This is an excerpt from an email psted to ROTI mailing list by Rtn. Srinivasa Gopalan.
Dear All:
(This is long letter. May be it will take more than just a few minutes to read. I wanted to give this type of a report since the press and media did not highlight the services of many NGOs. In fact, some media have been a little unkindly in projecting more of the lapses.)
Just back from the visit to the coastal towns of Nagapattinam , Karaikal and surrounding villages affected by Tsunami. Natural calamities like Earthquake or floods, apart
from taking away many lives, leave a fairly large number of wounded survivors, leave debris which takes months to clear and generally cripple the normal life after the calamity for fairly long stretches of time. This is what we have observed in earlier calamities. Tsunami seems to be different-it just came, killed and created havoc and went back without leaving much
trails like other disasters but with a vengeance several fold more. Nagapattinam town, which is about 2 Km from the shore does not show signs of a disaster that occurred just one Km away towards the sea. And so was Karaikal whose thoroughfare Bharathiyar Road looked normal.
Just cross the Nagapattinam town and go near the shore to Akkaraipettai and you will see what nature has done in its fury.
The official death toll is put at around 12,000 but eyewitnesses say it will be much much more. How much more-no body can guess. Bodies are still being recovered- 7 days after the incident. An effort has started to trace the missing persons and may be in a few weeks, the near correct figure may be known.
One of the eyewitnesses Kannan has this to say:" We friends were sitting in the PWD office and we suddenly found something unusual. The sea was receding and became quiet. In fact, we got up on the compound wall to see what was happening. Within minutes we saw water
rising straight-it was spectacular to see a white sheet of water rise to 20 or more feet – looked as if a sheet of glass had emerged from the ground. Waves normally rise up but curve and come down-but not this wave (which we now refer to as Tsunami). This wave which was around 300 or so feet away from the shore moved very fast. We all ran, away from it. My friends
ran into a street opposite the building. I tried to start my motor cycle so I could get away faster but water had come so close I abandoned my motor cycle and rushed towards the back of the building-caught hold of a wire and a pipe and reached the terrace. By now water had swept the entire place-the roar was deafening and unimaginable.There I was, standing on
top of the building with water on all sides. The building suddenly started shaking as it would in an earthquake-no it was not an earthquake but a boat, weighing roughly 5 metric tonnes or more hitting the building. And in the next 4-5 minutes the water just went back taking away many of friends. Soon, I came down and ran for may be 2 or 3 kms. The friends with whom I was talking a few minutes back were not there any more." Kannan is still in a shock.
And we have another eyewitness who was roughed up the Tsunami - Rotarian Parameswaran, member of Rotary Club of Nagapattinam who lives very close to the sea. On the fateful day, he with his 2 daughters and one son and relatives who had come from outstation, was on
the beach. The wave came, carried all of them. Parameswaran survived but his children and relatives were lost.
Several NGOs and Corporates have landed at the disaster sites and relief work is in full swing.
Government has deputed several senior Administrative service officers (IAS) and teams have been formed to expedite relief work. Defence personnel are helping in a big way- in fact, a broken bridge connecting Nagapattinam and Karaikal was repaired in a record time.
The victims have been provided shelter at Marriage halls, temples, schools and colleges.
Food, clothing, medical care have been provided in time at many centers. Municipal workers from all over Tamilnadu have been brought in to search for bodies and clear the debris. As I write this on Tuesday, 6pm Indian Standard time, Army has started repairing the damaged boats in Nagapattinam and in fact some fishermen have ventured into the sea for fishing.
Rotary Club of Nagapattinam started a relief center on the 26th itself and Rotarians have been working round the clock, ever since. Food, medicines, blankets, groceries, gloves, syringes, masks, disinfectants and a host of other items have been sent by Rotarians from all over the country. In fact, teams of Rotarians from such far off places like Mumbai and Pune landed with
relief materials. International agencies like UNICEF, SALAVATION ARMY, RED CROSS, around 50 Indian NGOs from across the country, corporates like TATA, Sintex Industries Ltd.,
etc. had all reached Nagapattinam and other centers within one or two days to provide relief material. Matha Anathamayi Math, a social, educational and religious body, has started community kitchen to feed about 3500 persons with three meals a day. They have
also brought a medical team with doctors and Para medical staff and a fully equipped van, helping the Government doctors. As per yesterday’s news, this Math will be spending Rs. 100 Crores ( US $ 20 to 22 m) in rehabilitation work. Chinmaya Mission has landed with a team of volunteers and doctors. Hope Kolkata Foundation, Salvation Army and a few others are also running community kitchens. Several psychologists and students in this discipline have landed to provide counseling.
IBM and Anna University have started helping with software for coordination between government and NGOs, finding out missing persons from the data being collected, avoiding duplication of the relief work done by NGOs etc., At Nagapattinam collectorate, a meeting of NGOs with authorities is held every evening to study the situation and plan for the next move.
Relief work is nearly coming to a close and efforts to rehabilitate are on. Yesterday, about 15 NGOs formed a consortium to divide the rehabilitation work among them. One very important message has emerged from the recent calamity- empathy and concern for the suffering of
others especially in times of such calamities and distress. Another important feature to be noted is the attitude of youngsters in serving the needy-more than 100 IT professionals from leading IT companies landed in Nagapattinam and were seen helping in searching for the dead bodies and carrying them when found. Also doing scores of odd things required at the sites unmindful of the inconvenience and discomfort.
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