Document text
48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 1, 2005 In the horror Former Ashland resident describes devastation in Sri Lanka after tsunami By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune Sunday dawned bright and beautiful in southern Sri Lanka, but the evening’s full moon would look down on a world horrifyingly changed. Inside his British colonial home perched three miles from the coastline, former Ashland resident Aaron Peak never heard or felt Sunday’s tsunami hit. His first indication that something was terribly wrong came with a phone call from a friend in Australia. Leaving the house to look for his roommate, the 50-year-old soon encountered a whole new reality. "The first thing I saw were houses in the road," he said. Reality grew darker as he encountered more detritus of human life and corpses littering the main road that links the island’s coastal towns. In some spots, Peak scaled power poles, cars, trucks and walls that were stranded in the street by the monster wave. At Unawatuna — formerly known as the island’s premier beach destination — Sri Lankans and tourists were wandering among corridors of bodies lined up in hopes someone could identify them. Peak knew his roommate, Jean, was unharmed because she had left their house after the tsunami had rocked the island. His main concern was for a good friend whose family operated a restaurant right on the beach. When he arrived, only a corner of the building remained. Advertisement Peak’s friend, Roshan, was at the hospital to identify his dead grandmother. They later slogged around in the wreckage of the family’s home, which had been pushed into the jungle. There wasn’t much to salvage. By dusk, the looting had started. It was the next day before Peak heard eyewitness accounts of the terrible wave. A British couple and their three children were eating at a beach restaurant, their table right on the sand. "The first wave just appeared and swept them through the restaurant, which collapsed," Peak wrote in an e-mail to his family in the Rogue Valley. The father grabbed the baby, clutching him as he was slammed against a power pole. A bed flew through the air and crushed the father’s ribs and the infant’s head. The mother was swept into the jungle. Their daughter was snared in a barbed-wire fence, and their son collided head-on with a motorcycle surfing the wave. Peak took the family into his home minus baby Charlie, whose body was at the local hospital. When family members heard the British government was transporting subjects by helicopter from a nearby military airstrip, they fetched their child’s body and left for home with his makeshift casket. Similar stories of tragedy kept rolling in. Roshan’s mother was setting up tables in the family’s restaurant when the next thing she knew, she and a boy who was helping her were inches from the ceiling. The building collapsed, and they were swept out to sea. They were then thrown onto a roof and heaved through the jewelry shop across the lane. The grandmother happened to see the first wave, and ran into the house to wake Roshan’s auntie and sister. But the second wave came and pushed them into the rafters. The house collapsed. Auntie and Sister were swept in separate directions but survived. Grandmother was crushed by a beam. Another family that lived near Peak was traveling on a train that was sucked into the ocean. No one has seen the family since. "It is weird to walk by their house at night," Peak wrote. "No one in sight." Despite the tsunami’s devastation, the community has risen up in an astonishing effort to rebuild, said Peak, reached by phone Thursday night. But he fears the Sri Lankans’ meager resources won’t last long. Hoping to replace 10 families’ homes and businesses, Peak had his brother-in-law, Don Blaser of Eagle Point, establish a local bank account to benefit the people of Unawatuna. Peak, who has lived in Sri Lanka for just six months, is committed to seeing through the restoration. He already had planned to sell his house in Ashland and make Sri Lanka his permanent home as he travels Asia promoting HIV prevention. A 10-year history working with Asian health departments has made him an expert in logistics, Peak says. Construction materials, such as stone and cement, are available on the island, Peak says. But it will take about $20,000 to resurrect one family’s home and its livelihood. "Almost everybody’s lost somebody," Peak said. "Clearly international support is needed." Contributions can be made to the Unawatuna Village Foundation of Sri Lanka at any local branch of PremierWest Bank. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers