The Boxing Day tragedy

by Justice P.H.K. Kulatilaka

Dr. Tim Henstock a senior lecturer in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton in a recently published newspaper report in Southampton Daily Echo [SDE] has said that the risk of a large earthquake was significantly underestimated at the time of the occurrence of the Boxing Day tsunami on December 26, 2004.

To most of the people living around the Indian Ocean it was something they never heard of. It struck quite unawares bringing nothing but death. Smell of death even after a decade is still haunting in the minds of people in the tsunami struck areas.

They would have shed buckets of tears since then. To those who witnessed the wall of roaring blackish brown killer wave 30 feet high it remains a life mystery. Many readers will remember how hundreds of dead bodies were piled up at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital soon after the episode awaiting identification.

Tsunami is a Japanese coinage meaning ‘a harbour wave’. It was unknown to Sri Lankans. The chronicle Mahavamsa mentions of a sea flooding of the coastal strip in the Kingdom of Kalyani, an act of vengeance by the sea gods because the King Tissa had caused a pious and innocent thera who was an arahant [see Geiger’s Mahavamsa, 3rd print 2007, Chapter xxii] ‘to be slain and thrown into the sea. Wroth at this the sea gods made the sea overflow the land’. Prof. Kapila Dahanayake giving evidence before the Tsunami Commission said an earthquake in 1615 which had affected Colombo killing 2,500 people.

Perhaps tsunami was the biggest natural disaster known to Sri Lanka in its recorded history.

Devastation

In Indonesia around 170,000 people were killed. Brian Williams’ book The Greatest Book of the Biggest and Best had estimated that the Asian tsunami [2004] had killed over 30,0000 people. When tsunami struck everything was destroyed.

In Sri Lanka tsunami devastated more than two thirds of the coast where 25 percent of the island’s population and 90 percent of the fishing community lived. It ripped apart the tightly woven social fabric of the fishing community. The Ministry of Women Empowerment and Social Welfare supplied the following statistics to the Commission. Tsunami left in its wake 31,229 people dead, 4,093 missing and 22,536 injured.432535 people had been displaced; 62,402 houses had been completely destroyed and 40,993 partially destroyed. 96 tsunami camps were set up to accommodate displaced people.

The giant wave destroyed coasts, beaches and coral reefs which were considered as most beautiful and scenic in the world. Sri Lanka was not prepared to face such a national calamity especially at a time when the country was engaged in a bloody war against the ruthless terrorists.

Magnitude

The empirical scientific studies carried out by geoscientists and seismologists revealed that the tsunami of December 26, 2004 recorded a magnitude of 9.3 Richter scale.

It was caused by a collision of two of the earth’s tectonic plates causing one plate to sink below the other to wit. Collision of the Indian plate and Myanmar plate where by the Myanmar plate moved 15 feet over the Indian plate. This caused a rupture of more than 1,200 km and width of over 100 km.

The focus was at a depth of about 10 km from the earth surface. The epicentre of the earthquake was on the sea bed off the west coast to the south east of Banda Aceh in Northern Sumatra. It has caused the planet to spin three micro seconds or a million of a second faster and tilt about an inch on its axis [NASA Geophysicists Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California]. According to Dr.Tim Henstock [supra] the earthquake was 23,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima. Water displaced was enough to fill a tank 1.6 kilometres wide 1.6 kilometres high and more than 11 kilometres long.

The large and instantaneous displacement of sea floor leading to displacement of thousands of cubic kilometres of ocean water triggered off the massive ocean wave tsunami of the Boxing Day. It travelled a distance of 1,500 km. and took two hours to reach the coast of Sri Lanka.

Where the trough of the waves [negative waves] reached the coast first it caused a phenomenon called ‘drawdown’ which was soon followed by a ‘run up’ that brought a massive block of water. Readers will remember that T.V broadcasts showed to the viewers scenes of people happily collecting fish in the Galle sea beach quite unsuspecting that a killer wave was to follow.

Identification

Dr. Tim Henstock pointed out that ‘at that point of time the risk of a big earthquake was significantly underestimated’. In the Indian Ocean there really wasn’t any system in place. Scientific studies relating to tsunamis had been confined to the Pacific Ocean region because Pacific Nations were the most affected and vulnerable region to the tsunami threat.

Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has been located at Honolulu and connected to United States Geological Survey Mines Bureau in California and Japan Meteorological Agency [evidence of Dr Weinstein at the video conference].

Sadly, the lack of an early warning system meant that the people in Sri Lanka would not have been aware of the earthquake happening. An early warning would have made quite a significant difference as there were a couple of hours of travelling time for the giant wave to reach Sri Lanka.

We did not have any mechanism to get an early warning of an incoming killer wave. Neither did we have any link with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre or the Japanese Meteorological Agency.

Dr. Weinstein told the Commission at a video conference that the Centre at Honolulu did not have any telephone or E- mail numbers to pass on the warning to Sri Lanka.

Arrival time

Around 9.45 a.m. the Eastern Naval base had observed water level in the Trincomalee harbour going up. It was an unusual phenomenon. But there were no giant waves.

It would have been due to the bathymetry of the coastline. Point Pedro was hit around 9.55 and Kankesanthurai at about 10.30 am. When information was received from Nilaveli Naval Camp it was 9.45 am. By 9.20 Kirinda and Galle were hit.

That point of time Navy did not have the knowledge, time or the mechanism to inform the public in advance. Besides, the Navy was struggling to save its own men and property at the navy bases.

Average heights of tsunami wave in the Eastern coasts were five metres. At certain places waves rose to a height of 7.5 metres. In the Southern coasts average height had been five metres but in Kirinda and Yala and Megalle the giant wave had reached heights of 10 to 12 metres.

Expert evidence

Expert evidence to this effect came before the Tsunami Commission from Dr. Janaka J. Wijetunga. Dept. of Engineering, University of Peradeniya.

The water line at the beach travelled several hundred metres inland as a wall of water with great destructive power inundating low lying coastal areas causing considerable loss of life and property.

According to experts in most areas eco-systems and natural habitat had acted as the first line of defence to the invading tsunami waves. There were instances where sandy beaches, sand dunes [Maharavana Revula and Bimthamburuwa], rock studded beaches [Beruwala], coral reefs, lagoons [Negombo], wetlands and mangroves [Bentara and Rekawa village] were able to stand and absorb the wave action thereby mitigating the devastation.

According to a study carried out by the Coast Conservation Department uncontrolled and unscrupulous human activities such as sea coral mining and sand mining provided easy prey to ravaging Tsunami waves. Peraliya in Seenigama where the train tragedy occurred is a case in point. Soon after the appointment the two Commissioners visited some of these places to have a first hand information about the tragedy.

The giant wave had struck the moving passenger train with such a great force that it tore the train apart and carried it en masse for a distance of about 50 metres. This stretch of the coast is below sea level.

It enabled the sea waves brought in by the giant wave easy access to about one and half kilometres inland. A suggestion came from the experts that it would be a wise move to put up in the vulnerable coastal areas middle or high reinforce concrete buildings which will serve as shelter sites for people in time of need. I believe that those suggestions had been put into effect by now.

Policy decision

In the aftermath of tsunami episode a policy decision was taken to demarcate a ‘Buffer Zone’ where no dwelling houses or any other buildings would be permitted to stand. But in one of my sojourns to the South recently I observed that lot of buildings have come up inside the so called Buffer Zone.

I really don’t know whether the rule is observed in the breach. In fact, there were suggestions coming from experts to take steps to plant up the buffer zone stretching inland from the main high-water line. They also highlighted the need to make proper selection of plants which grow well in saline conditions.

It is interesting to note an experience spoken to by the Thai sea gypsies who had been roaming the sea around for generations which is to the following effect namely - 'The water would recede, the colour of the sea would change and the birds and other animals would start acting differently’.

This was one occasion where everybody wept. Everybody shed a tear for heartbroken ones.

The world at large came to know that Sri Lankan is one with a passion to help the others in the community in the hour of need.

Boxing Day dawned with the Church bells ringing announcing the dawn of Peace. For the Catholics in the coastal areas it was a day to celebrate. For the others Hindus Muslims and Buddhists it was a day to relax.

It was then that Satan in the form of a giant wave tsunami struck. It was heartless and inconsiderate, no respecter of race, religion, language, sex or age. Just like the ruthless terrorists who massacred innocent villagers in Kebithigollawa it caused mayhem and chaos in a matter of minutes. It gave no chance to escape. It was a huge wall of water.

In Matara there was an incident where a swimming trainer after rescuing a number of people from drowning and taking them to safety had hurried back struggling against the tide to reach a person hanging on to a log. Albeit, he vanished to be buried in a watery grave. As an unsung hero he died.

Rescue mechanism

It was a public holiday. It took nearly two days for the government to put its rescue mechanisms into operation. No sooner the giant wave died down people flocked in thousands to the rescue of their kith and kin who were extremely desperate for help. All religious places in the affected areas the Buddhist temples taking the lead, churches, kovils and mosques opened their doors to the hapless Tsunami victims. All in all it was a show of loving kindness to all alike.

Food, clothing, shelter and medicine were promptly provided. Dry provisions were supplied to the victim families during the period they lived in the camps. There were no shortages. People themselves, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and other Government institutions saw to it that the victims were well looked after.

Television stations and the NGOs immensely did their part in helping the victims to get back to their day to day work. There were no reports of any looting or breakdown in law.

The Government of the day with its own funds and financial aid coming from foreign governments, donations coming from well wishers living abroad and NGOs put up tsunami houses.

Former German Chancellor who had seen the tsunami rampage with his own eyes opted to put up a hospital in the Southern Province. I really don’t know whether the promise was fulfilled.

Children

Urgent legislations were introduced to look into the care and custody of the tsunami affected children. Healthcare was enhanced to prevent any disease outbreaks among people in the affected areas.

An interim technical committee was set up for Natural Disaster Monitoring. Director General of the Department of Meteorology was designated as the focal point of the government of Sri Lanka to receive/disseminate tsunami warnings.

Deep water pressure sensors in the Indian Ocean are now used to detect tsunamis so that warning could be issued to areas around the Indian Ocean in time.

I have spoken to some of the affected families. I find that even after 10 years since tsunami struck, despite what the community and the government of the day did to cure their trauma, the victim families have failed to overcome their loneliness and sorrow of losing their loved ones.

Another tsunami?

Chances of another tsunami of such magnitude hitting our coasts in near future looks remote but cannot be ruled out in view of the research studies carried out by James Cohoran and his team of experts at Lamont Doberty Earth Observatory, relating to development of a new plate boundary [13th plate] just 350 km south of the island.

It appears that this plate boundary is linked to the subduction zone of the Sunda Strait the focus of December 26, 2004 Tsunami. Dr. Henstock said that a similar sized earthquake that would trigger off such massive killer waves would only be expected in several hundred years.

He further said if it was repeated right now there would certainly be a much higher chance of warning people in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Yet, he seems to be cautious.

He said, ‘We might see, on average one occurs in a century. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen again in a few years. The real challenge is how to maintain readiness’.

The writer was a member of the Tsunami Commission 2005. He is an Honours Graduate in Geography, University of Ceylon