| TranceLuver4evr |
The story was very detailed and touching, copied from an email. It was sent a day or two after the 26th
Gave me the feeling/picture of the place while I was reading it :nervous:
> 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 had just 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 assisance. 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.
>
> Thanks again to all those who have reached me somehow. |
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