email from Sri Lanka

[mstar1]

This was forwarded to me from a friend whose daughter was vacationing in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit--

quote:

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This will put your life in perspective! Give $$$ to the Red Cross!!!

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.

Cov

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[Cindy!]

oops! 'swhat I get for bein inna hurry n not checkin it out...thanks, Hap! (now you better edit your post so folks won't be wonderin boutcha!!!)

Either way...a tragedy...they have our prayers and support.

Red Cross Tsunami relief page

Edited January 11, 2005 by Cindy!

[herbiejuan]

My prayers are with whose families that have lost loved ones, I wish I was finished iwth my degree because I'd be over there in a heartbeat to help.

For now I pray and hope for the best for them, knowing they need far more than my simple prayers can offer

[HAPe4me]

Sorry Cindy! (perhaps you could delete this pic?) edited - Thank you Cindy!

~HAP

Edited January 12, 2005 by HAPe4me

[HAPe4me]

Now then, back to MStar's post- thanks for the story , it was moving.

~HAP

[excathedra]

a boy in my son's 5th grade class still hasn't come back and the school has no word. his family was visiting relatives. if you pray, could you please think of them ?

his name is ragab (not sure of sp.)

[TheSongRemainsTheSame]

ya know the earth is still stretching from that rescent event &, from what i have read its axis is a little off balance~~~

[Shellon]

praying for ragab and his family.

and your son and his class, who wait and wonder.