Page 48 - Hemas_Piyawara_Book

The very first task of the team headed by the Executive Director of the Hemas Tsunami
Foundation, Shiromi Masakorala, was to find that scarce data on the magnitude of
the damage and destruction. On December 29 , the Deputy Director of the Children’s
th
Secretariat, Jayantha Peiris, a few of his staff and Shiromi embarked on an unforgettable
journey.
As they went along tracks which had once been roads, now no more, with many
detours inland because not even tracks existed, the images were searing……… alive but
literally unseeing men, women and children seated on rubble which had once been
their homes staring into space; bodies and bloated bodies; and crowds squeezed into
whatever buildings that were standing including schools and places of worship.

In the east, causeways had been washed off and one evening as twilight gave way to
night, the team awaited a navy boat to take them across the waters, when rumour
spread that another tsunami was about to hit, causing panic. Finally, the boat arrived
and once they crossed the water, it was a tractor ride to lodgings just for the night.
“We sat on the floor of the tractor which had a layer of wet cardboard. It was only after
we got off that we realized that the tractor had been transporting decomposing bodies.
The devastation in the wake of the tsunami in the east and the south.

40 Hemas Piyawara - A Journey to the Future