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| Sunday, 30 January 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Survivors of the greatest train tragedy: Between life and death The dead have been buried and the injured taken care of. Even the rail tracks, contorted out of recognition are being repaired and 'rebuilding' is the fad word of the moment. But, for the few survivors of the ill-fated Matara bound train, knocked asunder in Hikkaduwa by the killer tsunami, the tragedy is very much alive. It dodges their wakeful moments and haunts their dreams, making December 26 all the more vivid, and the loss of loved ones, difficult to come to terms with.
Chandrasiri (44) with his two small children, K.T. Naween Madu Sanka (7 years), Madushika Kalhari (12 years) and wife Dayani Guruge (41), were returning after visiting his wife's relatives in Polonnaruwa on December 22. On that fateful morning of December 26, the family had left Colombo, expecting to reach Hikkaduwa by mid morning but the train had slowed down unexpectedly at Peraliya, a village in close proximity to Hikkaduwa, just 2 kilometres before their destination.
Naween Madu Sanka, a Grade 2 student of Saralankara Vidyalaya, Gonapinuwala, describes the ordeal in a near monotone. When the water had entered their compartment, he had suggested that his mother leave the train. This had been during the first flow of water. However, his mother had consoled him saying that water would recede soon. He had overheard other passengers telling each other that the train would move after the water subsided. Naween says all of them were holding on to each other inside the train when the water entered the compartment. Little Naween remembers how the carriage was drifting once it became disengaged from the rest. He recalls how his father broke open a glass pane of the window and crawled out of the compartment. His sister, 12-year-old Madushika Kalhari, who had just returned from Saralankara Vidyalaya, Gonapinuwala and was still in her school uniform, recalls that the train did not move after it stopped, that after a little while the villagers were seen running towards the train. She says, all the passengers had initially thought that somebody had been run over by the train, some had got down to investigate the delay. She also recalls the train being overcrowded. Madushika and her family had been standing the whole distance from Maradana to Peraliya. She recalls seeing the water gushing towards the train and the villagers clambering on to the train with some even climbing the roof of the train. Madushika had also asked her mother to leave the train once the water level of the first flow subsided. About 15 minutes after the first wave, a bigger wave had come knocking their compartment sideways. She remembers holding onto the rack of the train, with the water level coming upto her neck. Madushika's father had crawled out of the window and with the help of her mother had lifted her out through the window. In the same manner her little brother Naween had also been rescued. But when her father had tried to lift her mother out of the compartment, some other person inside the compartment had held on to her legs in his effort to clamber out of the train, sealing both their fates. "Our mother could not be rescued", she says sadly. Madushika explains how his father had held her little brother over his head while clutching her hand tightly, and wading to a safer area. She says an arecanut tree fell over her father when he crawled out of the fallen compartment and remembers how some passengers rescued some cats and brought them inside the train during the first flow. Some elderly ladies had started chanting pirith. She remembers seeing small children floating during the first flow of the water. She says there were hundreds of small children inside the train on that fateful day. Around 7 p.m. the same day, their father and several other family members had reached the compartment near the fallen arecanut tree and removed the body of their mother. Hers had been one of the many bodies in that carriage. W. Wajira Panditha owner of Isuru Pharmacy of Gonapinuwala also lost his family on that day. His wife Sumithra Chandra Kanthi Liyanage (40), daughter Hiruni Tharka Panditha (8) a Grade 2 student of Southlands College, Galle, son Isuru Udana Panditha (13) a Grade 8 student of Richmond College, Galle had been returning from a visit to Ganemulla. Around 8.30 in the morning, his son Isuru Udana had phoned him saying that their train had reached Kalutara North. At around 9.30 Vajira had seen people running along the road shouting about the tidal waves. Remembering the telephone call, he had tried to reach Hikkaduwa, but had not been allowed to go there by the people on the road. Half an hour later, he had managed to reach Hikkaduwa through the rubble and the fallen trees. He remembers the announcement made over the radio and television that the Matara bound train had arrived at Hikkaduwa station, safely. Vajira had tried to talk to the Hikkaduwa Station Master, who had told him that no trains had left Panadura or Kalutara. Vajira says the Station Master and his staff were found to be under the influence of liquor that morning. Vajira had returned to Gonapinuwala and upon arriving at his pharmacy, had learnt of the fate of the train. Vajira and his friends who set out to Peraliya had not been able to reach the site of the tragedy until the next morning. On arrival at Peraliya on December 27 Vajira discovered hundreds of bodies scattered around. Among them was the body of his wife. But the bodies of his two children have not been found to date. Nalin Chandra Kumara (28) is a deep-sea fisherman from Hikkaduwa married to a woman from Beruwala. On that fateful day he had been returning to Hikkaduwa accompanied by his family and some of his wife's relatives. According to Nalin the train had been very crowded and he had not been able to move beyond the footboard of the compartment. When the train came to a sudden halt at Peraliya all of them had thought it was due to an accident. Villagers had been running and many had said the water flow was due to a damaged bridge. "Huge logs, planks, door panes came rushing towards the train" recalls Nalin, who says the water had reached waist level within seconds. Nalin had tried to call his friends, using his cellular phones but had not been able to contact them. Nalin's wife had begged him to evacuate the small children to a safer place, but the force of the water had made it impossible for him to do anything. The second wave had washed him 8 metres away from the carriage. Nalin had got hold of a tree, but his head had got entangled among the submerged high tension wires. The tree had then been uprooted and had been drifting towards a river when he heard a girl screaming for help. Nalin had asked her to grab tightly on to a floating tree trunk, and later a floating fridge. Then holding on to it, both had swum towards dry land. The village they had reached was Metiwala 3 to 4 kilometres from the train wreck. Later the girl had revealed she was from Weligama. Nalin had handed over the girl to one of his aunts living at Meetiyagoda, closer to Metiwala had rushed to a school at Kiralagahawela to find out about his family members. Around 4.30 he found both his wife and her brother alive at a welfare centre. The bodies of three members of his wife's family were identified the next day. It had been revealed that during the second tidal wave, his brother-in-law had closed the door of the fallen carriage to prevent water coming into their compartment and with the help of a fallen tree both his wife and brother-in-law had managed to come out. The bodies of Nalin's mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister and her daughter were never found. T. Sagarika (15) is a Grade 10 pupil of Vimalabuddhi Vidyalaya at Seenigama. Ten of her friends and the dancing teacher were returning to Hikkaduwa from Nittambuwa, on that fateful day. All of them were seated together and when the train stopped at Peraliya they had thought it was due to an accident. But then water had begun gushing in. They had seen houses tumbling down one by one even during the first flow of the tidal waves. The windows of the carriage had been closed, but Sagarika and seven of her friends had escaped through the window while the dancing teacher and two of her friends died inside the train. Kumudu Priyantha (38) a fisherman living at Peraliya lost his whole family of five that day because of the train. He had come to a nearby bouqitue with his two-year-old child around 9.00 in the morning. Then he had heard a thundering sound and had seen water bubbling in the sea. He remembers how a van passing along the road was washed off by the water. However, when he tried to reach his house, he had found a train halted along the track blocking his way. He had got into the middle carriage and had handed over his two-year-old child to the guard before going home to bring his wife and other children. The children had been out playing, but he had brought his wife and another child of the village, to the train believing they'd be safe there. He had then continued to search for his missing children. When the second wave came he had climbed on to a near-by coconut tree. The pressure of the water had uprooted several trees. After the water subsided he had managed to reach the rail track, only to find the carriages and the engine had been washed off and scattered all over the place. Later he found the bodies of his wife K.H. Chitrani (29) and the youngest child Tharushika Hansani (2) inside the guard's carriage. He could not find the bodies of his three daughters, Chamila Krishani (13), Ruvini Priyadharshani (11) and Maheshika Randeepani (9). |
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| Produced by Lake House |
ANCL Ambalangoda Correspondent W.T.J.S. Kaviratne, who has been
visiting welfare centres in Seenigama, Gonapinuwala, Batapola, Veheragoda
and Thelwatta, during the past month in search of survivors, talks to
some, who were lucky enough to escape the tragedy. This is their harrowing
experience, (struggle between life and death) and how they escaped death.
