All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, India

"We had heard about tidal waves in the sea. The coastal area has turned into a graveyard. The landscape has changed in many areas forever." - Mr. Nathaniya in Andamans ||||| "I saw it, with my eyes. The land separated in two parts. People just died. It is still horrible to remember. I had never seen it before. Now I see it everyday, in fact at Car Nicobar no one has seen this behaviour of sea before. We are living with sea since ages here." - Johnson in Andamans. ||||| "Nobody knew what was coming. We just saw a wall of water coming towards us. We had no option. We ran towards forest. Those who managed survived, those who failed, went away with the seawater. Fortunately I survived with my family. The Indian Air Force rescued me after two days. I spent these two days in forest with my elder son. Now I received the news about my younger son who is only nine months and safe with my mother in law." -Estervelina in Andamans ||||| "We, here inside Chennai, are not much affected but our friends in the other rural parts are severely affected. We have collected more than 4000 pairs of clothes and have distributed 400 in three relief camps. Our neighbours received them with thanks. But NGOs came and there was flood of clothes. Neighbours do not want our clothes. We would be thankful if the remaining clothes can be distributed to the affected communities in the far off Nagapattinum or Cuddlore. May be they also have too many clothes." - Sundervardhani and Laxmi in Chennai |||||

First Steps
AIDMI Team in Tsunami Affected Coastal India

Local administration is supportive to AIDMI team.	Mothers and children are first to receive AIDMI attention.	Community leaders surround AIDMI auto rickshaw to enlist their names in loss assessment.
Deepeshbhai of AIDMI team reporting day's work to local authorities.	Need for temporary shelter is expanding.	Houses of the poor are worst affected.
Power connections are being replaced and repaired by local authorities under most difficult circumstances.	Kilometers of community access is lost or damaged.	Plantations are damaged reducing upcoming seasonal income.