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Tsunami
Case-1
My Family! My Family!
(By
Tejalben of AIDMI team in tsunami
affected coastal
India, December 30, 2004).
On December 28, 2004, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) tsunami relief team visited
Devanapatti village in Cuddalore district
in coastal India to measure the impact
of tsunami. This village, just three days
before the disaster had a population of
300 fishermen families. Now there is no
village. What remains is the sea on one
side and flat, wet, muddy land with heaps
of destroyed houses on the other side.
The death toll is estimated 400 while
many more are still missing. Those alive
are currently resting in a small tent
set up joint by local efforts. Around
225 huts belonged to the "Panchalpuram"
caste that lived in this village. They
are very poor. They are not fishermen
but they are "coolies" who help other
fishermen in collecting fish and boat,
arranging the fishing net, taking the
boat to the sea and lifting heavy material
from one side of the beach to the far
off other side under high sun and long
monsoon. The wage that they receive is
very low and is never fixed.
Shivsangri lived with her husband, a "coolie",
earning Rs. 10 to 50 per day. The earning
is not fixed as payments to "coolies"
depends on the amount of fish caught and
market price of fish. She lived with her
family of four in a small breezy hut.
She hardly saved money. The village is
located on the sea shore near the work
site.
Around 9 am on December 26, 2004, a high
wave of 30 feet hit the sea shore with
huge noise: whaak! She saw the wave coming,
sitting in her hut with her daughter Deepa
(age 12) and son Akash (age 4), she decided
to move quickly inland to the school building.
Shivsangri was also pregnant. She made
every effort to take her children to the
safer school. She forgot that she was
fighting against nature. The second wave
drew all three into the sea and violently
tossed them back on the sea shore. She
remained under bushes without any cover
on her body. The heavy tides kept splashing
for hours.
When waves subsided villagers started
coming back to the sea shore to help and
found Shivsangri's dazed body. She was
taken to the same safer school. She lost
consciousness when she heard that her
son and daughter were washed away. She
repeated, "My Family! My Family!" Only
two members of the family survived: herself
and her husband. She has not thought about
her coming child even for a moment during
past two days. Life seems hopeless to
her. |
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ALL INDIA DISASTER MITIGATION INSTITUTE
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Cinema, Ashram Road, Ahmedabad - 380009, Gujarat,
India
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E-mail : bestteam@aidmi.org |
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