Human tragedy after the tidal wave

By Damitha Hemachandra
Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Death hangs heavily on the besieged villages and towns down South with more than five thousand people from down South being reportedly killed by the killer tidal waves, the worst to hit the country ever.
Many people, who were left destitute after their homes were washed away by the waves, are for now too consumed by the loss of their family members even to gauge or grieve the material losses.
A man from Paramulla sits motionless at the entrance to the Matara General Hospital at two 'o' clock in the morning, where 350 ghastly looking dead bodies, mirroring their sufferings, were scattered around the hospital premises. He was away from home having gone to attend a funeral, that was when the gigantic wave hit his home killing his family.
"When I left in the morning my house, my kids and every thing was in place", he said adding that when he returned from Deniyaya his house and his kids were gone.
His little sons had been still asleep when the wave hit his house and the mosquito net was still entangled around their bodies, while they lay dead on the hospital floor.
A foreigner limps around the hospital searching for his nine-year-old daughter, who he thought simply could not be dead. Despite the repeated requests from the hospital staff to look in the morgue, which housed nearly 20 dead bodies of foreigners he limped around in a tattered sarong until he finally found her body at the morgue.
According to the Spokesman for Matara General Hospital only 100 bodies had been claimed upto now. The other bodies would be cremated after being photographed, he said.
Many homeless from Paramulla and Thotamune were camping at Rahula Vidyalaya at Matara.
A man explained how his son couldn't escape the wave when it hit his house situated at the Matara Dutch Fort as he had his door locked.
"All of us escaped upstairs but my eldest son couldn't make it", he said adding that later they found the body trapped inside the room.
However his loss seemed trifling when another stated that he was letting the government perform the last rites of his family members since he was not capable of handling the funeral of four people with their house not there any more.
"My two daughters, mother and sister were washed away to the sea while I hung on to a king-coconut tree", he said failing to look anyone in the eye.
"We all panicked and none of us knew exactly what to do", he said apologetically as if regretting his escape.
The story is common to many individuals, who were housed at Rahula Vidyalaya.
"We lost everything we ever had", Leela, a another woman from Paramulla said pointing to a little boy at this temporary camp making merry with his friends not knowing that both his parents were lost forever.
Dead bodies were still appearing from the least expected places yesterday morning and despite the large number of sightseers who turned up by the dozen, Matara seemed a ghost town.
Buses were lying around the Sanath Jayasuriya grounds like toys in the exact positions the mighty waves had left them in, while most of the shops and buildings were ripped bare.
Layers of dirt and mud could be seen on fences and walls even as high as seven feet indicating the height the tidal waves would have risen to.
Rangana who swam his way to make a narrow escape from his house to the roof of the Matara Bus Stand was boasting of how they managed to rescue a class of students attending a tuition class. It now stands ripped in half.
" But we couldn't save the teacher," he added with grim irony.
Houses around the Matara Fort and many streets near the beach were destroyed beyond recognition. The infrastructure of the town is in bad shape with electricity, telephone and drinking water being inaccessible to many.
The pipe borne water system was damaged by the waves while the wells have been polluted by the saline water and the dirt. Many people who left their homes in search of safety returned on Monday morning to asses the damage. Some were busy cleaning their houses while some just stood in shock.
Many were collecting their important documents and treasured trifles from the rubble while some failed to find even a simple memento of their home.
Although the people in Matara were trying to pick up their lives the situation was too large for many in Galle to handle.
Truckloads of dead bodies kept reaching the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital which compelled the health authorities to take a tough decision on cremating 400 bodies left at the hospital.
"We have no choice and this decision was taken for the sake of maintaining hygiene within the hospital and the town," he said adding that most of the dead were strangers.
Yet more bodies kept turning up during the cleaning up process many being of those who were trapped inside homes.
Many people kept on turning up at Karapitiya Hospital hoping that they would at least find the bodies of their loved ones creating a large crowd around the hospital at all times of the day.
Chaos added to confusion by repeated fresh warnings of new waves. With the fear of an apocalyptic wave still fresh in their mind the crowds took to their heels whenever a warning was raised increasing the tension and traffic.
Traffic, which had grown larger than life, is the biggest challenge one has to contend with in the post-disaster era of the South. With the transportation facilities in the Southern Province yet to return to normal, many hit the road on foot or on cycles searching for their loved ones and thus creating chaos.
Parts of the Galle Road were impassable due to heavy damage like the huge pits in the middle of the road and most of the sections were covered with thick layers of mud. The railway track too was displaced by the waves while many vehicles, which were on the road at the time of the disaster were seen entangled with the railway tracks.
Many roads were closed to the public like the road from Matara to Hambanthota. The Yala National Park and the newly opened Lunugamwehera National Park too would be closed to the public for the next week.
The reconstruction process too was constantly disturbed by cyclists and large crowds on foot, who were either looking for their relatives and friends or just walking around as sightseers. The situation was such that one might even mistake it for Wesak. Many teenagers in their Sunday’s best could be seen roaming the city or staring at the river waiting for another body to show up.