Unawatuna Beach

 Tsunami warning day

I can’t remember what day it was in April but it was either a weekend or a holiday because we were down south. I remember I was on the computer probably checking emails when Ajith phoned and asked if I had heard that there had been another earthquake in Indonesia. I had not but immediately got the BBC News both on the tv and the net to find out what was happening. 

Having been here throughout the 2004 tsunami the minute there is even a hint of one, things that had been important become completely insignificant and your brain goes into tsunami mode. Fear comes rushing back. Nothing on the BBC news but the website is reporting breaking news on the earthquake and a tsunami warning in place across the region.  The brain is working overtime. I go and find Madu (Chaminda’s wife) who calls Chaminda who already knows. Is there anyone I know on the beach? Don’t think so. Is there water in the house, candles, food, petrol in the car? If not, it’s tough, as Chaminda reports the shops at the bottom of the road have already shut and people are moving to high ground.  Quick email to family outside the country to tell them what’s happening.  

“Surely mum can’t be in two tsunamis!” I think.  She was here for the first one. She had come over for a Xmas holiday, caught dengue in Colombo and been hospitalized and on a drip for 5 days. Then she got out of hospital and we came down south to my new house in my new car (which would be swept away into the back of someone’s house)  to recuperate.  That was the 22^nd December 2004.  We were only there a day and the tsunami struck. No warning. Nobody had even heard of the word ‘tsunami’ but it’s not one that anyone would be likely to ever forget.  I thought, “This can’t happen twice to her! Lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice.” Actually it does. And it did in my house in Colombo so I don’t have much faith in that saying anymore.

I kept the BBC News on the tv. Now news was coming in of the tsunami warning in place, experts were recounting the chances of an actual tsunami (less because it was horizontal not vertical or some such thing) and when we would know. My mum was sitting on the couch throughout this. I wondered about moving her but she didn’t seem to be taking it in. Maybe she had blocked out tsunamis long ago.  Duncan texted to say he had been in Galle and police had come and told everyone to get out of the supermarket and go to higher ground. I got a text from two friends and colleagues, Anna and Jackie, to say they were on the beach and could they come up to my house (it’s on a hill and had been safe the first time) and wait it out.  They arrived in about ten minutes. The beach had cleared. Everyone had gone to higher ground.

 Then the tsunami warning went off followed by loudspeaker announcements from the temple  – it was all a bit late but it was good to know that it worked as to the best of anyone’s knowledge in the village it never had been tested since it had been installed just off the main road.  Then the phone started to jam. Texts could get through but no calls. Emails still coming – one from the British High Commission to say what we all knew.  Email from the BHC warden to say the same thing. My good friend Psyche stationed in the east of the island in Trincomalee called to check I was alright. She had just finished checking on all her staff in Trinco and Jaffna.

By now it was getting late. 6.30 it would be dark.  I decided to cook some dinner while it was still light just in case the electricity went out if the tsunami struck.   Chatting to Anna and Jackie, I found out what had happened on the beach. They had been lying on sunbeds when they felt them kind of tipping up. The tremors from the earthquake had been felt on the coast (not at my house I hasten to add) and also in Colombo where people at work had felt the building move and some high rise buildings were evacuated just in case. 

There was nothing more we could do except keep the BBC on the tv and the website on.  By this time they were reporting that no signs of a tsunami had been witnessed. We decided to have dinner on the porch before it got too dark. While we were eating the tsunami warning was lifted. Relief all round. Though being pessimists and not particularly trusting experts, we all decided we would wait a while before leaving the house just in case. So we had a game of cards – mum was delighted despite claiming she hadn’t played cards in years. Playing rummy with 4 not 2 is such a pleasure and does add a bit of a challenge to the event! Then Duncan popped in for a drink and the cards were stopped. We caught up with Duncan who had also been in the first tsunami while on holiday here from Vietnam.  Now working in Bangkok, he had just popped over here for a short holiday.

Usually I feel it’s a pity my mum is a bit out of it and doesn’t really get half of what is going on around her most of the time. This time her complete obliviousness to the whole tsunami warning (despite being perched in front of the BBC most of the time) was a blessing.  She was in a good mood and quite happy that her day had been punctuated with visits from different people and an extra game of cards!