‘I told my daughter to sleep in track pants and have her cellphone ready’
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Jammu Seshadri
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I heard from my daughter, who lives in Chennai, on the chat about the earthquake at about 6.30 in the morning on Christmas. She told me she felt tremors at six in the morning. She said the windows were rattling. She heard her neighbors going out so she grabbed her cellphone went out too. It wasn’t much, she said, and we didn’t feel anything for long.
After 30 minutes, she called me up in panic and said that water waves were coming into several people’s homes, especially those close to the sea. Then she told me she gave my father a call to find out if he was okay, who lives about four miles from my daughter’s house. He is 89 and lives alone with an attendant and servants. My father had a hip replacement recently. He was bedridden. He is just about taking a few steps.
One of his neighbors banged on his door and told him to come out. Being an ex-army officer, he first sent all the servants and the attendant out. By the time he got the walker, the tremors stopped. Everybody was waiting outside. By then news started coming in. My daughter called around seven and said it wasn’t just an earthquake; a lot of people are being washed away. She heard on the famous Marina Beach, there was a lot of panic, as cars and people were being washed away.
Our friends live in Besant Nagar. They live close to the sea, we called them up. My husband has many relatives... we started calling them up... the phone lines were jammed, All this added to our panic. My husband has an old uncle who lives close to the sea, by the time we got through to the family, their house was flooded but they had moved to the first floor. Their son-in-law normally goes for a walk but that day he didn’t go so he was saved. Most of our relatives don’t live close to the sea. But still everybody is badly shaken up. Although news was coming in there were several rumors doing the rounds. We were imagining things. There were rumors that the whole town would be flooded. I was worried for my father. The area where he lives, it was getting water-logged. I didn’t know whether we should shift him or not. One of my brothers, who also lives in Chennai, visited my father to see if he could be evacuated. We were calling every five minutes to check on my daughter, father and brother to see if everything was okay.
We were up till 2.30 in the morning. Rumors were creating problems. Each relative was saying something different. I was simply helpless. I didn’t want my daughter to pick my father alone. Then news came in it that the impact was more severe on the coastal side. That is when I realized that it would safe for them to stay at home. By then the met department said that after-shocks will not be as severe as the first one. But I still told my daughter and others in the family to be prepared and to pack their bags. I told my daughter to sleep in track pants and have her cellphone ready.
Thrupthi Reddy, 25, is editor at Trusts & Estates Magazine.
She lives in Manhattan, New York City.
‘It was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life’
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Thrupthi Reddy
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The last two days have been painful in more ways than one. When I first heard that there were minor tremors in Chennai, my first reaction was to pick up the phone and call my parents who live there. When I spoke to both of them, still in bed at around 6.30 a.m. my dad reassured me that they had just felt tremors for 10 minutes and apart from the showcase in the living room shaking dramatically it was nothing to worry about.
When friends started calling me an hour later telling me the death toll was close to 1,700 in Chennai, I panicked. I frantically tried to call home. I wasn’t able to get through... home lines as well as cellphones were down. It was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life.
Although they don’t live near the beach, my parents sometimes go for a morning walk along the beach or to visit any of our many friends and relatives who live in Besant Nagar and on East Coast Road, the highway to Mahabalipuram. Panic was just beginning to set in when I finally managed to get through to the landline at home and heard my mom’s strained voice. They were safe, and the house was intact, but other relatives had not been that lucky.
My dad’s brother’s family had barely managed to escape certain death. My 27-year old cousin, her mom and grandmother were at home when the waves hit them without warning and the within seconds the water level inside the house was up to their necks, not giving them a chance tothe door and escape. Having an elderly person in the house made it that much harder. But when the waves receded for five minutes, they scrambled for their life and managed to get out of the house not having the time to take anything of value with them.
Needless to say their house was completely destroyed as the next seismic waves hit the area and carried away their car, neighbors, pets and almost anything and everything that was in the water’s way. Watching the news on BBC and constantly reading the updates on news Web sites really didn’t help much.
Arvind Ramnani, 29, works as a consultant to Columbia University. He did his M.B.A. from the University of
Michigan Business School. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
‘I was really worried about my parents’
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Arvind Ramnani
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My cousin, who is based in Chennai, got married on Dec. 25 in Chennai. My parents, who are based in Bangalore, went to the wedding, along with my relatives from the U.S., Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. I was at a party with my brother, his wife and friends here when we heard of the earthquake. This was a twist to destiny... I had tickets to go home for Christmas. But given work pressures, I canceled my ticket.
When I saw what had happened I breathed a sigh of relief as my relatives from Malaysia and Indonesia were not back home, since the impact of the earthquake was tremendous in Indonesia. Their property has been damaged –– to what extent, even they don’t know as there is too much chaos. Their house is flooded. They called their friends who confirmed that their house was intact but completely drowned. I was really worried about my parents. And the fear kept increasing as we couldn’t get through to Chennai. All of us here were on our phones trying to get through, but we just couldn’t. We all were really anxious and worried. After five hours, finally, around 4 a.m., my mom came online on the messenger. She assured us that they all were okay, and everyone in the wedding party was fine. My mom said that they were close to the beach. And when the winds got stronger the entire area was flooded with sea water. At that time they were in a house.
Neela Thambirajah, 60, lives in Hudson in Upstate New York. She is a housewife.
‘Their walls have cracks; one side caved in’
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Neela Thambirajah, right, with her daughter Thevaki
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One of my four sisters and her husband live in Colombo. I was still sleeping on the Christmas Day when my sister called from England. She told me that there was an earthquake in sea. I didn’t take it seriously because I had heard of volcanoes in the sea but never heard of an earthquake. First I thought it was a hurricane as we had been hearing that something like that would hit Sri Lanka.
After some time I switched on the television and I realized how serious the situation was.
I then called one of my sisters in the U.S. Then I called her daughter in Michigan who told me not to worry and that she would contact everyone in the family. My niece then called her sister in Singapore, who was at that time in Candy. Meanwhile, I called Canada to speak to my sister’s daughter who confirmed that her parents were fine. I called Colombo several times and each time I got that ‘lines are busy.’’ I finally got through to my sister after several hours.
My sister told me that the couple was fine. I was finally relieved. Although they live near the house but they are not that close to the sea. She said water had entered her friend’s house in Dehiwela. Their walls have cracks; one side actually caved in.
Tsunamis kill 125,000 and counting