Tsunami Alert

April 11 was a truly scary day in my life. H was not here. He was travelling as usual. I had gone out with Daughter, shopping. The driver was supposed to go on leave for about 3 days from the afternoon. We returned home around 1pm. At around 2.20pm, having just finished our lunch, started Skyping with H. While chatting suddenly felt a swaying motion. Asked Daughter if she was moving the table. Negative. Again swaying. Again checked. It seemed to be an earthquake. Quickly checked the news networks on the internet. Nothing. Couple of more minutes of checking revealed that there had been an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. More checking, and found that a tsunami alert had been given for quite a number of countries including Sri Lanka. Panic. Made a number of calls and sent an sms. Decided to leave ASAP. Our house faces the sea, just a minute's walk from here. After spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to get my day maid to understand the fact that there had been an earthquake, took the lift downstairs. People in the reception tried to convince me not to leave saying the building was earthquake proof. However who said it was tsunami proof? Could not find the driver. The phone networks were down. Sent a helpful looking security guard down to the basement to find him. A worried looking neighbour was on her way up. She told me the British High Comission had told them to leave. Phone calls kept coming in from H's organisation telling me to leave the area near the coast and go atleast 2.5 km inland. A good samaritan hailing from the same country as me invited me over to their place. We left when the driver finally turned up after a few agonising minutes' wait.

The Driver drove helter skelter through the streets as if any minute the tsunami was going to come and swallow us all up. The roads were absolutely jam-packed and everyone had a worried look on their face and a mobile stuck to their ear. Obviously trying to reach their loved ones. The Driver took another detour and drove like mad to our destination. We got out, relieved. Our friends welcomed us inside. From then on, 2 or more agonsing hours of wait beside the TV which had been turned on to CNN. It had been declared that the tsunami would hit Colombo at 4.50pm. Luckily there was another earthquake a bit later, which deflected the tsunami from reaching.

We spent the night at this friend's place. It was a horrible night of never ending rain, thunder and lightning. Rarely had I spent a more sleepless night.

Returned in the morning to our home, but once reached, packed an emergency bag. The Driver was given his leave one day late, so I kept the car keys ready, just in case there was another earthquake. In the event that there was another emergency I was ready to leave.

I was struck by several things. The country was quite unprepared for such an event. There was no alert system such as a siren. It was basically word of mouth. Nobody called me up to warn me. It's lucky that I had felt the earthquake and decided to leave. The other thing was how uncaring most people were. I had posted an update on facebook before and after I left. I had hardly had a message wishing me well. Let alone a phonecall.The only people who'd called me where my parents and parents in law. In this day of instant communication, I thought the lack of caring spoke volumes. Ofcourse it was hard to understand what had happened from just my update, and I totally don't hold anything against those who really didn't know what was happening, but there were people who knew exactly what had happened (that I had left and taken shelter, and still didn't send an sms or even the free email). However, there were people who I didn't realise were my friends, but who did show me that they cared. The people who opened up their home to me are not too well off at all, and truth be told, I never had considered them real friends in the past. However their generosity really hit home with me. My maid had offered to take me to her home in Gampaha and spend the night with me if I was scared. The Driver had stayed around far beyond his duty time in case I needed his help further. The genorisity of these simple souls was heart warming.