Mullaithivu situation grim amid rising toll
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 20:42 GMT]
Three thousand three hundred and seventy three people
were killed by the Tsunami in Mullaithivu according to
local rescue workers and the Liberation Tigers.
Kallapaadu, a coastal village near Mullaithivu town,
was completely wiped out by the Tsunami. "So far we
have been able to recover 1300 of the 2214 who
resettled in village after the Sri Lanka army garrison
there was overrun in 1996", said Mr. S. Senthan, the
village officer (Grama Sevaka) for Kallapaadu told
TamilNet Tuesday.
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Mr. S. Senthan |
He lamented that no international aid organization has come to the area until Tuesday afternoon to assist rescue and relief work.
"Refugees are crammed in public building and churched
in the interior. They desperately need food, clothing
and medicine", Mr. Senthan who escaped the catastrophe
said.
Ms. Vaitheki, the head of the LTTE's political
division for Kallapaadu told TamilNet that she
struggled with the rushing waters to save some
children at the Senthalir orphanage. "I heard the
children scream as they were pulled by the waves
force while I was struggling to revive children who
were choking", Ms. Vaitheki said.
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Ms.Vaitheky |
"There were more than hundred and fifty orphans in the Senthalir Home.
Only twenty children have been rescued. Sixty five are
dead. Some were away from the Home when the Tsunami
struck. The toll might be higher when we account for
the children who were not there on Saturday", she
said.
The death toll in Mullaithivu is expected to mount as
more bodies are retrieved and the missing are
accounted for, Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation
officials told TamilNet.
The parish priest of St. Josephís Church in
Mullaithivu said that many refugees are suffering
without shelter as the few structures in the coastal
region that survived the Tsunami are already congested
with the thousands who have lost their homes and all
belongings.
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Parish priest of St. Joseph's Church | |
He said more than thousand five hundred people would
have been killed by the Tsunami if the waves had hit
the Mullaithivu town during mass at the St. Josephís
Church.
The executive engineer of the Road Development
Authority (RDA) in Mullaithivu, Mr. S. Jeffrey told
TamilNet that the entire RDA office and works complex
situated about five hundred metres from the shore in
the coastal town was destroyed by the Tsunami waves.
"The RDA building was put up at the cost of five million rupees. Road construction equipment worth two million and vehicles worth three million have been
completely destroyed by the sea", Mr. Jeffrey said.
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RDA Executive Engineer Mr.Jeffery | RDA Watcher MR.S.Satheeswaran |
"I heard a sound like a loud explosion coming from
the direction of the sea. When I looked I saw a
massive wall of a wave rising out of the sea. I ran
for more than two kilometers to escape the speeding
waters", said Mr. S. Satheeswaran, the security
officer at the RDA office in Mullaithivu town.