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Its taken me some time to get round to writing this email. I hope that you will understand why when you've read it. As well as letting you know that we are all OK, I hope that it will give you a more personal insight into what happened in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day.
As most of you are aware Jessica had been working in an orphanage in Colombo in Sri Lanka since the beginning of December. Jessica had arranged her gap year on her own with some help from a close friend of ours , Patsy Willmott, who has been teaching in Colombo for the last year and a half.
We decided that the rest of the family, Linda Annika Natasha and myself, would like to spend Christmas and New Year with Jessica, however up until mid December I could not get the the time off work. At the last minute my work allowed me to take 2 weeks hols so we hurridly arranged our holiday. Patsy had kindly allowed us to use her flat while she was herself on holiday in India. So after a couple of days in hectic Colombo the 5 of us travelled down to the south coast to a little village called Unawatuna 5km from Galle, where we had booked 2 rooms in a guest house called Sea View from 22-27th December.
Unawatuna is regularly included in the top 10 beaches in the world, and it was like paradise. Our rooms were only 30 yards from the sea across a track to the restaurant where we had breakfast right on the beach.
On Boxing Day Linda and I had planned to go to Galle early to have look around, and leave the girls on the beach. In true Phillips style we slept in after a late christmas night in the beach bars. We were just getting up at about 0930 and heard this roaring noise, rather like a tipper lorry unloading gravel, and people shouting. Looking out from our first floor balcony the was a couple of inches of water in the garden of the house and people were running away from the sea. The wave did not "break" as you might expect but rose like a wall of water up to a depth of 15 foot with a minute or two in front of our eyes. As we were on the first floor this meant that the water came into our rooms but only a few inches deep. The strength of the current was unbelievable, washing away people furniture cars and buildings. It was very frightening, the 5 of us stayed together (the only people still in our rooms at that time), we were looking for a way up onto the roof, helping people out of the water and trying to work out if the building was going to collapse all at the same time.
It seemed like an hour or more but I think that within 10 minutes the water started to rush back out to sea. People who were hanging on to trees were even more frightened as floating debris kept knocking into them for a second time. As the water receded the scale of the damage became evident. Nearly all of the beach front buildings were completely destroyed and of those just inland, like ours, about half were destroyed.
By this time we had helped 7 people onto the balcony (2 injured Frenchmen from our restaurant, a naked german family who had been trapped in the room below us and an hysterical local mother and son who couldnt find her other child) I was concerned about the building collapsing so as soon as the water had gone down to about 2 foot deep, we waded 50yards inland to another house where there were a number of other tourists who we were later to get to know really well. Here we had about half an hour to assess the situation whilst keeping an eye on the sea level. Wounds were dressed, those in severe shock were given acupuncture, and cold beer and cigarettes were found for the rest (including the recent and not so recent ex-smokers!!)
The owner of Seaview waded past, looking for the rest of his family (we later found out that one of the young waiters died), and advised us to move to higher ground in case there was another wave and to somewhere that was not built on sand. We all then moved about 500 yards inland to a guest house called Rock House. The walk was not easy,carrying small children along what was left of a road strewn with debris, collapsed buildings, electricity pylons, mud and 2-3 feet of water. Although the devastation went further inland than Rock House it was built on the side of a hill (on rock) some 20-30feet above the level of the first wave. There was great fear that there would be another wave and at the slightest noise from the sea people would rush further up the hillside. A second wave did occur about half an hour after we had arrived at Rock House to almost the same height as the first.
We stayed at Rock House for 3 days with no running water, electricity or phone, sleeping outside on 2 mattresses that I had retrieved from Seaview when I went back in the afternoon looking for bottled water etc. There were 120 or so tourists and locals at Rock House many of whom many were injured and a few had lost loved ones. There was a small number of individuals who did so much to organise and help others. I wont mention them by name but I will never forget them. My daughters were amazing throughout this ordeal and spent much of the 3 days looking after the smaller children, Lindas language and tlc skills were much in demand. In addition to lighting fires to cook on, carrying the injured to the helicopters I also learnt how to dress wounds. The locals were amazing , having lost all of what little they had, they did so much for us providing hot food and tea for all of us for 3 days. The first night was difficult, there was a constant fear of another bigger wave, and even the monkeys, iguanas and fruit bats that we saw did not seem that much of a problem. We were finally able to get one or two text messages out at about 2 or 3 oclock in the morning when the mobile phone network got a little less busy.
Day2: there was a small clearing in the village and Sri Lankan Airforce helicopters were landing to take the injured to hospital, but they would not wait (fuel shortages) and we did not know when the next one would arrive. So it was very haphazard , but we did manage to get the most severely injured out. We became very close to a dutch family who had also stayed at Seaview and were having breakfast at the time the wave hit. Both parents were badly injured, 2 of their 3 young sons had only minor scratches but they had lost their youngest 18month old son, . I carried the babys body with the father to a helicopter and argued with the Sri Lankan airforce for 10 minutes before they would allow the father and body on board. Going back to Rock House to tell the mother that they had been flown out was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. The mother and 2 sons left later that day and we have heard since that they are now reunited.
Towards the end of day a bulldozer started to clear the local roads but we had heard that all the bridges on the main coastal road back to Colombo were down. At about 2 oclock in the morning the British High Commission arrived to take details of all present and our shopping lists (medical supplies and bottled water). They advised that we stay until transport, they would arrange, arrived.
Day3: A number of the small children had D&V but by the end of the morning all the injured and small children had been helicoptered out, quite a few of the adults left under their own steam but lots of other people started to arrive from up in the hills. Late afternoon we were asked if we wanted to leave, I had very mixed feelings and would have stayed to help if I had been on my own. We were driven (via a circuitous route ) to a military airstrip about 20 km away, with about 15 other people and got on an Indian Airforce helicopter to Colombo. After a quick visit to the British High Commission to confirm that we were OK, we went to Patsys flat and wallowed in the luxury of a shower and a bed indoors. We heard later that the rest of those at Rock House left later that evening by bus. The girls had given away a lot of their clothes to people who had none, and they had to leave most of the rest because of the weight restrictions on the helicopter.
Jessica decided that she wanted to come home with us and we managed to get her on the same flight as we had been scheduled to return on on 1st Jan (and Im sure she really enjoyed flying business class!).
So weve been back at work ,school college etc for a week now and it seems very mundane when you consider what the Sri Lankans are having to cope with. One of my overriding memories will be their willingness to support us when they had nothing. This was the first time that I had been to Sri Lanka but I will be going back. Patsy has emailed us to say that she has commandeered her school bus and is taking supplies down to the south every weekend with other teachers. If you want to contribute directly then contact Patsy at patsywill@cis.lk
This has been a life changing experience for all of us, only time will tell how.We all know how lucky we were to survive.
Registered Charity number: 1107804
If you would like to help now, please donate direct to:
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Thanks to....