COLOMBO, 13 January 2005 — Hambantota, a lively tourist spot in the southern tip of Sri Lanka, is now a ghost town after the Dec. 26 tidal waves.
The Urban Council (UC) Quarter of the suburb located 240 km from the capital was left with some 100 men whose family members were devoured by tsunami and their houses razed.
The Fort Mosque which accommodated a congregation of 1,000 worshipers, was left with a small section where ablutions were performed in the past.
Volunteers were putting up a temporary shed to perform daily prayers. A visiting Saudi philanthropist had given funds for the construction.
“There were more than 750 families living in these houses and the only men who survived the tidal waves were those who had gone out of their homes for various errands,” S.A. Qudsi Mowlana told Arab News recalling that he returned to the quarter within 15 minutes to see only the debris of the houses. The people who had gone to the adjoining sea-side Sunday Fair were all swept away.
Even after 15 days of the tidal attack, the place looked like a battlefield. The sea which swallowed 6,000 people from this town looked calm and unusually misty as if it has done no harm to anyone.
Hundreds of families who were living along the coast of Hambantota are housed in several refugee camps in the district.
Mowlana, a painter by profession, has lost 45 people from his family including his wife, two children, father, mother, aunts and uncles. “There is no one for me and I am totally blank about my future,” Mowlana said sadly.
Bereaved Hassan Faiz, 25, told Arab News that his deceased wife who was pregnant was to be admitted for confinement on the day after the disaster. “Almighty has taken her. Its all his work,” a traumatized Faiz said pointing to the sky.
Counseling services were equally important as food and medicines to Faiz and several others who were afflicted with the adversity here.
Thaha Mohammed Farook, a prominent lawyer in the Hambantota bar, had escaped the waves with his family but for his furnished luxury mansion, two vehicles and his case files. He had gone to Colombo to see his daughter during the weekend.
“I lost everything, thank Allah some of us are alive,” Farook said, adding that he did not know how to start his life all over again.
Mohamed Yusuf, trustee of the dilapidated mosque, said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited the site and the Muslim community had requested for rehabilitation of the victims who are living in large numbers in other parts of Hambantota.
A house stood alone in the ravaged area. All its inmates were killed except 40-year-old Faizeena whose life was spared by the sweeping waters. She was seated on the rubbles and gaping at her lonely house.
