Michael Roberts
The Roberts family were assembled at a house-for-hire off Goolwa and near a beach in South Australia when the first news of the devastating tsunami of 26th December 2004 hit the headlines. One of the first inklings the world received about this massive disaster came from Galle in the southwestern corner of Lanka. This was through a series of photos or a movie-camera display of a body of seawater moving from left of screen to right with cars and bodies amidst the debris….. and the walls of the Fort of Galle in the background.
Having lived in the Fort and having played all my cricket and soccer in the playing fields in front of the Fort, the location was immediately clear. We were all hit by shock.
Needless to say: the shocks were far greater in Acheh in Sumatra, in Thailand, in the islands in the western half of the Indian Ocean and along the eastern and south-eastern coast of Sri Lanka as well as the eastern coasts of India. It is estimated that “the tsunami killed over 230,000 people and rendered 2 million homeless” in one fell-swoop in the 2 or 3 days of the giant tumult caused by an earthquake within the sea off Indonesia [see ……………………. https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Ocean-tsunami-of-2004].
SLICES OF MEMORY about the TSUNAMI STRIKE within SRI LANKA
The tsunami tales from Sri Lanka that remain etched in my mind today are varied and at times even amusing. But most are awesome. Let me underline the horror and the variety in point-form.
Sujeeva as a cricket fan at the Adelaide Oval
One: The most heart-wrenching was the death by drowning of Sujeeva Kamalasuriya of Adelaide at the Unawatuna beach about three miles east of Galle — a beach that I know intimately rom way back. Sanjeeva had represented Sri Lanka at the Under 19 level in cricket before moving to Adelaide Australia. He was a dear friend. His death by tsunami-blow was one helluva blow.
Three: One of the chief guests at FOG’s function was none other than Muttiah Muralitharan, that famed Sri Lankan bowler-cricketer. Murali may be atypical as a bowler. But he was typically Sri Lankan that day: he was running late. His taxi was on the road Moratuwa or thereabouts when he received a tele-warning and sought safety by moving inland and heading back to Colombo.
Murali several years later after taking his 800th wicket …. at Galle in fact
Four: A second-hand tale lodged in my memory: a Sri Lankan gent was driving down [or being driven down] to Galle on that day when his car was hit by the tsunami waves at Dadalla where the road south happens to pass an extensive cemetery immediately to its left. He managed to extricate himself from the car and then saved his life by hanging on toa cross marking one gravestone.
Five: A foreign tourist lady at some inland spot on the southern coast was swept further inland to a point where she managed to find her feet after clinging onto something.
But she had been stripped naked …. Completely naked. Some village women who came to her aid immediately took off their sarongs to clothe her and provide comfort.
Six: One or two foreign tourist clusters were enveloped and swallowed “whole’ at the seaside lodges at Yala Wildlife Park. However, NOT ONE WILD ANIMAL died. All the species of wild animals had the extra-sensory capacities that pressed them to move inland to high ground [ or so the story goes].
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