Tsunami stories: ‘Run, the sea is coming!’ saves village

When Mohan Phupalam could no longer hang on to his fishing boat and saw the seas frothing white, he let out a yell that saved his village.

"Odi pongo, kadal varudadi!" he yelled in Tamil. "Run, the sea is coming!"

His cry saved the people of Puthukuppam, a small Indian village 20km outside the former French colony of Pondicherry.

None of the boats survived the December 26 tsunamis and only a dozen of the 60 homes remain standing. But none of the 300 villagers perished.

Thirty people died in the two neighbouring coastal settlements. A total of 574 people were killed in the union territory of Pondicherry and nearly 7793 in surrounding Tamil Nadu - the worst-hit area of India.


Warning fell on deaf ears


A Thai expert said he tried to warn the Government a deadly tsunami might be sweeping towards tourist-packed beaches, but could not find anyone to take his calls.


Samith Dhammasaroj said he was sure a tsunami was coming as soon as he heard about the huge earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island.


"I tried to call the director-general of the meteorological office, but his phone was always busy," Samith said, as he described his desperate attempts to generate an alert that might have saved thousands of lives.


"I knew that one day we would have this type of tsunami. I warned that there would be a big disaster.


"Everyone laughed at me and said I was a bad guy who wanted to ruin the tourist industry."


Tsunami fed by high tide


Investigations by Japanese experts showed that the wall of water hit beaches along the Thai coast at different speeds and heights, with the phenomenon exacerbated by a high tide that fed the tsunami as it neared land.


Khao Lak Beach, lined with hotels and resorts especially popular among Scandinavians and Germans, took the worst hit from waves up to 10.5m high.


They roared up Khao Lak's gently sloping beach at speeds of up to 8m a second (29km/h), said Professor Hideo Matsutomi.


"There have been six major tsunami in this region since 1797, but I think this last tsunami was the biggest," he said.


Rescued by floating tree

Melawati was swept from her home on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, and the only thing that saved her was a floating sago palm tree.

A Malaysian tuna ship found her five days later still clinging to the tree - bitten by fish and traumatised by the experience, but alive after subsisting on the palm's fruit and bark.

Melawati, 23, was spotted alive in waters near Aceh province, said Goi Kim Par, manager of the Malaysian International Tuna Port.

Melawati, who uses only one name, suffered leg injuries and was extremely weak, but remained conscious. She arrived for medical treatment at Malaysia's northwestern Penang Island.

Ship crew members told Malaysia's national news agency, Bernama, that Melawati had waved frantically to draw the trawler's attention and was found clad in only her underpants because her clothes had been ripped to shreds. She cried throughout her three days aboard the trawler.

Adrift for nine days

First their engine broke down, stranding the four Indonesian fishermen on open water. Then the tsunami ripped through the area, wrecking the coasts around them.

Finally, the four were rescued drifting near the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar, in shock and nearly speechless after days at sea, the Indian coastguard said.

The men were rescued by the coastguard off Campbell Bay and taken to a jetty at Port Blair.

A spokesman said the group had been adrift for nine days before they were spotted by a reconnaissance helicopter on New Year's Day.

"They were on a wooden dinghy," he said. "They waved to us and gestured in sign language, asking for food."

He said the men had tied a cloth to a post in an effort to make a sail.

They were in shock, gesturing to communicate, as they could speak little English or Hindi.

One tried to explain, in broken Hindi and gestures, that the boat had broken down and they had no fish or water. They came from Sabang Banache in Sumatra, he said.