Tsunamis Ain’t Nuthin’ To Fuck With
Here’s an email from a guy from Sri Lanka who I played rugby with back at MIT. Thankfully, he was the fastest player on the team.

"Thank you for everyone’s concern. I am safe with no major injuries and got home a few hours ago. My family members were also not affected, since they were in Colombo. I was on an east coast beach with some friends when the tsunami hit at about 9.15am on Sunday. We were on the beach in the morning when we saw the waves coming and ran inland to escape them. We ran about 150m inland and then realised we could not outrun the large wave that was following us, so we climbed up a partly built house. Within a few seconds the wave crashed onto the house and took the house and us with it. Fortunately, I managed to grab a coconut branch with one arm, pull myself to the tree and hug it with my legs and arms. The first wave poured in for about 10 mins and then sucked most of the water back into the sea. After that I got down and saw one of my friends. Then both of us started yelling out the names of our two other friends. One of them heard us and came out. As we were looking for the other friend, we heard shouts of "another one is coming" and started running back into the jungle. After following some villagers inland and finding some slightly high ground we climbed up a tree. The second and third waves flooded the area around us, but didn't hit the tree. We were about 1km inland at this point. We then heard a huge noise and saw a very large fourth wave heading our way. The wave was crashing close to us and came about three feet up the tree we were on. After this wave was sucked back into the ocean things became relatively calm and we waited on the tree for a while. After the water levels had decreased a bit, we decided to head towards the only high ground we could see, with the help of some villagers. At one point I had to use a rope to get over a stream because I can't swim. The high ground was already being turned into a refugee area. There was a Special Task Force (STF) military unit nearby that was organising the rescue and relief effort in the area. There was still a threat of more tidal waves and there was no road out of the area because the only bridge connecting it to the mainland was destroyed by the waves. We had to wait our turn to be airlifted by the one helicopter that was assigned to the area because the whole country was affected and limited resources were available. The helicopter had a mechanical failure and was grounded for six hours. We were taken to a big rock by the STF to spend the night in safety and brought back to the refugee area in the morning. Finally we were airlifted to a nearby city at about 1pm on Monday. One of our friends was still missing, so we tried to locate him and waited for his father to get to the area. After doing what we could to help locate him and sending information about him to all the military bases, hospitals and refugee camps in the area, we headed for Colombo today. Will try to do more about the missing friend tomorrow. The death toll in Sri Lanka is expected to hit 25,000. It was a very sad and scary experience. There is a lot more detail to be said, but I'm really tired now and I'm heading to bed. Will tell you more later."
- posted by Liebs @ 8:26 PM