Tsunami Again

rajmiarun · Sep 12, 2007

It was on the early morning of Dec 26th 2006. Both me and my husband were up at 4.00 as my husband had to go to the Tambaram Railway station to receive my SIL and her family and my inlaws. SIL and family had come on a vacation to India and had been to places like Madurai, Kodaikanal etc and were coming back to Chennai. My FIL had also been with them.

As they are all early eaters and so are we and as I wanted to spend time with them as they are visiting us in our new house for the first time and visiting us after a long time, I started cooking so early and by around 4.45am I got a tremendous shock and tremendous push. I was under the impression that it is all due to the third month pregnancy I am experiencing this.

I finished all my cooking by around 6.00 am and switched on the TV just to hear the news that there was a huge earth quake and there was a Tsunami attack. Tsunami attack?!? One of the tamil news channel was telling that a part of Tamilnadu had went under the sea long back just because of one such Tsunami. And only at that moment I realised that I had experienced the shock of earthquake.

They all arrived safely and when my BIL called up to check their safe arrival as they all too had felt the tremors of earthquake. Then the stories of Tsunami and the disasters it has created started coming up. We too started hearing the near escape of one of our family friend's son who went to Manina beach to play cricket and left the beach just 10 mins before the second Tsunami attacked the beach. OMG.

My SIL thanked my husband for shouting at her to return immediatly to chennai and not extend their tour to Kanyakumari as they had planned to go there on 26th. If they had gone there then they would have got stranded there for sure. God saved all of us.

When I heard that there was another earthquake and the govt had issued Tsunami alerts all over the coastal areas, I started praying to God, Oh not again. Spare the lives of all the poor people who live near the shore and spare all those who are on a tour towards the shore too.

aishu22 · Sep 12, 2007

Hi Rajmi,
Thank you for starting this thread! Tsunami had left very sad memories with each of us,directly or indirectly though!!!

Heard of a Tsunami alert today(around 9.30 PM).. im in office when im typing these words.....All my thoughts engrossed about my family as im unable to be with them...lol im in night shift in office :bangcomp:

My FIL was supposed to leave for Rameswaram Today!!!!!!!!! Good Heavens we called him up around 7 PM and asked him to cancel all his Trip.

Not Prepared for another Tsunami...........
Let God Save all of us...

sunitha · Sep 12, 2007

rajmiarun said: ↑

It was on the early morning of Dec 26th 2006. .
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Dear Rajmi

Sorry to correct you.It was Dec 2004 and the earthquake was around 6.30 am.That was the time we were preparing to move to the U.S. Indeed,cannot forget it for a lifetime.:icon_frown:

rajmiarun · Sep 12, 2007

Hi Sunitha,
The second tremor felt by most was around 6.30 am. But the first one was at 4.45 and only those who were awake felt it. I was one of them. My husband too felt it and he was climbing the stairs in the railway station adn he had to hold to the railing on the sides.

sunitha · Sep 12, 2007

Ok,got it:-D . Definitely,I was not awake at 4.45 am,but at 6.30,I was half-awake and was wondering why my hubby was shaking the bed.Only after 3 jolts,did I realise it was an earthquake.:mrgreen:

Shanvy · Sep 13, 2007

hi,

Those are painful memories...seeing the hhavoc on tv...itself was so bad....calling everybody in chennai to know if they are safe.....

Those days we were in bahrain.bahrain being a group of islands is surrounded by water..The children had to cross a bridge across the sea to go to school....and they were having nightmares..for days..

We keep saying tsunamis dont happen frequently..but are we prepared to tackle them..????

kanaka Raghavan · Sep 13, 2007

That day we were in Chennai.My husband was in Abudhabi.My children and myself came to know about the earthquake only after my neighbour's daughter rang the bell to say there was one.We all immediately came out.Then went about the usual routine.There was Ayyappan Puja in my friend's house that day and I went away to help them.There were lots of guests in her house that day.Suddenly my daughter who was watching TV,came and said that water was engulfing parts of Chennai.We all thought she was mistaken.Then people who came in late confirmed it.The caterer managed to come somehow taking different routes.The puja went off .When I switched on the TV in the afternoon,I came to know about the impact world over.I was really shocked.What a disaster it was.My father's cousin's daughter and family had come for the vacations to chennai.After visiting Pathasarthy temple,they went to the marina beach.That tsunami struck.Her husband ,children,father ,brothers ran.So did she.But her feet got caught in a fisherman's net and she fell down,Her husband managed to pull her out.But by the then she had swallowed water and sand.On the way to the hospital she died.
I thought of all the people who suffered then.I prayed to God yesterday do not bring the same again.
During the tsunami of 2004 my servant gave all the vessels she had.She and her friends collected ric,clothes and other items and donated to the people in need.She even took a day off to cook food and distribute it to the people in need in ECR.....................

rajmiarun · Sep 13, 2007

kanaka Raghavan said: ↑

That day we were in Chennai.My husband was in Abudhabi.My children and myself came to know about the earthquake only after my neighbour's daughter rang the bell to say there was one.We all immediately came out.Then went about the usual routine.There was Ayyappan Puja in my friend's house that day and I went away to help them.There were lots of guests in her house that day.Suddenly my daughter who was watching TV,came and said that water was engulfing parts of Chennai.We all thought she was mistaken.Then people who came in late confirmed it.The caterer managed to come somehow taking different routes.The puja went off .When I switched on the TV in the afternoon,I came to know about the impact world over.I was really shocked.What a disaster it was.My father's cousin's daughter and family had come for the vacations to chennai.After visiting Pathasarthy temple,they went to the marina beach.That tsunami struck.Her husband ,children,father ,brothers ran.So did she.But her feet got caught in a fisherman's net and she fell down,Her husband managed to pull her out.But by the then she had swallowed water and sand.On the way to the hospital she died.
I thought of all the people who suffered then.I prayed to God yesterday do not bring the same again.
During the tsunami of 2004 my servant gave all the vessels she had.She and her friends collected ric,clothes and other items and donated to the people in need.She even took a day off to cook food and distribute it to the people in need in ECR.....................
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Hi Kanaka,

Sorry to hear about the loss in your family.

It was a nice gesture from your maid's part. God bless her.

Sindhuja · Sep 14, 2007

Hi Rajmi,
It's good that your SIL's family cancelled the trip:-D . Even my husband's friend's aunt (mama's wife) was a victim of that 2004 tsunami. She was also in the Marina that time when tsunami struck.
I heard that Tsunami is going to strike Indonesia again. Let us pray for the Indonesian people.