Chennai: It has been 10 years since the tsunami made its devastating strike in the state.
The killer waves, which left thousands dead and missing and hundreds bruised and battered on December 26, 2004, continue to raise a volley of emotions from people even now. DC readers, government officials and doctors shared their experiences with us and said how they learnt the biggest lessons in life from Boxing Day tsunami tragedy.
Marina beach looked like a battlefield
I still remember the sessions on fluid mechanics in my third semester during college. My instructor stressed on concepts like pressure and velocity. My classmates and I were busy taking notes but didn't quite understand the concepts. It was only on 26 December 2004 when I witnessed the tsunami that I came to understand them.
A day after Christmas, my friend Ravi and I ventured to the Marina shore early in the morning to catch a glimpse of the rising sun. The pristine beach waters lured us and we took a plunge near the shore. There were many people who were busy with their usual routine like cycling, meditation, laughter therapy and many were playing on the sand. There were no signs of the dreadful disaster which was planning to hit the shores a short while later. Ravi and I swam across a few nautical miles and returned to the shore. When we reached the shore, we sat for a while and chatted. My eye kept straying to Ravi's T-shirt, which read "I am immortal". After some time we started walking towards the University of Madras.
Suddenly, I saw Ravi moving away from me and his voice becoming faint. I turned towards him and was trying hard to understand what he was saying. I took a few steps and turned back again to tell him to walk alongside. But this time I could barely see him. The scene behind me was horrible. There were many people running towards me. I lost balance and fell. A man behind me gestured to me to run fast, trying to explain to me that there was peril on the anvil.
In a few seconds, the sea waves roared and gushed towards me. I lost control once again, but regained energy and reached the pavement near Anna crematorium. I was very tired and drenched by the muddy waters. Many people were standing in groups and looking helplessly at the people stuck in the muddy waters and crying for help.
I asked a man next to me what was happening. He said that a big whale had been spotted on the shore. I sat down for a few minutes, staring ahead when I heard the sea waves roaring and turning rough. What I saw this time left me panic -stricken. I saw people who were trying to make their way to the memorial site being flung away. Many trees were uprooted and washed away. A car which was parked near the memorial site toppled several times before it smashed into pieces. I saw many dead bodies washed ashore near the memorial site. I heard people crying out loudly and beating their foreheads. I saw many women rolling on the floor to express their grief.
The beautiful Marina had lost its charm with dead bodies scattered everywhere. It looked like a battlefield.
At a stone's throw I saw dead bodies piled up. I ran to the spot in search of Ravi. Dead bodies were being thrown near my feet by the rescuers. I saw a dead body behind me in a T-shirt that read "I am immortal". I was stunned. It was he, my friend Ravi, who was lying there breathless with his eyes wide open. The color of his skin was lackluster and grey and his whole body was soaked in mud. There were flies buzzing around his body. A policeman informed me that he was dead and told me how they had picked his body out from the mud. I cried.
Today, even though he has left this world, his thoughts still linger around me, making his presence "immortal". -- P. Daniel John
I thought I would die
I had taken a day off and was holidaying with my family and a batchmate in Mahabalipuram that Sunday. I was giving my daughters breakfast and my wife had gone for a walk when I got the first call on my mobile. Some fishermen were calling me to say that waves were entering their village. I thought that it must be sea erosion and asked them to move away. Within minutes I got another call and the fisherman said that he was calling me from the top of a rock. I was puzzled and mentioned the call to my friend when the waiter serving us drew our attention to the sea. The waves looked like they were heading straight for us. In a flash, they were just 25 meters away. I grabbed my two-year-old daughter, someone picked up my elder girl and we tried to get to the first floor of the TTDC cottage. My friend's children were older and managed to run behind their father to safety. I was carrying my daughter and following when I heard the waves smash into the cottage. Before I knew it, water engulfed us. The water rose till my waist and then till my chest. At that moment, for the first time I thought I would die. I kept thinking that I should not topple, else my daughter would fall into the swirling waters. I managed to get both my daughters safely on a bund near the swimming pool and then frantically looked for my wife. Luckily, she had climbed up on a building nearby and was safe.
The thought of dying went away but I knew that the waves would have caused havoc everywhere. I immediately got into my car and headed back to Cuddalore, avoiding the East Coast Road and using the Tindivanam route instead. On hindsight, the two hour jeep journey helped me coordinate several things. I reached Cuddalore, dropped my wife and children at home and literally hit the ground running. I could empathise more with what I heard and saw because I had just survived the impact of the tsunami waves myself. -- Gagandeep Singh Bedi (Former collector of Cuddalore, at present secretary rural development and panchayat raj)
Providential escape
Though I was not on the terrible scene of the devastating tsunami 10 years ago, I cannot forget how my students and I happened to luckily escape from it. We had arranged a tour to Kanyakumari and other tourist spots. We had planned to start on the evening of December 25 so as to reach Kanyakumari the next day. Including the final year B.Sc. and Physics students, there were about 40 boys and girls who were going to board a luxury bus.
A sudden phone call from my friend alerted me. Had I got written permission from the Director of Collegiate Education to undertake the outing? He warned me that in the absence of such a permission I would be taken to task, including stoppage of pension if any untoward incident was to occur. So I had to put off the tour. But the students told me that they would themselves take up the outing with their parents' permission and with a few parents accompanying them.
I made a change in the programme and decided that we would visit Trichy first, then Madurai and Kanyakumari in the last leg. The students and driver agreed to go by the new schedule. The very next day, we were all shocked to learn about the fury of the tsunami that battered Kanyakumari and other coastal areas. The students called me to say that they were skipping all the coastal places and returning safely. Even now it is a nightmare to recall our providential escape. -- Kallal.ML.Raghavan, Medavakkam
People discriminated
It was chaotic. Doctors from the IDPD had set up health camps and we had to tackle multiple issues. It was heart-breaking to see that people were being discriminated against, based on their caste. They were not allowed into the camps. We had to construct separate camps for them, and most importantly, we had to prevent epidemic outbreaks and administer shots to as many people as possible. -- Dr G. R. Ravindranath, general secretary, Indian Doctors for Peace and Development
It was overwhelming
A team of doctors carried clothes, utensils and other supplies and we were surprised when a team from Gujarat turned up with a lorry full of inner wear and other essential clothing. They had suffered the Bhuj earthquake and wanted to reach out to those affected by the tsunami. On the other hand, we had people stealing from corpses, even cutting off body parts to steal their jewellery. There was also a bunch of medical students who stepped in to help farmers who had lost their crops. -- Dr A.R. Shanthi
Sea was entering city
I was shopping when I got the news. That day the clouds were different. It was Pournami day too. I was shopping in the morning when I suddenly got the news that sea water was entering the city (in Mylapore, Santhome and coastal areas). This was also shown on television. Everyone wondered what it was about. The waves in the sea were high. Walkers on the Marina beach and fishermen were running here and there without knowing what was going on. In the evening I realised that a number of people had died in these waves. That day should not recur. We all pray for this and we also pray for those affected and those who died in the tragedy. -- Shankar.V, Mudichur
Everyone was exhausted
I was the collector in Thanjavur district in December 2004. It was 6.30 am and I was on the tennis court when the naval outpost in Patthukotai reported an earthquake. Then I heard that there was water ingress in Seergadi. Then I got a call asking me to go to Nagapatinnam. When we were driving into Nagapatinnam, people were streaming out of the town. In July that year, I had handled the Kumbakonam school tragedy and the first thing people asked me, including officials from Chennai, was whether it was like Kumbakonam. I kept telling everyone that it was nothing like Kumbakonam. Only by day three did the scale of devastation sink in. The hospitals where one would normally take the injured were flooded, the doctors and nurses themselves stranded.
Government officials on ground had also lost loved ones but never got a chance to mourn their dead. When the food arrangements were made, we realized that all the officials from the district had also not eaten since the waves hit the coast. Nearly 48 hours of non-stop relief and rescue work had left everyone exhausted. -- Dr J Radhakrishnan (An officer on special duty during the tsunami, at present health secretary)
