindness shown to us in our time of need. For the people in SriLanka their loss is un-comprehendible.