FW: Report from Prasannan

[Guest guest]

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I guess you heard about the devastation

in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc. as

a result of the tidal wave from the

earthquake in Indonesia on Sunday...

 

As it affected the rest of these areas

I can only guess by news reports, but

for Amma's ashram I can report from

first-hand experience!

 

It was a normal Sunday morning darshan,

in the Kali temple, as there was supposed

to be Devi Bhava that evening... I was

doing readings as usual on the balcony,

my room overlooking the darshan hall.

At 11:30 the person coming to consult

was late, so I opened and what

caught my eye immediately was a news

item "160 killed by tidal wave in Sri

Lanka" which had been posted 4 minutes

previously... the report mentioned the

earthquake, which at that time was

estimated to be magnitude 8.5 (I think

later that estimate was revised upwards)...

 

I thought that Sri Lanka would be reporting

more quickly than India, but that India

having much longer east-facing seacoast

must be much harder hit - I remember

all those people living on the beach

in Madras and thinking they must have

been all swept away... I told someone

to tell Amma about it, although at that

time had no idea that less than 2 hours

later, the ashram grounds would be 3 feet

under water! Apparently Amma knew somehow,

and had already said that there would be

no Devi Bhava, and sent people to the

beach to warn the villagers of high water

coming!

 

The wave rounded the point at Kanyakumari

(where reports of 800 dead were in Monday's

local paper, along with 1500 in Tamil Nadu

(the official number will be low, because

many homeless "uncounted" people will have

been washed to sea) and continued up the

Kerala coast...

 

At the beach, the water was dead calm, and

the ocean had receded so that more than

100 feet of sand was visible that is usually

covered by water. A thin line could be seen

to the south-west, which was more of a swell

than a wave - as it hit the land along the

12 km stretch of island that Amritapuri is on,

it swept over the rock wall and covered virtually

all of the thin island in a matter of seconds.

 

People were shouting in the temple where

Amma was giving darshan (it was 1pm) and

someone called that Amma was trying to

make an announcement... Amma was standing

trying to say something, but by this time

everyone was running into the temple, and

nothing could be heard over the shouting.

 

Finally it became clear that Amma wanted

everyone to go up, to the "green roof" or

temple domes; at that point the water was

rising, and nobody knew how high it would

go...

 

Outside the ashram was completely flooded...

we heard that both computer rooms had 2 feet

of water! but one thing was evident right

away, the water level was going down, as

the excess drained into the kyle... within

less than 1 hour, there was only about a foot

of water left in most places and some higher

ground was already showing through...

 

Still, the power was off, and the thousands

of devotees in the flats had to be evacuated,

because we could not stay there, so all were

sent accross the backwaters to the engineering

college and AICT computer school, to await

further news.

 

Just in Amma's village, about 20 people drowned,

many were small children, who were swept away by

the swell and never had a chance. The wall by

the ayurvedic building at the seashore was

completely down on the road, and all of the

non-concrete buildings (grass or tin huts)

were washed away.

 

Amma didn't go over right away, and some of

us stayed to start the clean-up - by 10:30pm

Amma also went accross and told that after we

had cleared the chairs from the ground-level

hall (used for evening bhajans and Devi Bhava)

that we should join on the other side...

 

I got to AICT at about 2am, and crashed on the

roof for a few hours... there was fear of

aftershocks sending more waves, but by Monday

evening it seems that more water will not

be coming over the rocks... the government

declared the area sealed off, so nobody

was supposed to go there for 48 hours, although

by Monday many were helping to restore electrical

and other necessities. Tuesday we are to be allowed

to return - although the process of clean-up

will take much longer!

 

The wall between the pond and the Western Cafe

eating area was pushed down by the water and

flattened some of the tables. The main

ground-level darshan hall was covered by 2-4

inches of mud as was most of the ashram.

 

I had been wondering why there was a planned

Devi Bhava - it didn't make sense because

even last Sunday, there was only a morning

darshan, which lasted till midnight(!), and

this week being Christmas was much more

crowded - after the flooding I realized how

by this act Amma had saved even more suffering!

 

If there had not been a planned Devi Bhava,

the morning darshan would have been in the

ground-level darshan hall, and many thousands

of people would have been swamped suddenly by

water- people would have panicked, and although

the water only rose to 3 feet, surely some

would have been trampled and drowned (most

Indians are terrified of water!) By having

the morning darshan in the temple, fewer

people were in darshan line (because most

would have been waiting in their rooms for

the evening darshan) and those that were,

were inside the temple which is a safe 15 feet

above the ground!

 

This morning Amma went to Oachira to visit

local villagers in the hospital, and also

gave darshan to all the local villagers,

many of whom lost loved ones. The offical

count for Kollam was 153 dead in Monday's

paper, but they are still finding more

bodies - on Monday morning, 3 more bodies

of children were pulled out of the backwaters

just at the Vallikavu jetty - the shock

is still settling in of the magnitude

of this loss to the village!

 

Amma's western children had to endure some

discomfort, not being able to stay in

their rooms and suddenly having to shift

accross the water, but nobody suffered any

serious injury or loss, and the kitchen

which was already established for the

college has cooked for everyone.

 

Written Monday, December 27 at 6:00 pm...