Sri Lanka It's Happening

December 28, 2004

In the coastal towns everyone has a tale of a narrow escape. Some of them are humouros enough to make you forget the gloom. Take the case of one of my uncles who lives on a small hillock. He had (fortunately for him) been procrasting over heading to town when people had rushed past screaming about the waves. It had not been taken too seriously until two sailers were seen clutching precariously onto a heavily overcrowded bus fleeing from the waves!

Many people owe their lives to the fact that the first was descructive enough to known drown swimmer, knock down fences and parapet walls but not desctructive enough to kill many people who lived in houses close to the beach.

So when the second wave struck it was empty houses that had been levelled. People who were travelling were not so lucky some cars and busses had been swepth hundreds of meters away. Nearly everyone a southbound train had perished execpt for the lucky few who appear to have been thrown clear when the waves struck.