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Thursday, 01 September 2005 |
It was a long, nervous wait for this grandmother. "For eight days we watched the water swelling," says Anasuya Bima Gasti, 58, writes indiadisasters correspondent, Siddapur, Belgaum district, Karnataka, Thursday, September 01, 2005 at http://www.indiadisasters.org/tsunami/
Forwarded by Budhi Mulyawan 050905.
"Then finally it entered our house; it was 9.30 at night" she recalls. She, her son, daughter-in-law and their two children were saved by rescue boats brought by the police.
Back at her battered and damaged house all she can see is things strewn around, muddied, waterlogged - clothes, utensils, pictures of gods and goddesses. There is a musty smell about the whole place.
Her son-in-law says he has to rebuild the house. But he does not know how. "I have been living without any work for the past one month."He is visibly lost while entering what used to be their home. Clueless.
Anasuya's grandchildren find it difficult to go to school amid all this chaos.
Kaveri, who is in the first standard lost her slate. Hanumanth, a third standard student has a more serious problem - all his text books were damaged in the water. He keeps them in the sun with the faint hope that the smudged, twisted pages would somehow get straight.
Village elders count 104 schoolchildren who have lost their books and bags. Buying them anew means their parents have to find work. That means something should be done at the earliest about the 900-odd acres of damaged land.
It is likely to be a long wait for Anasuya and her family.
(Floods in Belgaum and north Karnataka - 2005: A humanitarian assessment report, ActionAid International)
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