Sunday, 26th December 2004. Time: 06.22 am.
I had been awake since 4 am that day. For some unknown reason....maybe providence. Who knows. At the specified time, I was just lying on my bed, thinking about some ghost movie when my bed started to tremble. "That can't be right, maybe I'm dreaming." I thought to myself. Then it started shaking really bad...Getting out of bed, I held onto the walls of my room as I tottered to my parent's room and banged on the door, shouting "Earthquaaake!!! GET UPPP!!", which was my conclusion as to what was happening. Not too many people felt it, they say.
3 Hours Later. Tsunamis.
Possibly the worst thing that has happened to my little country of Maldives, tsunamis wreacked havoc on the tiny islands. The earthquake which originated off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, set off these massive underwater shockwaves which had caused enormous waves to come crashing upon Sri Lanka, India and Maldives as well. Thailand and Aceh of Indonesia were seriously struck as well.
The sheer shock of seeing the water rushing down my street, as I started at the sea from my balcony on the first floor was enough to take away any words that I expected to come out of my mouth. At the apex of the flooding, there was water higher up than my knees on my street alone..A large part of the capital flooded, communication links between islands spread over 800 km lost, electricity cut off. And then...what had happened to the rural areas, sparsely populated islands with little or no protection against the sea.
In my opinion, Male', the capital was only saved because its sea wall, although not formidable, managed to stand fast against the brunt of the waves. Tourist resorts, and countless inhabited islands had been severly hit and damaged. The worst was knowing that there were people I knew in some of those islands. Luckily, my family back in the Addu atoll, the southernmost one were relatively safe, as the waves had not done much damage. I then remembered that my friend was at Kanuhuraa resort, and was due to come back yesterday. I couldn't get through to him on the phone until late today. It was the best news ever...finding out that he had escaped any injury and was in good health. The same could not be said for so many other people. I can not even begin to imagine the feelings of those who have lost countless loved ones on that tragic day.
The last update told us that over 20,000 killed in the region. In Maldives, there were 52 dead and 68 missing. And a huge, huge portion of the population without any shelter, having lost what meagre possessions they had.
It was heart-wrenching, to see the videos taken of islands that once held small but friendly communities, reduced now to just rubble on a sandbank...nothing more. The tears never ebbed from the eyes of those who had been 'rescued' from their own homes and birthplaces, probably never to set foot their again. Indeed, it had been widely discussed that settling a lot of the homeless in a new island would cost much less than rebuilding the ruins.
Aid continues to flow in from commoners and foreign governments. But will they be enough? Already reports say that Male' is running out of fresh drinking water, as a lot of the mineral water supplies are being sent to many of the islands. Even those, probably will not be enough to quench the thirst of those with only contaminated wells to look at in misery.
My prayer goes out to those who have lost their lives, every single person from every single nation, and also to those without homes, food and a sense of embodiment...Words cannot be written to express condolences for such things. It is only our belief in our hearts, and our actions in togetherness to help the victims, which can properly spell out how much the disasters have affected our minds and souls, an eternal scar, of memories not to be revisited.
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