The day of the disaster.
We're staying in Wellawatte, a suburb of Colombo, about half a mile from the ocean, but though the water level here rose about 20 feet, it didn't get far past the ridge near the beach. Damage in Colombo was lighter than most (the press are all using footage from here because it's convenient, I'm sure); after seeing brutal video footage of the coast south of us, I feel a bit lucky.
These are pictures from when we went down to the beach the day of the tsunami, about 2 hours after the second big wave hit our area. At the time we had no idea how bad it really had been.
Debris covers the tracks in Wellawatte. These tracks lead to Galle in the south, and trains packed with people were washed out and thousands drowned. On television, they showed footage of all the bodies still tangled in the cars days later.
The shore was crowded with spectators... waiting the ocean to do something again? We were all rubbernecking.
This is one of the large canals that empty into the ocean.
While we watched, the water level rose about 6 feet in a few minutes, and the flow of the canal reversed — eerie. Probably wasn't the smartest thing to be here.
Squatters on the beach took the most damage. There's some stuff lashed to the trees. Like many places along the beach, they were preparing for more waves. Everyone is on edge from rumors of a second tsunami.
People in Wellawatte left homeless make temporary shelter, still too close to the beach.