DEATHWAVE

In India’s neighbourbood, news agencies in Sri Lanka reported a toll of 3,500 deaths, in Indonesia just over 2,500. From Thailand’s (over 300 feared killed) Phuket beach resort to low-lying Maldives, from Malaysia’s Penang to Kerala’s Kollam, a series of seafront locales, busy on the Christmas weekend, fell as if playing out some eerie domino theory.

In India, Tamil Nadu bore the brunt of the tsunamis — tidal waves trigged by an earthquake under the sea, in this case off the coast of Sumatra, at 6.29 am IST or 59 minutes past midnight GMT. Kerala lost 121 people, Andhra Pradesh another 69. The gigantic ripple was felt as far up north as Nadia, West Bengal, where one person lost his life.

The darkest news, perhaps, came from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. New trickled in initially, as communication with the Indian mainland was cut off. By the evening, there were reports of over 1,000 casualties.

It was unreal day. India was left bewildered as much by the ferocity of the sea as a succession of cataclysmic freak occurrences. Chennai was flooded. At Port Blair airport, a huge crack rendered the tarmac unusable — though by the afternoon, an Indian Air Force An-32 pilot made a heroic landing on the treacherous surface.

This was no ordinary rescue op. The entire IAF base in Car Nicobar, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy announced late in the evening, was washed away, with 23 IAF men and their families killed. ‘‘Reports reaching us till this evening say that 63 more people are missing from the base,’’ said the Air Chief, adding, ‘‘all buildings have been razed to the ground.’’

Closer to the mainland, at the Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari, 500 pilgrims — many had travelled to see a photo exhibition — were left marooned, alone among swirling waters. By evening IAF helicopters were attempting rescue operations but failing to make a landing. Finally, Naval boats moved in.

Like a giant ripple that cut across the Earth’s shelf, the earthquake travelled from the coast of Aceh (in Indonesia’s northern island of Sumatra) to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In Sumatra, it recorded a massive 8.9 on the Richter scale, making it the worst earthquake anywhere since Alaska, 1964. In contrast, the Gujarat earthquake of January 26, 2001, recorded a 7.9 on the same scale.

As the earth’s plates collided, they cracked ‘‘1,000 km of the Andaman thrust (or faultline)’’ said a geopyshicist at the US Geological Survey’s facility in Golden, Colorado. The Car Nicobar island — which felt a jolt of 7.3 on the Richter scale — is just 115 nautical miles from Sumatra, Campbell Bay is only 25 nautical miles away from Indonesian territory. India couldn’t escape the aftershocks from its closest southern neighbour.

As the prime minister deputed Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran to man the Union government’s war room, the Jayalalitha, Oommen Chandy and Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy state administrations, hit without the slightest warning, faced a titantic task.

In Andhra Pradesh, most of the 69 deaths were reported in Guntur, Prakasam and Krishna districts. In Pondicherry, an estimated 280 people died, but it was Tamil Nadu that was dealt the most severe blow. Naval vessels and IAF helicopters were searching the seas off Nagapattina, Cuddalore and Karakkal, and even Chennai, not to mention waterlogged inland areas, in search of survivors and, of course, the dead.

The heaviest toll was in Nagapattinam district where close to 900 people were feared dead. In the church town of Velankanni about 300 people, mostly pilgrims, were engulfed by the sea. Reports from Kanyakumari too say close to 400 people were feared dead.

The toll in Chennai was 125, when agency reports last came in. Most of the victims were fishermen and their family members, huddled inside their huts as the sea turned rough. Morning walkers and children playing at the Marina beach were devoured by 10 to 15-ft high giant waves. Fishing boats and cars parked on the beach were simply washed away.

The sea kept receding after every incursion into the coast, only to return within minutes, eating away more and more of the shore. The second floor of the Slum Clearance Board premises at Pattinapakkam in Chennai had six-metre waves ramming against its walls.

At the Chennai Port Trust, water entered as far as the main gate. Ships anchored there were seen tossing in the rough sea, as the anchor ropes snapped.

In Kerala, the alarm bells began ringing early. Passenger ship MV Bharat Seema, with 360 aboard, had set out from Kochi to Lakshadweep this morning, minutes before the warning of tidal waves in the Arabian Sea came in. Southern Kerala districts Kollam and Allapuzha districts reported nearly 50 deaths between them. One survivor described the waves as being as high as ‘‘two palm trees.’’

It was a crisis comparable to war. A Navy spokesman said five warships loaded with helicopters, rescue boats and specialist deep-sea divers were patrolling the sea from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu, looking for fishermen and passenger vessels. Three IAF An-32 transport aircraft had landed at Port Blair with medical supplies.

Critical installations, considered so safe in the deep south in case of an actual war, were suddenly at risk. The second unit of the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam was shut down after water entered the plant.

Oil and gas exploration work as well as refinery operations on the east coast were partially interrupted, though largely unaffected. ‘‘There was no loss of operations, installation and personnel. All are safe,’’ ONGC director (exploration) Y.B. Sinha said. ONGC is drilling off the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Cairns and Reliance Energy reported no damage to their oil and gas fields in the Bay of Bengal region.

— (With agency reports)