The Rail Disaster on the Tsunami Day



 Natural protection along the coastal areas has been gradually bared for the past few centuries,
  exposing the land more and more to threats like Tsunami. The Telwatte area, where the train met
       with its fate on 12/26/2004, was known for limestone mining in sea in large scale, before this practice
           was banned some years ago. Here, the Kandy bound express train from Matara whistles past Wellawatte,
one of the few areas where some coastal vegetation has been fortunate to survive to some extent.   
 

On paper  (i.e. hindsight)  In Reality

The first Tsunami waves hit the island at Kalmunai around 8:27 am (probably) and there was plenty of time before the waves hit the Southern coast and the area where the train was.

Yes, there were around 45 mins. between the events, but how many Sri Lankans, let alone anybody living, knew that the entire coastal line would be under siege very soon ? 
The Tsunami last known to Sri Lankans was in 1883 and it had a very limited impact on the island, killing only one person.
The historic Tsunami which devastated the Western part of the island more than 2000 years ago, occurred due to a curse that the ruler of the country was under, we were told. We didn't know the number of villages and towns that were destroyed and the havoc caused by it (although, there were some detailed accounts of it in some ancient chronicle, THE RAJAWALIYA*). We were simply told that the gods withdrew their  wrath when the daughter of the king was floated down the Kelani river and sea ceased to invade.
Nor did I, who visited, with a friend some 12 hours before the Tsunami generating earthquake occurred in Sumatra,  a photographic exhibition, centered around the Muhudu Maha Vihara, the place where the queen mentioned above was said to have landed, in the wildest of my dreams think that the water was coming to the road as a result of another earth ripping quake, due to unveil a trail of disaster as a  result of the next great Tsunami to hit the island. Nor did the chief incumbent of the temple at Karapitiya, Galle where the exhibition was held, know that, some hours later, he would have to not only look on but provide all the assistance that he could, when the Karapitiya hospital premises situated opposite was surrounded by the relatives of the victims of yet another Tsunami. We didn't even know what a Tsunami was by then, although we knew about this previous instance of sea-flooding. At least, only a handful of us knew what was indicated by the retrieving sea!!!  

The train could have been stopped at Ambalangoda at the first place, as some other train proceeding towards Colombo was at Hikkaduwa. It was recorded that the ill-fated train went past the Kahawa signal so early as 9:28 am that day. It simply vanished after that! It shows that the train must have left the Ambalangoda RS at 9:20 the latest (check a time table please). This was almost the time that the waves started hitting the Southern coastal belt. But, too early to take action as nobody knew by then!!!
Yes, there was one train waiting at Hikkaduwa, but it was probably halted there for the Matara train to arrive, before proceeding along the SINGLE TRACK section.
There is a geological and mines bureau at Colombo and they should have been responsible for issuing a warning. True, but don't forget that we were living in a region where not even a Tsunami warning system was in place.

* Further details could be obtained by reading the articles "History of Tsunamis in Sri Lanka", written to the Science and Technology section of THE ISLAND by Dhanesh Wisumperuma, on 2005/02/08 and 2005/02/15 respectively. Unfortunately, these articles didn't appear in the web editions of the paper. Contacting dhaneshw@sltnet.lk might help.