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Tsunami relief in
Kanyakumari Dt, South India.
When
tsunami hit the shores of Colachel in Kanyakumari District, the fishing
village close to the sea was wiped out, and the people ran to higher
grounds. The waves covered an old canal which runs in between the village
and the higher grounds, and many people fell in that canal and died. Some
were swept away. The government provided temporary thatched sheds as
emergency measure in different sites called colonies.
As Jopa Ministries operates in Kanyakumari district, South Indian
Charities rushed to the spot, and made a study of their immediate needs and
on-going requirements. We thank the pastors and the members of Park Avenue
United Methodist Church for their generous donation, which enabled us to
reach out immediately.
People from Peryianaki Colony and
Singaravelian Colony were helped with lockable steel cabinets, cooking
utilities, kattumaram, furniture, sewing machines. Some were helped to start
vending businesses.
I visited the area in the first week of
November , 2005. What I saw was unbelievable. The families live in thatched
sheds provided by the government built as colonies, I heard stories of fear
and hopelessness. They lost their possessions and loved ones. One young
woman lost her fiancé to the waves. The wedding was scheduled for the next
day. The help they need to start all over is not there yet.
The
following pictures were taken during my visit . The mass grave stands as a
gut-wrenching reminder of this grave tragedy. 368 people were buried under
the sand, and pipes are erected to reduce the odor. The thatched sheds form
colonies, and many families are sheltered there. Those who received the
steel cabinets store their belongings in them and are very grateful. The
Bible that you see on the cement block was the only one that was not swept
away by the tidal waves from a small church. . You can see the canal on one
side and the sea on the other side, and the fishing village is in between. 
The mass grave
Sign on the grave site
People live in
temporary sheds
The village is between the sea and the canal
A teenager wondering what next
Steel cabinet for storing whatever
left
Kattumaram for fishing
Different colonies set up in the
village.
Devastation all over the village
Water rose up to the
first floor
Another part of the wiped out village
The Bible that
survived the waves
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