India tidal wave toll tops 1,000 December 26, 2004 - 9:24PM
(The villagers of Palolem, Polem, Galgibaga families vacate as the waters continue to rise threatening to submerge the coastal villages.) Massive tidal waves triggered by an Indonesian earthquake slammed into southern India, killing about 1,000 people, mostly in Tamil Nadu state, sweeping away boats, homes and vehicles, said Home Minister Shivraj Patil. He said on a private television network, Aaj Tak, that the worst affected area was Tamil Nadu state, where 700-800 people were reported to have died, followed by Andhra Pradesh state where the toll was about 200. Another 14 people died in Kerala state and 14 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Tamil Nadu's beaches turned into virtual open-air mortuaries as fishermen's bodies washed ashore, and retreating waters left behind others killed inland. At least 200 people died in Tamil Nadu's capital Madras alone, and up to 600 in other districts including Cuddalore, Patil said. Sea water flooded the streets of Cuddalore town, flipping over dozens of cars and leaving some vehicles perched atop road dividers. Residents of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh state spoke of four-metre walls of water slamming into the shore. AdvertisementAdvertisement "I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. "Many boats were upturned, but fishermen were still holding onto them. They also were pushed into the sea," he said. "I had never imagined anything like this could happen." Also, 46 people were killed in three districts of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, police said. They said 32 of them - including 15 children - had gone into the sea for a Hindu religious bath to mark the full moon day. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states are on India's southeastern coast along the Bay of Bengal, hundreds of kilometres from Indonesia, where a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck. Two people were killed and 100 injured in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a remote and sparsely populated archipelago in the Bay of Bengal about 1,500 kilometres east of Madras. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250