AFTER THE TSUNAMI
Sri Lanka, December 28, 2004
Report & Images by Vinod Moonesinghe, Sri Lanka
Project Leader for SARID ( vkm@sltnet.lk).
We set off at 6:30 am on December 27 from Colombo southwards to find Nirosha and her family and to bear dry provisions for survivors in the coastal areas. The route went through Horana, Matugama, Kurundugahahetekma (KGH), Batapola and Ampegama to Seenigama (See map on following link:
http://www.mysrilanka.com/travel/lankamap/map/60n80e.htm).
The road was fairly clear until Matugama when we found that people were signposting the roads so that vehicles could move along. At KGH we couldn't buy bread though cake and biscuits were available. There were traffic jams from thence onwards. We passed the new highway that is being built - KGH is the planned first exit for the Southern Province.
At Batapola there was a large traffic jam. As there appeared to be no policemen on duty, the populace had organised themselves into a makeshift - though chaotic - popular traffic militia. We followed instructions until we got to Ampegama and asked the way to Munugoda - the part of Seenigama (http://www.fallingrain.com/world/CE/34/Sinigama.html) where Nirosha lives - but no one knew where it was. Finally we found a woman and her daughter who could help us. They were from another village and couldn't get a bus back. We gave them a lift and went along the road to Meetiyagoda where a man informed us that there were people from Munugoda at the Ampegama Temple. He himself was from Hambantota (http://www.mysrilanka.com/travel/lankamap/) - his family all lived in front of the Seenigama Devale and appeared to have been wiped out.
We hurried to the Ampegama temple where we met a harassed looking monk who was making announcements. He said he didn't have a list of the people at the temple, just a list from the Grama Sevaka of survivors from the village. He made an annoucement for us.
One monk had come to look for his relatives who had been in the train which was washed away at Telwatte (next to Seenigama). Relatives of Nirosha came forward and said that she was alive. Their son, who is on leave from the Navy at Mannar, came with us. On the way we met Nirosha's cousin who was taking his hurt child to a doctor in Ampegama and told us that Nirosha was with his sister on a hill close by. And there she was, just returning from Seenigama!
We unloaded the provisions we had brought, dividing it among Nirosha's extended family and the temple. We gave lifts to several people and set out for Balapitiya where Nirosha's Aunts live as her mother had gone for an almsgiving and there had been no word of her or her sisters.
We drove by a circuitous inner route instead of the shorter one via Meetiyagoda. The water had reached far inland, but not caused much damage. Towards the beach, however, there was devastation. Cars were inside gardens and even inside houses. The railway track had been ripped up. Amblangoda town centre escaped the worst as it is on a hill. The Galle Road was closed south of Parrot Junction, but we went north from there. Balapitiya was almost as bad, though there were no bodies.
We reached Nirosha's relative who informed us that her mother and aunts were were on the temple on the hill. There was a tearful reunion after which everyone piled in the vehicle and we drove back to find other family members. People were worried about the possible return of the waves.
On the way we saw men piling stuff into lorries - we don't know if they were looting or not. We saw a corpse covered in polythene.
Back at Ampegama temple, we were told that more relatives at wound up at Ethkandura. We finally found them at the Ethkandura school where lunch was being cooked for refugees.
On the way Colombo were huge lines of trishaws, vans and motorcycles queing up for non-existant petrol and diesel. At Pitigala, the traffic was packed solid as the road there is the only alternative to the Galle Road; the inhabitants had never seen so many vehicles passing their homes!
After crossing the river, we were directed onto the Polgampola road, as the road ahead was broken. The road was extremely narrow and not enough for two trishaws to pass each other. It took us about 3 hours to get to Matugama from Pitigala - a distance traversed in about half an hour in the morning. We were short on Petrol, but there was none available until Horana.
Sathischandra, Nirosh's cousin, had cut his leg. There is no medicine available south of the river, so we decided to get the leg treated in Matugama. We didn't find an open clinic until Horana, where we waited, but got no treatment, so drove on to the Healan Clinic in Homagama, where we waited, again with no luck.
So we returned home to Colombo.
School).
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