December 28th, 2004. News from Colombo after Tsunami

On Tuesday night at 10pm the Embassy called asking us to house a young man who had just arrived from the beaches. They sent him right over and Matthew O’Connell from St. Louis via India has been staying with us. He arrived exhausted and shaking, with stitches in his head from the hospital in Galle. We gave him a shower, clothes, and put him straight to bed. The next morning he awoke much refreshed to tell us his story. He had arrived Christmas Day, planning to meet a friend later that week on the beach. He traveled 2 hours south to a small beach town and got a bungalow on the beach. In the morning he and a roommate awoke to see water on the floor of their bungalow, so they stepped outside. All the locals and tourists were walking down to the beach, where the water had receded so far out they could pick up octopi and lobster from the ocean floor. He had an octopus in his hand when people behind him started running – he saw the water coming, but it didn’t look to severe so he quickly went to his room to get his valuables, and started to close the door behind him when the water hit. He was under water for about 30 seconds and when he came up for air he was outside – the bungalow had collapsed around him, and everyone was being carried by the wave. He held onto a tree and was able to ride it out.

Matthew, a survivor.
Yesterday I took him to the American Embassy for a medical checkup and to obtain a new passport. The scene at the embassy was terrible. Acouple were in an office hysterical, their 5 year old had died, and now they could not locate the body. The embassy was calling all the hospital morgues. Their personal home was in Phuket, they were on holiday in Sri Lanka. The sight of their grief and loss brought me to tears. In the waiting room for the nurse were 2 Swedes and British woman who had been on the East Coast in a well-known surfer spot called Arugam Bay, typically packed with Australians and others during the holidays. Their story was one of gigantic waves, bigger than the West Coast. The first and smaller wave came and it was 12 meters high. The Swedish woman climbed a palm tree, and when the water receded, she said it went out till she could no longer see the ocean at all – it was gone. She knew that this was trouble, and there would be another wave within 10 minutes. She climbed down and ran screaming for her boyfriend. She found him and they just had time to climb a tree when the second huge wave it, taking away all the hotels and bungalows on the beach below them. They stayed in the tree for 2 hours and watched several more huge waves come in. She said there were about 50 tourists who survived. Their American friend was in his room with his buddy when the water came. They held onto their mattress and each other. After the second wave his buddy thought the worst was over, loosened his grip, and was immediately swept away by the next one. He fears his friend is dead. All bridges and roads were washed away, and these 40 or 50 people were choppered out 8 at a time further up the east coast. They had a severely injured man with them so could not take a bus to Colombo. Someone they knew in the city sent their SUV out to find them, eventually the driver picked them up and drove them to Colombo in 15 hours.

These are just a few of the stories, there are so many more. So many people were separated from their spouses and children, they are emotionally devastated. It was impossible to hold one to one another with the force of the waves. Several had stories of people who had surgery in hospitals, and the wounds becoming infected.

Still we have heard virtually nothing about the North and East Coasts of Sri Lanka which are controlled by the Tamil Tigers, except a story that land mines are now floating out to sea. There will be many more casualties in the next few days.

All the tourists I met commented on how the Sri Lankan people took care of them, helping them find their belongings and friends, giving them money and food, and transporting them to hospitals and the embassy after having lost everything themselves. All of them were so grateful to be taken in at the American Embassy, given shoes and clothing and food, and international calls to their families regardless of their citizenship. The Embassy has truly been a port in the storm for them, working with half the personnel they usually have as many go home on annual leave at Christmas. People are slowly trickling in from the South and East, arriving at all hours of the day and night.

Thank you all for your well wishes and donations, I will continue to write more as I have time.

Emily Castelli