Boxing Day tsunami:
Sad memories linger on
Seven years after monster waves crashed into homes, hotels and
vehicles on Sri Lanka's coast, people in this island nation continue to
be haunted by demons from the sea.For those who lived to tell the tale
of how 30,000 souls perished on that fateful Boxing Day in 2004, the
slightest change in the mood of the sea is enough to send a chill down
their spines.Udayam Sujatha, who survived the tsunami after being
dragged some way by the waves, now lives with her husband near the coast
in the eastern town of Batticaloa.
"I
sometimes hate the sea," she told IPS.Yet, thousands of people who live
in the numerous towns and villages along the coast have set aside their
fears and managed to put their shattered lives back together again.
In Weligama, a small town with a scenic bay about 140 km south of the
capital Colombo, residents say they are slowly coming to terms with the
tragedy, although they are periodically reminded of how destructive
nature can be.
One month before the seventh anniversary of the Asian tsunami
Weligama lost 14 people and 11 were listed as missing when gale force
winds and rains hit the area.
Most of those killed or reported missing at Weligama on Nov. 25 were
fishermen out at sea when the winds roared in.
In all, 29 were killed and over 8,800 houses damaged along the
Southern coast.All along the coast there are reminders of what started
out as a calm December morning seven years ago. About 50 km north of
Weligama, at Peraliya, stands a large replica of the Bamiyan Buddha
statue facing the ocean, erected with funds from Japanese donors in
memory of those who perished.
A little distance away stands another memorial where a packed train
was swept off its tracks by the waves. Over 1,000 died inside carriages
that later were to become sought after props for TV stand-ups.
The beaches are dotted with reminders of the tsunami. Near Sujatha's
home there are three monuments listing the names of people who died.
There are also large, newly constructed villages. Tsu-chi village in
Siribopura in southern Hambantota district has 1,000 houses built for
those who had lost their homes in the tsunami.Every year mourners gather
at the beach on Dec. 26 to remember all those killed in the tragedy,
though the memorials are becoming less elaborate."
We have been getting over it," said Chandana, a fisherman from
Weligama.Till the tsunami Sri Lankans did not pay much attention to
natural disasters. But since then there has been heightened emphasis on
disaster mitigation and early warning.
In May 2005, five months after the tsunami struck, Parliament enacted
a law to set up a Disaster Management Centre (DMC).But as the tragic
events of Nov. 25 show, the island is a long way away from preparedness.
No early warning was issued before the gale force winds swept ashore
despite all the investments in disaster preparedness.Pradeep Koddippilli,
the DMC assistant director-in-charge of early warnings, told IPS that
the centre had not received any warning from the meteorology department
tasked with assessing dangerous weather events.
"We kept contacting them repeatedly through the 25th, but there was
no warning," he said.
A recent assessment by the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs released in November said that the meteorology
department, in fact, lacked the technical capacity to predict rainfall
and fast moving weather patterns."
The U.N. assessment confirms the technical capacity of the department
of meteorology needs to be further developed in order to enable it to
deliver reliable quantitative rain forecasts," said the report titled
'Disaster Response and Preparedness Assessment Mission to Sri Lanka'.
Experts told IPS that multiple dissemination systems are at the
disposal of the DMC - ideal for a country where communication
infrastructure is poor in rural areas.In addition to the 67 warning
towers set up island-wide, the DMC can also tap into the wide network of
public officials at the village level, volunteers with the Sri Lanka Red
Cross Society, secure satellite communications and, at least, one
national mobile network to send out alerts."
You cannot say what is the best system because each one has its own
strengths and weaknesses.
What is important is to have several systems to make sure vulnerable
communities receive warnings in time," Suranga Kahandawa, disaster
management specialist at the World Bank, told IPS.
However, none of the networks was working when the gale struck, and
there was no warning. Experts said that awareness on how to respond to
different warning levels was also poor among communities."
While the psychological scars are healing with time, the biggest
demon of all appears to be the one of unpreparedness for the next
natural disaster. IPS
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