The Hindu : Karnataka News : Survivors relive the tsunami horror

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Survivors relive the tsunami horror

By Our Staff Reporter

(From left) Radha Raj, R. Narasing Rao, Basavaraj, and Chandrashekar Reddy, who survived the tsunami disaster, addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE, DEC. 30. When a 10-member group from Bangalore decided to go on a pilgrimage of places in Tamil Nadu, little did they know of the horror that awaited them at Velankanni.

Only six of the original group have come back. Four of them died in the tsunami that engulfed Velankanni on December 26.

On Thursday, Radha Raj, one of those who survived the tragedy, almost broke down as she related how her four friends got washed away.

The 10-member group, all members of the Shankar Yoga Kendra and the Lalbagh Walkers' Association here, reached Velankanni on December 25 after short stays at Tiruchi and Thanjavur. That fateful morning, Ms. Raj and her friends, Subhadra, Ranjana, Meghana (Subhadra's daughter-in-law) and Nandini Gowda, went to the Velankanni beach.

The men in the group — R. Narasinga Rao, Basavaraj, Chandrashekhara Reddy, K.V. Srinivas and Ravi Shankar — decided to go and buy vegetables because the lodge they stayed in didn't offer meals.

Ms. Raj said it was all over in a matter of minutes. "The waves came in and lifted all of us out to sea. I am a Hindu but at that moment I called out to Jesus to save me." Tossed hither and thither by the water, she spied a floating log and held on. "I somehow managed to crawl ashore later." Some missionaries helped her recover. At that time, she found no sign of the other women.

Mr. Rao and the others were on their way back then. They saw people running helter-skelter, bodies floating everywhere. "There were people on top of the Velankanni Church. The structure withstood the waves. So, many were saved that way," Mr. Rao said. All of them said there was chaos in the area. "We didn't see any government officials there for a long time. The waves killed many, but an equal number died of shock and in the stampede that followed," Mr. Rao said.

Bodies were piled up everywhere. "It is a sight none of us will ever forget," Mr. Rao said. When the men started looking for the women, they found the bodies of Ranjana, Nandini Gowda and Meghana. Subhadra is still missing. Mr. Rao said their mobile phones helped them a lot. "All lines of communication were down, but our cellphones worked, so we called up our relatives. Luckily, we had charged the phones the previous night," he said. All of them are still to recover fully. Ms. Raj, for one, has bruises on the right side of her body and is being treated for depression. Mr. Shankar is bedridden.

But Mr. Rao believes the traumatic experience will make them emerge as stronger individuals. "We are okay. We are definitely okay," he said.

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