Comments from Tsunami Survivors

All taken from CNN.com

Helen Wachs: “I can’t describe carrying a moaning person who just saw his girlfriend killed down a hill in the middle of the night,” the e-mail said. “I saw more bodies than I care to report. The hotel where we were staying is mostly gone. We lost everything, but our lives.”

Basab Bagchi: “I was about to take a boat ride with my wife and had left my eight-year-old son in the pool adjacent to the sea when I suddenly felt the seawater rising. We ran towards the hotel and yelled to my son to get out of the pool. In a flash I lifted him up and ran towards the staircase. The wave hit us but still I managed to get to the first floor. My wife had managed to climb the diving board in the swimming pool and when the water started rising she floated up and got hold of a tree and was clinging to it for dear life. Suddenly the next wave came. It was more intense and it was a nerve-wrecking scene as we shouted to her to hold on tightly. She was shouting back that the tree might collapse. Anyhow, the water started receding and we rescued her and got, leaving all our belongings other than our Indian passports.”

Deepa: “I was at the Selaka Shopping Complex at Galle. There was a great hissing sound from the sea and the sea seemed to be caving in. Within seconds, a great wave came rushing in to the shore, destroying everything and sweeping away everybody who was in the way. Everyone vanished in a second. The whole town was destroyed, along with people at the bus stand and vehicles on the road within few seconds. It is like a dream. I have never seen anything like it.”

Ronaldo: “Woke up at 6:56 am, then went outside to smoke. All of a sudden I felt this huge movement and the next thing you know you see waves maybe 10 feet high. By that time the water had broken the windows downstairs and was rushing through the streets. Screams for help echoed through the area. People were crying, trying to survive as cars were swept from their parking spaces and buildings collapsed. I got to the door just as a huge wave struck again. The walls buckled as water filled the room in a few seconds. It was like slow motion with my cousins flying into the air, blown by the force of the water. We saw a fishing boat floating into the street and grasped a pillar and held on for our lives. My cousin went to check on my aunt and she was dangling from the shower pole where she had bathing. When the next wave came she got caught underneath it. I haven’t seen her today and I believe she has drowned. When it was over I was so sad I cried. But I am grateful I am living and have my family to live with.”

Paul Sussman: “People here seem bewildered by the enormity of what has happened to their country. Everywhere you go, small crowds are huddled around radios and TV sets silently absorbing the news, blank faced, as if unable to comprehend what they are seeing and hearing. The devastation might be limited to coastal areas but the sense of shock and loss is universal. It is a tragedy that has united Sri Lanka both in grief and also in determination to do everything possible to help those who have and are suffering. In Hindu and Buddhist temples, mosques and churches, prayers are being offered for the dead and injured. Across the land, collections are being taken for those who have lost everything, vans with PA systems driving around calling on people to give what they can. Even in the poorest and most remote areas, people flock to the roadside to hand over money, clothes, water bottles or bags of rice and lentils. There is a popular buddhist saying in sri lanka, life is no more than a dew drop balancing on the end of a blade of grass. The events of December 26 have shown just how precarious that balance can be.”

PLEASE KEEP IN YOUR PRAYERS: THE SURVIVORS, VICTIMS AND FAMILIES OF THOSE LOST IN THIS TRAGIC ACT OF NATURE.