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| Sunday, 9 January 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Picking up the pieces by Ranga Jayasuriya and Jayantha Sri Nissanka The Southern coastal belt is rising from the rubble of the devastating tsunami. But resurrection is not easy work. As buses and cars travel on the busy coastal highway repaired within a week after the waves struck, soldiers retrieve more bodies buried in the mud near Seenigama.
Ravaging waves destroyed two bridges on the Colombo-Galle highway cutting off the South from Colombo. This made the rescue operations of the train victims virtually impossible. The Air Force had to airlift the soldiers to the place of the tragedy. The bridges located at Akurala and Seenigama have been repaired, re-linking the affected areas and easing relief operations. Hikkaduwa, the gem in the tourist industry in the South is doing its best to rise from the rubble. The town has been cleared of the debris and the once trendy restaurants now serve the guests with bare minimum facilities, utilising whatever furniture that escaped the wrath of the sea. But one restaurant owner complained that business has declined by eighty per cent as most of the tourists had left the country after the catastrophe.
K. W. Gamini, who runs a 250 seat restaurant in Hikkaduwa opened his trendy restaurant within a week of the tragedy. Hikkaduwa is rising to strike a balance between the devastation of the tsunami and its reputation as a sprawling destination. At night, the few tourists who chose to continue with their holiday can be seen sipping beer and chatting with friends in the illuminated restaurants with their ad-hoc settings among the rubbles of destruction of the tsunami, piled up here and there. Gamini says that his friend's restaurant 'Blue Fox' re-opened for business just two days after the devastation. Gamini fled his restaurant, when he saw "a massive brown colour wave" battering towards the land through the beach front of the restaurant. Soon after the sea settled, he returned to the restaurant but he could not see anything left, other than a two foot layer of sea sand on the floor. "All the furniture, cutlery, refrigerators, computers and documents had been washed away," he says. However, with the help of others, he collected some furniture and brought some of the furniture, flower pots, cutlery and refrigerator, from his residence to re-start the business. Even though most of the restaurants and tourist shops in the town are still closed, Gamini believes that many more restaurants will be opened in the weeks to come. But those, like Gamini, who have already begun operations, however, face other challenges. Apart from poor sales, they say most customers can no longer afford earlier prices and they cannot afford to reduce the prices as most of their resources have been swallowed by the sea. Despite death and destruction there is hope and optimism. Gamini expects things to turn better in a few months and more tourists to arrive, which will help this once sprawling tourist destination to resurrect from the recent horror and devastation. At Telwatta, a few Kilometers from Hikkaduwa, soldiers and airmen try to retrieve the carriages of the ill-fated train. Massive waves broke the carriages from their wheels and tossed them with the passengers within, like paper boxes. The operation is to retrieve the carriages and the engine and put them back on wheels and shunt the newly fixed train back to the nearest station. The rail track, however, has been pulled out and thrown aside by the mighty waves. Soldiers have repaired the rail track a few hundred meters and will continue with their work up to the nearest station, whether it be Hikkaduwa or Ambalangoda. Telwatta has been turned into a military garrison. Security Forces have been camped in the village since their arrival here, a day after the tragedy to retrieve bodies of over one thousand five hundred ill-fated passengers in the doomed train. Living through death and devastation, people whose loved ones and life-time earnings was swallowed up by the sea are gradually coming to terms with the destruction. Families and relatives are removing the debris for re-occupation of their battered houses, with bare minimum facilities. Southerners are used to calamities such as drought and floods, but for the first time they experienced a natural disaster like the Tsunami, which took away their loved ones and lifetime earnings. They were shocked for a few days but they are now trying to get back to their normal life and work without blaming nature. A few lanterns which burn in the sea at night, means a few fishing boats have begun operation. Fishermen pull huge multi-day boats tossed to the road and the coast by the ravaging waves, into lorries to be taken for repairs. In some corners, fishermen recover fishing nets from the rubble while some repair them to resume their livelihood. Through the horrors of the tsunami, Galle, the commercial hub of the South is ambitiously looking forward to the future. Its ability to come to terms with the haunting memories of the tsunami is extrodinary. One visiting Galle two weeks ago would have wondered whether this was an epic centre of the catastrophe. All the debris the collapsed roof of the bus stand, damaged vehicles and collapsed walls have been removed. People are waiting until their bus arrives. Buses arrive and leave the stand as usual carrying the daily load. The Cargills Food City, which is one of the attractions in the city is packed with people. Southerners who have the reputation for entrepreneurship in the country, clean their shops with the help of young men. One such businessman Ananda Paranagama who owned a building opposite the Galle bus stand was cleaning his building requested the Government to give a relief period for businessmen to resettle their loans. He notes that he is not worried about what happened though the loss to property cost him rupees four million. He is confident that he can recover his losses and his business, if the Government extends a helping hand by way of giving a grace period for businessmen to pay taxes and bank loans. Many businessmen in the area echo Paranagama's sentiment and say they are prepared to face any risk. But to overcome the present situation they request a grace period to pay taxes and loans but do not beg for any other assistance. ***** Looking to the future Many have lost life limb and property, but the amazing thing is that their in built strengths are coming back in full force.......... Most of them want to return to normal life with what little they have been left. Most people who lost their loved ones and belongings are in shock, unable to believe what happened. But, through death and devastation they are coming to terms with the tragedy. Most of them are removing the debris and cleaning their damaged houses and preparing for re-occupation. They say that it is important now to get back to normalcy. They realise that there is no point in weeping and wallowing over the tragedy. Many say that the tsunami destroyed their families and properties, but those whose lives were spared, ambitiously look to the future. Some people prefer to rebuild their houses in the same locations as before. Sometime the sea is rough but most of the time it is calm, although in this one instance it brought untold damage, they say. The sea has helped them to lead their lives and many generations have lived on the beaches, they say. But K. H. Mangala Kumara who is a soldier, has dismantled the remains of his partially damaged house. He says that his family has a plot of land in the next village and he will build a new house there. Though none of his family members were victims, he is paranoid about living near the sea. Tennyson who lives near the Seenigama Devalaya, lost eight members of his family. He was able to rescue only his parents. He lost his wife,children and two sisters. The deadly waves also destroyed two buses, a truck and shop he owned. Though the devastation has ruined his family and properties, this young man is confident of the future with only a truck to call his own. He says he will be able to rebuild his life and come back to normal. M.Thilina Sampath of Seenigama received a call from his brother in- law, who asked him to evacuate immediately from his house as the sea was strong. But he took it as a joke. Then a moment later he heard people running and screaming to save their lives. This brave young man took his truck and went to the Colombo- Galle main road. He collected every one, about 100 people on the road specially the aged and children and drove the vehicle as fast as he could to the Seenigama Kusuma Ramaya, a temple built on a small hill to evade the deadly waves that were virtually pursuing him. The Southern province is slowly returning to normal, he says. Already infrastructure developers, such as the Sri Lanka Telecom, Road Development Authority, Sri Lanka Railways, Ceylon Electricity Board, Urban Development Authority, National Water Supply and Drainage Board have restored their services in certain parts of the Southern province and officers are now working round- the- clock to bring normalcy in the other areas too. The Urban Development Authority officers are engaged in drawing a Master Plan with the objective of introducing `planned cities' in Hambantota, Matara and Galle. Reconstruction efforts have begun in the devastated areas mobilising the resources of all Government institutions. |
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