SOUTH-EAST ASIAN TSUNAMI

On Sunday, 26 December 2004, I decided to get up early (shortly before noon). About a half hour walk from my hut on the cliff of Varkala Beach was a small upscale hotel called the Taj Garden Retreat. This hotel allowed non-residents to spend their Sundays at their pool and enjoy a buffet lunch for 200 rupees. That was a good deal. I must say, 200 rupees for a one-day five-star experience is not much, even for a low-budget person such as me. The price included a bed with mattress plus towel plus parasol at the pool. As my hut and my life in India didn’t include any luxury, I would occasionally treat myself to a Sunday at the pool of the Taj Hotel.
I got up at 11.00, had a light breakfast at Café del Mar next door, and started walking to the Taj Garden. I greeted the doormen, entered the lobby and found my way through the building to the garden at the back. It had a wonderful kidney-shaped pool and a wonderful view of the Arabian Sea. Normally I would only encounter very view people at the pool but this day it was busy. Very busy. All beds were taken by western tourists.
I felt disappointed. I had been looking forward to spending this day at the pool, surrounded by luxury, enjoy the buffet lunch around 3 p.m., but I guess that wasn’t going to happen today. The pool man apologized to me. “Sorry Madam. It’s very busy with hotel guests today. I am afraid we cannot accommodate you this time. It’s very high season right now. Maybe in a couple of weeks it will be more relaxed and perhaps you should come a little earlier next time.”
I left the Taj, disappointed and dissatisfied. Okay, what to do now, I thought. I had been looking forward to swimming in fresh water for a change. I shrugged my shoulders and walked down Beach Road towards the beach.

It was a beautiful day, rather busy with Indian day-trippers from upcountry who were visiting the nearby temple and enjoying a stroll along the seashore. I walked towards the north-end of the beach and sat down on the sand near the area where most western tourists could be found. I greeted the two Indian life-guards that kept an eye out on the swimmers, as the current was known to be unpredictable in this area. I glanced at my watch. It was shortly after noon. I gazed at the horizon and felt the sun burning on my skin. Perhaps not a great idea to have my white skin exposed to the burning sun at this time of the day. I ran a few options of “things to do” through my mind. Go back to my hut atop the cliff and read a book in my hammock. Perhaps have a chat with my neighbours, Tenzin and Dolker, who had a small souvernir shop in their hut. Have a swim in the sea and then return to my hut. Yes. That last option felt alright.
I was wearing my swimsuit underneath my clothes. I pulled my shirt over my head, got rid of my skirt and folded them up before I put them in my bag. I had a look around. There were perhaps a hundred western backpackers on the beach. I observed the sea. Normally there was a fierce surf with high waves but today it was unusually calm. The sea was like a mirror and I had never seen it like that before. Wonderful water for swimming. I was looking forward to my dip. Suddenly I felt a shiver run down my spine. I didn’t feel comfortable. I felt restless. For some inexplicable reason I changed my mind about swimming in the sea. By now I had come to take these inexplicable signs or intuitive feelings seriously. I felt uncomfortable being on this lovely beach and there was an urgent need to leave. I took my clothes out of my bag and got dressed. I picked up my bag and was about to walk to the staircase that went up the 30-metre (100 feet) high cliff when the life-guards asked me why I decided to leave already. “Don’t know. I changed my mind. I am going back to my room. I’ll come back later when it’s not so hot.”

I walked to the cliff and climbed the staircase. I turned left on the footpath along the cliff. It was only a short walk to my hut from here. I passed Tenzin and Dolker’s souvenir shop. Tenzin stood outside looking at the sea. “Hi Pantau. I thought you said you were going to the Taj Hotel today.”
“I did go but it’s very busy right now and there were no beds left for me. Bummer. I was looking forward to a day at the Taj, but I guess the gods had some other plan in store for me.”
“You want to have lunch with us a little later?”
“Sure. I am not really hungry yet, but give me a shout when you are ready.”
I walked passed their shop and turned right. My hut was at the back, just a stone-throw away from their shop. I pressed the buttons of my digital door lock, went inside and put my bag on the bed. I took my small digital camera out of my bag when I suddenly heard Tenzin shouting my name. I came outside to see what was the matter.
“Pantau. Come! Something strange is happening!”
I could see him standing at the edge of the cliff facing the sea. I ran towards him, my camera still in my hand. I could see a number of waves, about two metres high, coming towards the beach. They appeared to approach the beach very slowly. All the tourists jumped up. Within seconds the first waves flooded the entire beach, but they flooded the beach rather slowly and no one was swept away. People waded through the water towards the rocks and the cliff’s staircase to get on dry land. Another wave hit the beach shortly after. No one had an idea of what was going on.
“This is very strange, Tenzin. I have never seen anything like this before. This is unusual. And look at all those people on the beach, they’re up to their knees in the water. O my God, look! Their bags and everything are dragged back into the sea. Holy cow! Look! The water is sucked back into the sea and it takes all their belongings with it. How odd. What on earth is going on?”

I started to take some pictures of what was unfolding in front of my eyes. Half an hour later the water started to retreat completely. On Tenzin’s little television set inside the shop we saw that the world had been hit by the biggest earthquake in recorded history.
No people in Varkala died in the tsumami that started some six hours earlier off the coast of Indonesia. The tsumani travelled across the Indian Ocean, bounced off the Maldives Archipelago and travelled back to the south-west coast of India where Varkala is located.
The beach of Varkala remained closed for 10 days and monitored from the air by planes and helicopters until the authorities were sure that no more tsunamis could be expected.

North and south of Varkala Beach 168 people perished. In Kollam 131 died, Alappuzha 32, and in Ernakulam 5. A few hours south of Varkala in the Kanyakumari-area, around 10,000 people died.

The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunami along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 metres (100 feet) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit.
With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it was the largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.5 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.