Six months later, tsunami letter revives nightmare

Tsunami panic made a brief reappearance in Nagapattinam district recently when a schoolteacher shot off a letter to the district collector, ...

Tsunami panic made a brief reappearance in Nagapattinam district recently when a schoolteacher shot off a letter to the district collector, predicting a tsunami on July 6. With officials neither confirming nor denying the ‘‘alert’’, hundreds of locals thought it safer to move to Thanjavur and Madurai for safety.

Sources said P. Rajendran, a PG assistant in Physics at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Parangipettai, had written to the Nagapattinam District Collector on June 6 that a tsumani would strike the region around 5.58 am exactly a month later.

While the letter was being read out during a disaster-preparedness meeting at the collectorate two weeks ago, senior police officers reportedly seconded the contents, giving some credence to the prediction. Nagapattinam MLA and former minister R. Jeevanandam, who was present at the meeting, in turn, asked for a photocopy of the letter. These copies were later circulated in the district, triggering panic. ‘‘When the tsunami struck the last time, the men had gone fishing and only women and children were on the shores. When the men returned, they could see only the bodies of their loved ones. Men preferred to stay back this time to be with their families,’’ said Govindaraj, a fisherman. Soon, residents of Nalyanthottam, Maraimalai Nagar and Ilancheran Nagar began moving out to Thanjavur and Madurai.