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A message from Diana and Kevin to you all
We have appreciated receiving so many e-mails and telephone messages from family, friends and others concerned about our welfare. The short message is that we are both safe and physically unharmed, and are now at home. It is already clear to us that this has been a life changing experience, which has been so much easier for us so far because of the work that we do. We also want to give you a brief account of our experiences, as this is helpful to us right now and may be helpful for you. It is also clear to us that not knowing was difficult for many of you.
If you don’t already know, we were spending Christmas at Unawatuna near Galle, on the coast of Sri Lanka, about 75 miles south of Colombo. We were staying in Amma’s House, a small guest house immediately across a small road that runs along the beach. We were on our first floor balcony at about 9.30 am on Boxing Day and the first inkling we had of something unusual was a loud and increasing roaring from the sea. We actually saw the wave as it surged over the beach and the road and the garden of the guest house. It wasn’t a giant wave as you might imagine a tsunami, it was more as though the level of the sea was rising and surge after surge of water came towards us. Ultimately the level of the water rose about 6.5 metres before beginning to recede. This meant that the water came up to our knees as we stood in the corner of the balcony, which appeared to be the safest place. It was extremely frightening, but fortunately the house was built solidly of reinforced concrete, and that probably saved our lives. We realised that we could have been in any one of a dozen other places at that moment where our chance of survival would have been very slight. The name of the owner of the guest house is LUCKY!
We watched most other buildings around us collapse. People and debris swirled around in the water which surged inland through everything in its path. Three fishing boats which were parked on the beach were also swept inland and apart from a few small hotels also built of concrete, the remaining 25 or so restaurants and guest houses along the mile long stretch of Unawatuna Beach were completely destroyed. It took about 5 or 10 minutes for the water to recede to about waist level in the garden, at which point the owner and other people who had been downstairs were rescuing those in the water, some of whom had been on the beach or trapped in rooms and were injured or struggling to avoid being swept out to sea in the very powerful backwash as the water receded. We got as many people on the balcony as possible.
Of course at that point we did not know what had happened though Kevin thought it was probably an earthquake or volcanic eruption so we at least had some ideas to explain what was happening. For the next hour or so we were busy making the most traumatised as comfortable as possible and were trying to work out what might happen next, as it seemed likely that there would be another wave (this actually came about two and a half hours after the first wave). In addition to helping to rescue his guests, Lucky was saving members of his family who could not swim, and who lived in two bungalows in the grounds. Both bungalows had been completely demolished. Later we learned that two members of his family had died, and he has other family further south whose fate is uncertain.
About an hour and a half after the first wave we followed Lucky’s advice to make for some high ground and that gave us enough time to rescue the essentials from our room. We and others made our way about 300 metres inland, along a debris strewn road sometimes up to our knees in muddy water and at one point having to go into a field to bypass a particularly wreckage strewn stretch of the jungle road. We began to get some sense of the extent of destruction in the area.
We arrived at the Rock House, a small guest house complex about 10 metres above sea level where people were gathering. We climbed the rocky hillside above the house and stayed there until sunset when it seemed that it was safe to return to the guest house. Others chose to go on towards still higher ground in the jungle where many were given accommodation by local people.
By dusk there were about 70 or 80 tourists in addition to some local people and the owners who were already beginning to organise food and candles and bringing out their spare bedding and other supplies. We ended up on a large balcony of an apartment in a group of 8 English and 9 Swedish people and were able to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
We spent the next 3 days there, taking part in the organisation necessary to take care of the many people who arrived subsequently, some of whom were seriously injured. Some of our party also helped the locals to start to bury some of the dead. We estimate that between 200 and 500 people from the village had been killed in addition to 15 – 20 tourists. Many locals had lost the whole of their family.
On day 2, a Dutch man who lived locally organised and paid for a bulldozer to clear the road out of the village to the main road. About 20 of the seriously injured were either evacuated by helicopter, or taken directly to hospital in small vehicles which could now get through to Galle. We were fortunate that there were two doctors in our group who could give emergency care. We pooled all our medical and other resources, and the next day a medical team from the Sri Lankan army was able to bring some more medical supplies.
By day 3 some people with mobile phones were able to start making calls and a number of people were able to leave as more help arrived from various countries. Someone, I don’t know who, was able to arrange for 2 buses to wait at the main road. We were the last to leave, at dusk, walking the mile through the village to the main road. The buses took about 80 of us to the British High Commission in Colombo. Because the main road was impassable in places we had to make many diversions inland and finally arrived there about midnight on Tuesday.
After processing (!) we were eventually taken to a large Conference Centre which was being used as emergency accommodation. Again we slept on mattresses on the floor, along with several hundred people in addition to our party, but at least we had toilet and washing facilities and on Wednesday morning we were given breakfast.
Afterwards, Kevin went to the airline office and was able to arrange a flight for the following day. Again we were lucky, we had all our documents – others had nothing and it was taking a great deal of time and effort for them to arrange flights etc. Almost every hotel in Colombo was full, but miraculously we found 3 rooms for our balcony mates to stay together. Throughout this time it was so helpful for us to be with others and talk and be of support and comfort to each other. At this point it became possible for us to make phone calls as the local mobile phone company made a dozen phones available freely. The relief came for us once we knew that our immediate families knew we were safe and well.
On the first day we had given all our spare clothing and shoes to others, some of whom were literally naked and had lost everything except their lives. We had also given away anything of use to the Sri Lankans and what money we had to those who had saved, fed and housed us. Once we were certain of our return flight we had time to buy a clean change of clothing, a small suitcase and some other luxuries such as deodorant! It seemed unreal to be in a Colombo shopping mall where life continued, apparently untouched by the disaster. That day we were able to watch some TV reports that gave us a wider picture of what was happening throughout the region, though it was clear to us that there were many more deaths than were being reported.
Our journey home was uneventful and we arrived in Manchester at 6.00 pm on Thursday, collected our car and finally arrived home at about 9.00 pm.
It is now 6.00am on Friday morning and we want to let as many of you know what happened as soon as we possibly can. We know these facts are only the beginning of this story. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who you think may want to know. Our mailing list is not complete and Kevin’s computer crashed 2 days before we left.
Throughout all this the Sri Lankans have been amazing. They had so little, they lost most of what they had, and they shared unstintingly what they had left. Their future is full of uncertainty, grief and loss. The world’s attention will inevitably move away from this tragedy in the coming months, but tourism was the mainstay of the local economy, and that cannot be expected to recover for a long time.
We have talked with many others who shared this experience and they too want to ensure that the village of Unawatuna can be helped in the longer term. We will liaise with them and the locals about the most effective way to help. We think it will be important that someone returns to Unawatuna as soon as sensible, probably with as much cash as we can possibly raise to give to this community. This was our fifth Christmas there. We have received so much from them, and we want to repay them in whatever way meets their needs, in addition to the International response for the country as a whole.
We are sorry it was so hard for many of you to get any information for some time, and grateful to all of you who have e-mailed, telephoned, prayed or meditated, and passed on what little information got through. We need to be at home now, and Diana’s sons and family will be with us this weekend. We hope to have Kevin’s daughters visit some time next week. If you want to come and see us please call as we would welcome that. We both know that being with others is important. If you want to just say hello please do that too, by phone or e-mail.
It is wonderful to be alive and able to write this, and know that we are loved and important.
With love
Diana and Kevin xxxxxxx
Registered Charity number: 1107804
If you would like to help now, please donate direct to:
HSBC Lewes High StOr send cheques made payable to "Friends Of Unawatuna", c/o Jon Walter, 7 Southover High St, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1HS
Please make use of Gift Aid. Click here for more details
Thanks to....