Tsunami

Eveybody down the south coast has a tsunami story to tell. "I saw the wave out to sea and ran"; "My mother in law was drowned"; I was lucky to be out of town that day"; "I cant sleep worrying about another tsunami" etc etc. But the most common story was "I lost my house and most of my possessions" There are a lot of people around the place, begging who look like they are fairly new to the job, and kind of embarrassed to be doing it. People flag you down and invite you into their makeshift huts in the hope that you will make a donation.

The problem was that houses, like the ruin at left, were built right on the beach, and were virtually at sea level. People didn't stand a chance, and now they live in tiny board huts like the one shown, while they wait for the means and opportunity to rebuild.

At left: One of the hundreds of shanty towns that have sprung up.

One story everyone wanted to tell, on account of its so gruesome, was the train story. Apparently the first wave was about 10 feet high. At the time it struck the coast, not far from Galle, a train was passing loaded with about 1500 passengers, crammed in cheek by jowl as they always are here. It hit broadside, dislocating one carriage from the rest of the train, but it miraculously was still upright. About 500 hysterical villages managed to squeeze their way on just before the second, twenty five foot wavecrashed down on them, drowning all but a handful.

This is one of the levees that a currently being built along the most vulnerable areas of southern coastline.

I understand that you can no longer build withing 150 metres of the coastline now.