RAGAMA, Sri Lanka – Nimal Premasiri first closed the window to avoid being splashed by the unusually high waters, but the next waves that struck the Queen of the Sea train were as big as elephants, recalled the survivor of a tsunami onslaught that claimed more than 800 lives in a single blow.
Premasiri’s daughter told him not to worry when she saw the rushing wall of water – she could swim.
He never saw her again.
The train was chugging slowly up the sandy, palm-fringed coast and was nearing its destination – the historic port city of Galle – when the waves struck.
“It looks God did not want to take me,” Premasiri said Friday, fighting tears as dozens of neighbors and family gathered to mourn at his home in this suburb of the capital, Colombo.
“We first saw the waves that they were higher than usual, and fearing that I will get drenched I closed the window on my side,” said Premasiri, recounting the tragedy that took the lives of his daughter, Taranga, 18 and wife, Mallika, 51.
“Then I saw waves as big as elephants coming toward us,” he said. “My daughter told me not to worry, she was a good swimmer and will help us. … Those were the last words I heard from her.”
The waves also took the lives of 800 others, including the engine driver. Premasiri survived with a few scratches to his leg.
“I can’t recall what really happened after I heard those words of my daughter,” said Premasiri. Somehow, he found himself sitting on the roof of the carriage after the tsunami slammed into the train.
Premasiri, the station master of Colombo’s 100-year-old Fort Railroad station, had been traveling to Galle in southern Sri Lanka in the last car of the eight-carriage train. In the “brake van,” as the carriage is called, the ride is free for the families of railroad officials.
The train’s eight rust-colored cars now lie in deep pools of water amid a ravaged grove of palm trees. The force of the waves tore the wheels off some cars, and twistedthe tracks.
A thousand tickets were sold in Colombo for the train, and rescuers recovered 802 bodies. No relatives claimed 204 of those corpses so they were buried in a mass grave.
“When I found myself on the rooftop of the carriage, I saw many other people, trying to hold onto the rooftop, some did, but some did not,” he said.
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
He found his wife’s corpse on Tuesday and his daughter’s on Wednesday. He cremated his wife on Wednesday and his daughter on Thursday.
“I felt terrible pain, look here,” he said pointing to the photos of his wife and daughter that were placed on a while table.
A moment later, Premasiri regained his composure.
“I have my son,” he said of 20-year-old Ranga, who is studying computer science at the University of Arkansas.
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