I think I was avoiding news of the Tsunami. The way I avoid reading about terrorist attacks. I've read enough of them. How many variations of tragedy to I need to read? It's all the same, only the details change. The dead, the maimed. The ones that almost died by a stroke of bad luck that turn good - or the opposite. But every once in a while I stumble over a story by accident, and then, of course, I am engulfed in the magnitude of it.
Back in September, I met Lisa of On The Face. So when I read this post about her friends in Sri Lanka, I felt as if they were mine too. They were surfing when when the Tsunami hit! It's all described in this harrowing comment thread. Before, during, and after. It leaves me speechless. Excerpt:
Basically we rode out the first huge wave on our boards and stayed above the water/wave while everyone else was being swept away and everything was being destroyed. Then the water pulled back out of the bay we were in and we barely managed to avoid being swept out to sea with the current. We landed on the beach after the first surge, but couldn't go ashore because another wave was coming, our surf instructor told us that it was a matter of life and death that we stay away from the shore so we started heading back towards the water before it surged back in. We really didn't know what to do. Unfortunately we had to cross some flood waters as they ran back from the inland to the sea - it was filled with mud, sand and debris. We were still attached to our surf boards and I was swept under the mud by my board in the middle of the river. I have to say that I did almost drown - I had the thought in my head that this was such a stupid way to die. Luckily, because I was still attached to my board (even though it had sucked me under in the first place) I was eventually pulled up to the surface with it before I blacked out. I managed to pull my board to me and flopped on top of it until I could breathe again, then started trying to look for Ran. He had jumped in after me and had taken off his surf leash so I was worried that he'd drowned. I couldn't find him, the second big wave came in and I was pushed on to the shore because I was too exhausted to fight the surge. I was able to catch some branches before hitting very much, then got off of my board and starting screaming for help. Some Sinhalese man ran up to me and led me to a 3-storey building where there were about 20 people on the roof. The waves came in and out for almost 2 hours and every time there were people being caught in it - I can't really describe the sounds and what it was like. I couldn't find Ran - though I thought I saw him about 1 km out in the bay being swept by the current out to sea. Then I couldn't see him (or what I thought was him) anymore. No one could really help me - the other people I was with were gone and all the boats had either been smashed on the shore or pulled out to sea. After some time the surf instructor (Yannick) came up the road during one of the times the water surged out of the bay and he was thrilled to see that I was alive. I was pretty hysterical by that time though and was trying to get back to the beach to find Ran. Yannick went out on his surf board to look for Ran three times - one time bringing in a body that all these Sinhalese assholes were telling me was my lost husband. I spent at least 2 hours pacing the shore with the water coming in and out destroying things every time, looking for Ran or his surf board (but I knew if I just saw his surf board that would mean that he wasn't attached to it so he would be dead) - I think I know a little bit about what hell must be like. I kept feeling that I was waiting so long and that I couldn't wait any longer, but then I thought if he was dead I would be waiting forever. I have never been so afraid or for so long in my life. Finally Yannick and this other woman we were surfing with pulled me away from the spot I'd last seen Ran and tried to get me up the road toward higher ground - and after about 5 min. we spotted Ran walking down the road towards us. It was probably one of those really cheesy Hallmark moments where a couple runs crying towards each other. I have never been so happy to see anyone before - I really did think he had died.
Posted by David Boxenhorn at January 3, 2005 11:16 PM