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Sarah's email


Sarah

Sarah White (28) works for the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID). She writes about returning to Sri Lanka for a "holiday" after witnessing the Boxing Day Tsunami first hand.
Entry: 2
Date: 01/09/2005

This is the email that Sarah sent to her friends and family to ask them to send money to the victims of the tsunami.

Well, I shall never moan again about Boxing Day being dull in UK, watching old TV and eating left over turkey... this Boxing Day myself and four friends from Dhaka had an unbelievable escape from the Asian tidal surges. I find it surreal even typing now.

We were staying in a beachfront hotel in Unawatuna on the Southern coast of Sri Lanka when the wave hit. When we got out of our rooms we found the room below totally gone - included our two friends Anna and Roland. Cut a long story short - we climbed to the top of the building, watched terrified as the sea drained out a top speed and surged in again. We then climbed up the nearby mountain for safety, spent the night in one of the remaining hotels, survived off some pasta and pepsi bottles found... then decided the next day to walk 6km to the next town and found a hotel and transport to take us back to the capital, once the roads were clear and tonight we fly out to Bangkok.

This email is not about us as we have been so lucky to escape unharmed and alive. In fact its too surreal writing now to think we were really there in the tidal wave. We were on holiday with Roland Buerk whose BBC reports many of you will have heard - we were on the mountain with him as he did the reports down a mobile phone, so that gives you an idea what we went through.

No the e-mail is not about us, as we are totally fine, but about all the thousands who are not fine, to encourage you to give generously to organisations sending relief as it's badly needed. They are saying 13,000 may have been killed in Sri Lanka alone. So please give generously to the Red Cross and others... and encourage your friends and family to do the same...

I am sure you don't need convincing but if you do, that's what this email is for...

The three waves that struck firstly drowned thousands of people, of all nationalities, and particularly babies who couldn't get away. The waves were so powerful that they decimated the villages and towns - completely going through buildings, taking down walls and stripping out all furniture and fittings so that the water was a terrifying torrent of mud, water, trees, foilage and furniture - fridges, sinks, chairs, toilets, wire, fences, tables, cars, tuk tuks, concrete walls all washed past at such speed that they must have hit so many people on the head and killed them too. Others got trapped in rooms as the water rose instantly - we heard incredible stories of people who had kicked the tiles out of the roof to escape.

Many of those that weren't killed, were injured terribly. All the villages, including where we were, were completely cut off from the outside - in the 36 hours we shelted in the village, no help came until the late afternoon of the second day when army helicopters arrived to take out the most seriously injured - but only 5 at a time and the hospitals must be overloaded. Luckily a few doctors were around and everyone shared the meagre medicines we had - TCP, painkillers, bandages.

The wave of course wiped out most of the food and safe water... the streets soon a dangerous disease breeding ground - piles of twisted debris, cars, buildings, mud, foliage and bodies. They are still waiting for new supplies. There is no electricity and little shelter and its started raining again. Of course we foreigners are the lucky ones. While many have lost everything, we have insurance, we have funds elsewhere, we have embassies to help us. The locals have nothing. They've lost their families, their businesses, their income, their homes, their health, so much.

Then there is the continuing fear - after the first waves hit at 9:30am, we were told another wave would hit at 4pm and everyone stayed up the mountain. Then were heard another would hit at 9pm, then the next day. Fortunately they never came but the rumours have drained everyone from fear of what might happen. The lack of information is so terrifying and so dangerous.

When we decided yesterday to walk to the next main town with a few possessions, terrified that the waves would come again over the coast road we were on, then we saw even more the carnage and destruction the waves have caused and the suffering that needs urgent attention.

We left a town still finding bodies, still burying people, still waiting for helicopters. As we walked we encountered destroyed and mangled houses everywhere - it was like an atom bomb had hit the place and flattened everything and everyone. Cars and buses are on their sides. Trees down. Houses without roofs. The most terrifying sight I will never forget are the houses with bars on their windows completely stuffed full of debris - clothes, curtains, furniture, plants, mud, metal - where the force of the tide that pulled the water out, pulled everything and everyone with it. There were smouldering ash piles on the road - we assume the remains of funeral pyres, many with the victim's shoes still on the top. There were twisted dolls. Shoes everywhere, but no owners. Bloated bodies being found still, everyday, spat out by the sea. The debris is roting, the water filthy, outbreaks of diarrohea, cholera and typhoid must be a huge risk. Add in the rabid and angry dogs, the snakes and the mosquitoes.

The road was completely broken in places, bridges missing, forcing us in land often to make our journey... every new turn revealed more destruction and more heartache - people are totally in shock at what has happened.The railway line has been completely twisted up and off the sleepers in some places.

I could go on. I still cannot believe myself what I have witnessed. I still don't know why I have been spared but I hope the least I can do is emphasise to you all how devastating this has been for the people of Asia and encourage you to give generously to the people. Remember that there are not safety nets and efficient and effective emergency services and welfare states like most of us take for granted. The people desperately need help, now.

Please don't worry about me, I am totally fine, not even a scratch, it's a complete miracle - I just may not want to go to a beach for a long time and will certainly not watch any disaster movies in a hurry!

Please pass this on to encourage others to give and help the people of Asia. And for the people of East Africa for that matter, as the wave got that far! It's going to take years to recover from this.

LOL Sarah xxx


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