The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Residents flee home

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

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Residents flee home

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI, DEC. 30. A wireless message on Wednesday morning sent out an alert on another impending tsunami, causing panic among residents and sparking a flurry of activity in the coastal areas of Chennai.

In minutes, a posse of police and Chennai Corporation officials moved in to evacuate colonies close to the sea. Residents of fishing hamlets scampered out of their dwellings with whatever they could grab. Women with children in their arms darted across Santhome High Road to relief camps. People jumped into the first bus they saw to flee the area. But the residents of the Thideer Nagar stayed put.

On this cloudy morning, birds and animals looked restless, triggering memories of tremors following the Sumatra quake.

The locals said on Sunday too animals and birds were agitated before the killer wave struck.

Corporation officials involved in relief work said they received a wireless message from the Corporation Commissioner around 10.45 a.m., that another tsunami could hit the coast and that the fishing hamlets should be evacuated.

Seismic activity reports

Reports of seismic activity in the Australian coast did the rounds.

A Corporation jeep with a siren on entered the fishing hamlets of Pattinapakkam, asking people to leave the place. "They say another wave is coming," yelled a middle-aged woman, running out with her child in her arms.

Another woman ran from place to place searching for her daughter in the crowd. Behind her, four men made their way to the main road carrying an old woman in a chair.

By then the relief counters at Srinivasapuram were vacated and the relief teams withdrawn.

The fleeing crowd caused a major traffic jam on Kamarajar Salai near Lighthouse and Santhome High Road. Soon, the police closed the road for traffic.

Curious onlookers

A crowd of curious onlookers gathered on Radhakrishnan Salai behind the police cordon. Many stood on rooftops along Kamarajar Salai, hoping to catch a glimpse of the tsunami.

The crowds, the policemen, mediapersons, Corporation officials, relief workers and several fishermen stood rooted watching the horizon.

Except for an occasional government vehicle zipping past, the entire stretch of Kamarajar Salai was deserted till about 4 p.m.

The police allowed movement of traffic only after the Meteorological department issued a bulletin denying seismic activity in the Indian Ocean.

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