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| Sunday, 21 November 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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26th Anniversary of the cyclone disaster: Batticaloa's blackest day by Prince Casinader Tension and panic stalks Batticaloa with frequent announcements of
possible likelihood of a repeat onslaught of the havoc of November 23,
1978. I was an eyewitness to the battering Batticaloa received Above all this what was nerve wracking and frightening was the fearful shriek and whine of the sound of the devastating cyclone, which made one wonder, whether a thousand hounds of Baskerville had been let loose here. Batticaloa had been in the eye of several cyclones in the past years-1845, 1907, 1921, and then 1978, but the earlier cyclones had been mild compared to the major onslaught of 1978. The 1978 cyclone smashed to smithereens Batticaloa's economy devastating 28,000 odd acres of coconut plantation, damaging 240 school buildings, rendering hors de combat, one fifth of Batticaloa's fishing fleet, and its renowned name as one of the nations rich rice bowls, and 9 of the 11 paddy stores smashed up. A post cyclone survey showed about 130 miles of electric cables lying pitifully mooing the wind, while so many places of worship did not escape its wrath. Like the seven stages of man, Batticaloa lay helplessly prostate without electricity, water and debris of fallen buildings. On November 22 (the previous day), there had been heavy rains. I was worried that one particular dormitory of our college hostel - Dormitory 'B' was so ancient that it may not stand up to this vicious battering and I contacted one of my friends, an engineer to inspect this dormitory. He asked me for a hammer and with an expert professional stance kept knocking at the pillars of this building and pronounced that there was no danger. After the school sessions I returned to my quarters. I had a gnawing fear, that I should not leave the dormitory 'B' and so sending a message to the senior prefect of the hostel, asked him to order all the occupants of this hostel dormitory to cross the road, which incidentally bore and still bears the name - 'Amen Corner' and move into the main building of the college. The Prefect didn't seem too keen to do this and asked me, whether the boys were to move over with all their belongings and I strictly told them - 'Yes with bag and baggage'. When the next day dawned it would have been 'Amen for me' for this unoccupied dormitory had collapsed like a pan cake, and the parents of the 30 students who occupied this building, would have descended on me like a ton of bricks. A comfortable feature was the way in which staff of the Batticaloa Hospital (without electricity and also water), even the surgeons and physicians carried buckets of water for the patients in the upper stories. A prominent landmark and building was the ancient colonial vintage building named 'Burleigh House' overlooking Chapel Street and the Esplanade (this historic building was right in front of my official quarters) collapsed to the ground within minutes. This historic building was named 'Burleigh House' as it belonged to Dr. George Burleigh who had served as a ship surgeon with Lord Howe in the Irish Rebellion. The immediate aftermath of this cyclone drew large crowds of people from many parts of the country (some of them far from commiserating with the people affected by the people here, were seen singing, dancing many of them in an inebriated state) who flung out of their vehicles food and cloth parcels, without any display of sympathy. As one spectator declared, the distraught victims might have felt better, if only they placed their hands in the hands of the affected and displayed sympathy. But some would have been among the spectators who shared in the grief of their fellow brothers. In the wake of this disaster, many meetings were held and pious plans planned to instal sirens along the coast to give advance warning to fishermen along the coast and send a team of officials to Port Darwin in Australia which too earlier suffered disaster from a cyclone blast, to study the construction of cyclone proof buildings. But the only project that was carried out was the planting of fir trees as a wind breaker along the coast specially of the Dutch Bar area off Kallady. This was done by the NORAD Agency, for this coast suffered most, with the disturbed waters off the Bay of Bengal rising high almost to the top of some coconut palms too. Floods have played havoc in this area, and the climax was when the major irrigation tank breached and the onrush of the impounded waters breached the dam and I was witness to seeing the flood waters pouring over the Koddaimunai Town Bridge, with canoes breaking off their moorings and rushing past the top of the bridge. The people here feel sad, that successive governments of various hues, have failed to eject Batticaloa from its Cindrella state to high level development. Referring to the cycle of cyclones that lashed Batticaloa one is reminded of the cyclone of 1907, when the then governor sent a talagram to the then Government Agent of Batticaloa Mr. E. F. Hopkins querying why he had not been informed of this Cyclone disaster adding that the first information he had was from the 'Observer' newspaper. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
on that sad
day, where occupying a grandstand view from the official Principal's
quarters overlooking the Batticaloa Esplanade the age old gigantic mammoth
trees lining the Esplanade one after the other crashed with an ear
splitting sound of fury, while roof sheets of houses floated in the air
akin to a display of parachute floating staged by the Air Force.
