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These are photographs taken between January 8th and February 4th 2005 when I was back in Kosgoda, Sri Lanka to repair and rebuild after the tsunami. Click on the small images to see a higher resolution version (1024x681).

This is the water tower that we leapt up to escape the tsunami. You can see a "tide mark" on the staff toilet block on the left which shows the average height of the water (about 8 feet). That may not sound like much but it was very fast moving water!
A view from the top of the water tower. The salt water of the tsunami killed all the grass and many smaller plants and bushes. In this shot, you can see three 5000 litre water tanks that were washed away by the wave (but subsequently recovered). They are shown here under the "garage" where lorries and cars were parked. This structure was bent and damaged by being hit by vehicles washed along in the water.
This is a view from the back of our factory land towards the water tower. The rubble you can see are the remains of the 7 foot border wall.
It's just a lowly pump, used to extract water from our 18 metre deep tube well. However, it was stolen twice by thieves coming in the night and sawing through the pipes. Sadly, this disaster brought out the worst in many people (and nicking our pump was nothing compared to some of the looting and robbing that went on).
The front wall being rebuilt. The group of people in the middle distance on the left are our factory employees, whose income depends on the factory being restored into operation. The house on the right belongs to my father-in-law.
It's quite amazing how much clearing up was required. This picture was taken in my father-in-law's back garden and shows how much debris was left lying around.
On the beach front there used to be Kosgoda Turtle Sanctuary, where hatchlings of endangered sea turtles could be reared and released into the wild. That turtle hatchery has been completely obliterated (shown in a later pic). This turtle shell was found in my father-in-law's garden, about 250 metres from the hatchery.
Another picture taken from my father-in-law's back garden, this time looking across to the property behind the little hardware store next door. Everyone is picking through the pieces trying to put their lives back together.
Pumping water out of the pit where the water tanks used to reside. We needed to rehouse the 3x5000l tanks.
This picture was taken from the spot I was standing when the front wall (under reconstruction in this image) was smashed in by the tsunami, as described in my account of the days events. From here, we ran to the water tower which is behind me and to my left.
Repairing a vacuum packing machine. The tsunami forced salt water through any buildings it didn't flatten, which of course caused considerable damage to any electrical (and most mechanical) equipment. In this picture, Mr. Kam Bolla (vacuum packing machine guru) is doing what he loves most, fettling one of our machines (assisted by Priyantha in the background).

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