My boat was just a few meters from shore when the waves hit

Boxing Day, 2004.

When the earthquake struck at 6:30 a.m. (0100 GMT), I used to be on a ferry heading to Havelock, an island in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

Identified for its silver sand and clear blue waters, Radhanagar Seashore was not too long ago topped “Asia’s Greatest Seashore” by Time journal.

My finest pal from faculty and her household had lived in Port Blair, the archipelago capital, for a decade and a half, however this was my first go to to the islands, arriving on Christmas Eve.

We deliberate to spend three days in Havelock and within the morning we ready snacks and sandwiches, gathered some excited youngsters and set off to catch the ferry from Phoenix Bay jetty to Port Blair.

Not eager to miss something, I used to be standing on the foredeck, wanting round, when catastrophe struck.

Simply as we have been leaving the port, the boat lurched and all of a sudden the pier we had boarded subsequent to collapsed and fell into the ocean. It was adopted by the watchtower and an influence pole.

It was a unprecedented spectacle. Dozens of individuals beside me stared open-mouthed.

Thankfully, the pier was abandoned on the time so there have been no casualties. A ship was as a consequence of go away from there in half an hour however the vacationers had not but arrived.

A member of the boat crew advised me it was an earthquake. On the time, I did not realize it, however the 9.1 magnitude earthquake was the third most powerful ever recorded worldwide – and stays the most important and most harmful in Asia.

Occurring off the coast of northwest Sumatra within the Indian Ocean, it triggered a devastating tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 individuals in additional than a dozen international locations and induced widespread injury in Indonesia, Sri Lanka , in India, the Maldives and Thailand.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, situated about 100 km north of the epicenter, suffered in depth injury when a wall of water, reaching 15 meters excessive in locations, hit land about quarter-hour later.

The official demise toll stands at 1,310 – however with greater than 5,600 individuals lacking and presumed useless, greater than 7,000 islanders are estimated to have perished.

Nevertheless, once we have been on the boat, we have been unaware of the extent of the destruction round us. Our cell telephones did not work on the water and we solely acquired snippets of knowledge from the crew. We have heard of harm in Sri Lanka, Bali, Thailand and the Maldives – in addition to the coastal city of Nagapattinam in southern India.

However there was no details about Andaman and Nicobar, a group of tons of of islands scattered within the Bay of Bengal, situated about 1,500 km (915 miles) east of the Indian mainland.

Solely 38 of them have been inhabited. They have been dwelling to 400,000 individuals, together with six teams of hunter-gatherers who had lived remoted from the skin world for 1000’s of years.

The one strategy to entry the islands was by ferry, however, as we later discovered, an estimated 94% of the world’s piers have been broken.

That is additionally the explanation why, on December 26, 2004, we by no means reached Havelock. The pier was broken and submerged, we have been advised.

So the boat rotated and started its journey dwelling. For some time there was hypothesis that we would not get permission to dock at Port Blair as a consequence of safety issues and may need to spend the night time at anchor.

This made the passengers – principally vacationers wanting to benefit from the solar and sand – anxious.

After a number of hours of crusing in tough seas, we returned to Port Blair. Phoenix Bay having been closed following the morning’s injury, we have been taken to Chatham, one other port of Port Blair. The pier the place we have been dropped off had big gaping holes in locations.

Indicators of devastation have been throughout us as we returned dwelling: buildings had turned to rubble, small overturned boats littered the center of the streets, and the roads had giant gashes. 1000’s of individuals have been left homeless when the tidal wave flooded their properties in low-lying areas.

I met a traumatized nine-year-old woman whose home was crammed with water and he or she advised me she virtually drowned. One girl advised me she misplaced every part in her life within the blink of an eye fixed.

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 devastation within the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the dimensions of the tragedy was overwhelming.

Salt water has contaminated many contemporary water sources and destroyed giant areas of arable land. It was troublesome to get important provides to the islands, with the jetties unusable.

Authorities have deployed huge aid and rescue efforts. The military, navy and air power have been deployed, nevertheless it took days earlier than they may attain all of the islands.

Each day, navy and coast guard ships carried boats full of individuals made homeless by the tsunami from different islands to Port Blair, the place colleges and authorities buildings have been became non permanent shelters.

They introduced again tales of devastation of their homelands. Many advised me they escaped with nothing however the garments they have been carrying.

A girl from Automotive Nicobar advised me that when the earthquake hit, the bottom began spewing foamy water similtaneously the waves got here in from the ocean.

She and tons of of different individuals in her village had been ready for rescuers with out meals or water for 48 hours. She stated it was a “miracle” that she and her 20-day-old child survived.

Port Blair was rocked virtually each day by aftershocks, some sturdy sufficient to set off rumors of recent tsunamis, prompting frightened individuals to flee to larger floor.

Days later, the Indian Military flew journalists to Automotive Nicobar, a flat, fertile island recognized for its enchanting seashores and likewise dwelling to a serious Indian Air Drive colony.

The lethal tsunami had utterly razed the bottom. The water rose 12 meters right here and whereas most individuals slept, the bottom was ripped out from beneath their ft. A few hundred individuals died right here. Greater than half have been Air Drive officers and their households.

We visited the villages of Malacca and Kaakan on the island, which additionally bore the brunt of nature’s fury, forcing residents to shelter in tents alongside the street. Amongst them have been households torn aside by the tidal wave.

A grieving younger couple advised me they’d managed to save lots of their five-month-old child, however their different youngsters, aged seven and 12, had been swept away by the floodwaters.

Surrounded by coconut bushes on all sides, all the homes have been remodeled into rubble. Among the many scattered private results have been garments, college books, a toddler’s shoe and a musical keyboard.

The one factor left – surprisingly intact – was a bust of the daddy of the Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at a site visitors circle.

A senior military officer advised us that his staff had recovered seven our bodies that day and that we had watched their mass cremation remotely.

On the air base, we watched as rescuers pulled a girl’s physique out of the rubble.

An official stated that for each physique present in Automotive Nicobar, a number of had been swept away by the waves with out a hint.

In spite of everything these years, I nonetheless generally take into consideration the day I took the ferry to Havelock.

I’m wondering what would have occurred if the shaking had occurred a couple of minutes earlier.

And what would have occurred if the wall of water had hit the shore whereas I used to be ready on the pier to board our ferry?

The day after Christmas 2004, I had a tough blow. 1000’s of people that died weren’t so fortunate.

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