Boxing Day, 2004.
When the earthquake struck at 06:30 (01:00 GMT), I used to be on a ferry, headed in direction of Havelock – an island within the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar.
Known for its silver sand and clear blue waters, the Radhanagar seashore there had just lately been topped “Asia’s Best Beach” by Time journal.
My finest pal from school and her household had lived in Port Blair, the capital of the archipelago, for a decade and a half, however this was my first go to to the islands, the place I had arrived on Christmas Eve.
We had deliberate to spend three days in Havelock and within the morning we packed snacks and sandwiches, gathered excited kids and headed out to catch the ferry from Phoenix Bay jetty in Port Blair.
Not eager to miss out on something, I used to be standing on the entrance deck, trying round, when catastrophe struck.
Just as we pulled out from the harbour, the boat lurched and all of the sudden the jetty subsequent to the place we had boarded crumpled and fell into the ocean. It was adopted by the watchtower and an electrical energy pole.
It was a rare sight. Dozens of individuals standing alongside me watched open-mouthed.
Thankfully, the jetty was abandoned on the time so there have been no casualties. A ship was because of go away from there in half an hour however the travellers had been but to reach.
A member of the boat’s crew informed me it was an earthquake. At the time I did not know, however the 9.1 magnitude quake was the third strongest ever recorded on the earth – and stays the most important and most harmful in Asia.
Occurring off the coast of northwest Sumatra below the Indian Ocean, it unleashed a devastating tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 individuals throughout greater than a dozen international locations and brought on large injury in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Thailand.
The Andaman and Nicobar islands, positioned nearly 100km north of the epicentre, suffered in depth injury when a wall of water, as excessive as 15 metres (49 ft) in locations, hit land nearly quarter-hour later.
The official loss of life toll was put at 1,310 – however with greater than 5,600 individuals lacking and presumed lifeless, it is believed that greater than 7,000 islanders perished.
While on the boat, nonetheless, we had been oblivious to the dimensions of destruction round us. Our cellphones did not work on the water and we solely bought snippets of data from the crew. We heard about injury in Sri Lanka, Bali, Thailand and Maldives – and the southern Indian coastal city of Nagapattinam.
But there was no details about Andaman and Nicobar – a group of a whole lot of islands scattered round within the Bay of Bengal, positioned about 1,500km (915 miles) east of India’s mainland.
Only 38 of them had been inhabited. They had been residence to 400,000 individuals, together with six hunter-gatherer teams who had lived remoted from the surface world for 1000’s of years.
The solely option to get to the islands was by ferries however, as we later learnt, an estimated 94% of the jetties within the area had been broken.
That was additionally the rationale why, on 26 December 2004, we by no means made it to Havelock. The jetty there was broken and below water, we had been informed.
So the boat circled and began on its return journey. For some time, there was hypothesis that we would not get clearance to dock at Port Blair for security causes and may need to spend the evening at anchor.
This made the passengers – most of them vacationers trying ahead to solar and sand – anxious.
After a number of hours of bobbing alongside in tough seas, we returned to Port Blair. Because Phoenix Bay had been closed following the morning’s injury, we had been taken to Chatham, one other harbour in Port Blair. The jetty the place we had been dropped had enormous, gaping holes in locations.
The indicators of devastation had been throughout us as we headed residence – buildings had was rubble, small upturned boats sat in the midst of the streets and roads had nice gashes in them. Thousands of individuals had been turned homeless when the tidal wave flooded their houses in low-lying areas.
I met a traumatised nine-year-old woman whose home was full of water and he or she informed me she had practically drowned. A girl informed me she had misplaced her whole life’s possessions within the blink of a watch.
Over the subsequent three weeks, I reported extensively on the catastrophe and its results on the inhabitants.
It was the primary time a tsunami had wreaked such havoc within the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the dimensions of the tragedy was overwhelming.
Salt water contaminated many sources of recent water and destroyed giant tracts of arable land. Getting very important provides into the islands was powerful with jetties unserviceable.
The authorities mounted an enormous reduction and rescue effort. The military, navy and air drive had been deployed, nevertheless it took days earlier than they may get to all of the islands.
Every day, navy and coast guard ships introduced boatloads of individuals made homeless by the tsunami from different islands to Port Blair the place faculties and authorities buildings had been was non permanent shelters.
They introduced tales of devastation of their residence lands. Many informed me that they had escaped with nothing however the garments on their backs.
One lady from Car Nicobar informed me that when the earthquake struck, the bottom began to spew foamy water similtaneously the waves got here in from the ocean.
She and a whole lot of others from her village had waited for rescuers with out meals or water for 48 hours. She mentioned it was a “miracle” that she and her 20-day-old child had survived.
Port Blair was virtually each day jolted by aftershocks, a few of them sturdy sufficient to start out rumours of recent tsunamis, making scared individuals run to get to increased floor.
A couple of days later, the Indian army flew journalists to Car Nicobar, a flat fertile island identified for its enchanting seashores and likewise residence to a big Indian air drive colony.
The killer tsunami had fully flattened the bottom. The water rose by 12 metres right here and as most individuals slept, the bottom was pulled away from below their toes. 100 individuals died right here. More than half had been air drive officers and their households.
We visited Malacca and Kaakan villages on the island which additionally bore the brunt of nature’s fury, forcing residents to take shelter in tents alongside the highway. Among them had been households torn aside by the tidal wave.
A grief-stricken younger couple informed me that they had managed to save lots of their five-month-old child, however their different kids, aged seven and 12, had been washed away.
Surrounded by coconut palms on all sides, each home had was rubble. Among the non-public belongings strewn about had been garments, textbooks, a toddler’s shoe and a music keyboard.
The solely factor that stood – surprisingly intact – was a bust of the daddy of the Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at a site visitors roundabout.
A senior military officer informed us his staff had recovered seven our bodies that day and we watched their mass cremation from a distance.
At the air drive base, we watched as rescuers pulled a lady’s physique from the particles.
An official mentioned that for each physique present in Car Nicobar, a number of had been swept away by the waves with out leaving a hint.
After all these years, I nonetheless generally take into consideration the day I hopped on the ferry to go to Havelock.
I ponder what would have occurred if the tremors had come a couple of minutes earlier.
And what would have occurred if the wall of water had hit the shore whereas I waited on the jetty to board our ferry?
On Boxing Day, 2004, I had an in depth name. Thousands who perished weren’t so fortunate.
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