RIYADH/JEDDAH, 27 December 2004 — Southeast Asian expats across Saudi Arabia were in a state of shock as the electronic media showed footage of the massive destruction of life and property caused by the earthquake and tidal waves throughout yesterday.
“The earthquake must have been very powerful as it has killed thousands of people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia due to the tsunami — a menacing wall of water,” Indonesian consul Sabilillah Maquom said. He described the earthquake as one of the most powerful in history, unleashing a tsunami on Sri Lanka.
“All of us are shocked by what happened. The destruction was widespread as the tsunami, up to 30 feet high, was triggered by an 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra,” he said.
Sri Lankan expats across the Kingdom were shocked on hearing that the tidal waves had devastated the island’s coastal belt killing thousands of people and rendering over a million others homeless.
Colombo has appealed for international aid considering the volume of relief work required to cope with the situation.
Some 350,000 Sri Lankans work in the Kingdom and most of their families live around the coastal belt of the island. They were disappointed as they could not establish contact with their families on telephone.
The island’s Natural Resources & Environment Minister Abdul Hameed Mohamed Fowzie told Arab News that the government was doing its best to bring the situation under control.
“The government will appreciate any form of relief assistance to those who are affected by the devastation. We’ve formed a special task force under Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse at the Temple Trees, his official residence, and this committee will work round the clock to help those hit by the tragedy,” Fowzie said.
Describing the incident as the worst tragedy in the country’s history, the island’s Ambassador Ibrahim Sahib Ansar said the mission had set up a hot line (01-4608689 and 4608235) to enable the community know the ground situation in the affected areas. “We understand the plight of the expatriates in the Kingdom who are anxious to know the fate of their kith and kin living in their homeland,” Ansar said adding that such a hot line will assist them with information received from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo.
The envoy said he planned to send a consignment of relief materials to the victims with the assistance of the Sri Lankan Expatriates Society (SLES) in Riyadh.
Ansar also thanked India for readily coming forward to help his country in times of distress.
In response to an SOS received from the Sri Lankan government, five naval warships loaded with relief supplies left for Sri Lanka from Bombay, Cochin and Vishakhapatnam for Trincomalee and Galle ports in Sri Lanka.
The liners will be assisting the Sri Lankan Navy in rescue operations.
Hassan Cader, personnel officer at a leading cleaning company in Riyadh said his company driver learned that his entire family of five members had been swept away by the tidal waves and another laborer had lost three of his close relatives.
At a hospital located on the Eastern coast of Sainthamaruthu, the floods swallowed a doctor couple Allaudeen Raheem and Zaheera and Dr. Mohamed Rizvi.
Mohamed Ariff Kaleel from the same village, who works in a palace here, said his sister was living with her two-month old infant in the vicinity of the hospital. “I don’t know what happened to them. Her husband, working for Microsoft Saudi Arabia in Dammam, is desperately trying to contact home but he was unsuccessful,” Kaleel added.
Mohamed Javid from Carrier lamented that most of his relatives from his wife’s family were either reported missing or dead.
He said his wife who got a baby recently was unable to sustain the shock. “Our whole family is in tears today,” he added.
Ahmed Basha, a communication company executive, said expats hailing from Tamil Nadu were worried about their relatives and friends residing along the coastline and in Madras. “My report is that the whole area has been turned into a cemetery,” he added.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before,” said a Thai expat working in the consulate.
