SRI LANKA: The stench of death pervaded Galle in southern Sri Lanka yesterday as dazed survivors of the tidal wave that struck the island's coastline, killing more than 11,500 people, vainly struggled to comprehend their tragedy and bury their dead.
Relatives sat listlessly around, heedless of the stifling heat in the tourist town's overcrowded government hospital, 75 miles south of the capital, Colombo, to take charge of the bodies of their loved ones.
Scores of corpses, including children and at least two newborn babies, lay unclaimed on the cement floor near the hospital entrance late in the afternoon.
The hospital's security officer, R.M. Piyadasa, said at least 800 bodies had so far been brought there.
An equal number, he said, were still believed to be trapped inside a train at nearby Hikadu after it was flung off its tracks. Buses and cars were similarly hurled aside and were floating along the main road hugging the coastline.
The dead could not be recovered from the mangled railway carriages, as there was simply no heavy engineering equipment to lift such weights, officials said.
Rescue workers, their faces covered with masks to keep out the stench, said the bodies of men, women and children had been rescued from trees after the waters receded.
Many more corpses had floated into the sea, while others were still strewn amongst the debris of their homes and businesses along the coast.
A short distance away, bare-bodied men were feverishly digging shallow graves to keep pace with the unending line of make-shift hearses that were off-loading their grim cargo in crude, hurriedly assembled coffins.
"We have no time even to mourn our dead," said businessman Mahesh Ganeshshekhra, who was hurriedly burying his father-in-law, an optician.
He said his father-in-law had been getting into his car in downtown Galle around 9 a.m. on Sunday morning when the first of two "walls" of water struck. Like hundreds of others around him, he simply didn't stand a chance.
Two massive "sheets" of water, carrying huge boats from the nearby sea, descended like lightning on Galle within an hour of each other, levelling everything in their wake for several miles inland.
"It all happened so quickly that we are yet to react," John Griffin of London, holidaying with his wife and two children at the nearby Una Wataname beach resort, said. He was lucky to be alive, he added.
"My son saw boats moving very fast in the water and assumed it was a race. We did not care about it, as there are boat races here very often," Ms B.L. Deril Maria said.
"But then I saw these begin to fly and smash into pieces and realized something terrible was happening."
Nothing much remains of the once bustling bus depot in downtown Galle except rubble. "There are no words to describe what wrath descended on us," A.P. Sarachandra, chairman of the local Red Cross Society, declared.
Sri Lanka began a massive humanitarian operation after the tidal wave disaster, as the military confirmed that the overnight death toll had risen to over 11,500, including at least 48 security personnel.
This, however, does not include casualties in areas held by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas in the island republic's north.
The LTTE, fighting for over two decades for an independent homeland, raised its own death count to 820 from 800 after collecting the bodies of victims along the north-eastern coastline, where its military bases are concentrated.
The tsunami had also rendered over a million people homeless, officials said.
Foreign tourists seeking warm weather during the Christmas holiday were also among the dead.
"Our information is that 70 foreign tourists had died in the tragedy," tourism director general Kalai Selvam said, but was unable to confirm their nationalities. Another 47 were reported missing.
Officials feared the destruction would hit Sri Lanka's economic growth, especially in the tourism sector, which has seen huge expansion in the last eight years.
"Once the full impact is ascertained the blow to the economy would he substantial," the local Financial Times declared. It could be as high as 1 per cent of Sri Lanka's GDP, it predicted.
Meanwhile, President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of disaster to deal with the calamity and appealed for urgent humanitarian help from overseas.
"We have no mechanism to deal with this type of disaster," Lalith Weeratunga, aide to Prime Minister Rajpakse and the country's relief co-ordinator, said. They were getting systems in place to distribute relief, he added.
Reinforcements had been rushed to the southern and eastern regions to clear the roads and release bodies of victims piling up in hospitals.
"This is a gigantic task for us," Inspector General Chandra Fernando said, adding that clearing the roads was essential to enable relief supplies to get through.
The only single-lane alternative road to Galle was choked to a standstill yesterday as locals began fleeing the devastated town.
"We have nothing to stay for now," M.H. Tilakratne said.
The Sri Lankan authorities were also making arrangements to evacuate hundreds of tourists from coastal resorts that were badly affected by the tidal waves, senior minister Susil Premajayantha said.
He said they were not discouraging foreigners from visiting the island, but the authorities needed a few days to clear the debris and restore supplies.
"We are not saying don't come, but there are no hotel rooms in Colombo now," Premajayantha said. "Resorts in the hill area are fine, but the coastal areas are affected," he added.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring India, which was also hit by the tidal waves, a group from Denmark, restoring a former Danish fort in southern Tamil Nadu state near Cuddalore, said 300 children and fishermen were missing from nearby Nagapattinam town.
"Hundreds of thousands of children in coastal communities in six countries may be in serious jeopardy," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said.
About half of around 400 people who perished in Cuddalore on Sunday were children.
Nearly 3,000 people died in India, most in Tamil Nadu.
Under Hindu tradition, children are buried instead of being cremated like adults.
For the grim task in Cuddalore, two pits were dug near a river at the edge of this palm-fringed town.
Most of the children, aged between 5 and 12, were buried as they were found - in their Sunday clothes - without the luxury of a shroud.
Local officials wanted to quickly finish the burials, and the cremation of adult victims, so they could turn their attention to helping those left alive.
Bodies of young and old lay unclaimed at the town morgue, awaiting identification by relatives.
Doctors called relatives in one by one over a public address system, while vans with wailing sirens brought in newly discovered bodies.
Many emerged from the morgue shaking their heads in silence. An occasional heart-rending cry pierced the buzz of conversation as someone discovered a loved one dead.
As a small body was lowered from a morgue van to a bed, a man cried out: "My son, my king." Venkatesh (37) wept inconsolably as he identified his son, 11- year-old Suman.
Venkatesh had been in Dubai, where he went three months ago as a construction worker, when his wife called from Cuddalore to tell him their boy was missing.
He flew home immediately and went straight to the morgue, where he was found his wife and daughter minutes before Suman's body was brought in.
"I never thought I would only see my son's body," cried Venkatesh.
Moments later, an identification tag was tied to the boy's hand and his body taken inside the morgue for paperwork before being given to the parents.
Venkatesh's tearful cries were drowned out as more parents surged forward to check other bodies. Policemen, overwhelmed by grieving parents, gently asked Venkatesh to leave.
As one of his relatives pulled him away, he kept asking: "How can I go, leaving behind my son?"