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| Monday, 27 December 2004 |
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By Roland Buerk, BBC News, Sri Lanka I'm in a town called Unawatuna, which is on the south coast of Sri Lanka. It was about 1000 this morning our time and we were still in bed when we suddenly heard some shouts from outside. Then the water started coming under the door. Within a few seconds it was touching the window. We scrambled out of the room - quickly the water was up to chest height. We made our way out of the hotel, through the incredible rushing water. First of all we climbed up into a tree for a couple of minutes but then that began to fall down because of the water. We were swept along for a few hundred metres, trying to dodge the motorcycles and the refrigerators and the cars that were coming with us. Finally, about 300m inshore, we managed to get hold of a pillar, which we held onto, and then the waters just gradually began to subside. Little help This has caused incredible devastation here. There are cars in trees, buildings destroyed. It is impossible really to get an accurate picture of the number of casualties from where I am. But in one small area of one small village I have seen three bodies so far: two Sri Lankans - an elderly lady and a young woman - and a Western boy who looked to be about five years old. There is no kind of emergency services here, there are no helicopters thumping through the sky to come to save people. It is a do-it-yourself rescue. People are trying to go through the building and trying to rescue people who might be trapped. Most people have gone up onto higher ground, fearful of another tidal wave - rumours are that another one might be coming and people are trying to get up on to the hills. A call went round about 15 minutes ago for a doctor because a man's pulse was getting weaker and weaker but there are no doctors here. |
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