December 26 th again and this time it is the 9 th Anniversary of 2004 Sumatran -Andaman earth quake and followed by the colossus Tsunami which took lives of almost 3 lakh people across the glob. I was in Port Blair capital of Andaman and Nicobar and experienced one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
It was on a boxing day Sunday early morning in Port Blair at about 0635 hrs ,I was watching the boxing day cricket match between Australia and Pakistan live on TV,suddenly heard a huge sound followed severe shaking quarters. Initially I could not sense it was an earth quake..All the items in kitchen and showcase were started falling down and we could not stand on the floor. Suddenly we heard the sounds of the SOS from people who could come out of home and they started screaming too. We could not come out of home as we were in first floor and my younger kind was just 6 months old so we lied on the floor,suddenly i noticed that the quake is getting harder and ceiling started vibrating as if it it could fall down at any time. we were helpless and the ultimate danger signals flashed on us. One moment we thought all over..... but some how after few seconds we could just sneaked out of home. Those moments we cannot forget in our entire life!!! It lasted about 2 and half minutes.
After the quake I thought everything will be normal and I went out soon to see what happened outside and in the Dilanipur the near by junction i could see a big deep gap on the road, similar ones were many in the city. In office too the the ground floor broken.All the people were out side and they were in total disbelief about the quake and this was first time they were experiencing such huge tremor. At around 0700 am we could see the people were fleeing from low lying areas and when inquired they told sea water is coming up and that was the first waves is tsunami and again around 0830 we could see that sea water was filled in the beach which included the marina park, the football ground and the swimming pool and Indoor Stadium where i used to by this time everyday with Shaji M Raghav and Ramalingam Natarajan sir. Luckily that day we did not go as Shaji had morning duty.
Following days I experienced one of the worst time in my life as no water as all the under ground pipes were broken and no electricity either.Schools were closed indefinitely.But we decided not go native immediately , thanks to my wife Smitha who stood with me and supported that decision and later it was found correct too. People were panic as the relatives causalities were coming out from near by islands. When we go to markets we observed that a total death silence everywhere. When relief camps set up in Port Blair we paid visit to there to see the affected people. Heart breaking scenes we could see , there were many people who lost all relatives and everything, there were many who could not talk due to the psychological impacts of quake and tsunami. Luckily in port blair no much death casualties but in near by islands the death toll was huge than official and in many islands and total chaos followed .The Andaman Archipelago was twisted due to impact of quake and In port Blair was about one meter down and many beaches including famous Corbyn's Cove washed out.
I was proud and lucky to be part of the famous live SOS phone in program started by AIR Port Blair immediately after the earthquake to help the victims and survivors of distant islands. There was no means of communication other than satellite phone and AIR in islands which helped many to contact and convey the whereabouts of affected people. I could still remember the long queues in front of office to send messages.
All the memories are vivid like yesterday and I am thankful to those who stood with me and family especially my friends Ramalingam Natarajan, shaji m raghav, Biju PVKiran KP , manoj vayoth and Staff of AIR Port Blair for giving all the support needed during the catastrophe .
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