Sunday, December 26 2004 20:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: People in Ayodhyakuppam in Marina beach, Srinivasapuram and Ennore in the city, most affected by the tidal waves and incursion of sea water this morning (Dec 26, 2004), are still in a state of shock.

In a span of few seconds, their huts were swept away by the waves and several families lost their loved ones.

To pressmen, the entire coastal belt wore a chaotic look. People were seen sitting on the roadside, with a dazed look.

In many of these areas, fishing boats were swept away. Some of them were found on the roads, several metres from the sea.

Three Government hospitals, where the bodies of the victims were brought, witnessed heart-rending scenes with the relatives of the victims thronging the mortuaries to identify their loved ones.

Police and fire service personnel brought 57 bodies to Royapettah Government hospital, 31 in Government general hospital and 16 in Stanley hospitals upto 15:30 hrs (IST), hospital sources said.

The waves rose to the extent of six metres and had hit even the second floor of the slum clearance board tenements in the Foreshore Estate, which bore the brunt of the waves.

Ganesan, a resident whose wife and child are missing, said several women and children were killed as they were sleeping.

Gogula, grandmother of Deepak, who was practising a martial art at the Marina, was inconsolable as he was washed away along with three others. She identified the body of her grandson at the Royapettah Government hospital.

Several bus shelters and lampposts along the Marina beach, claimed to be the second biggest in the world, were uprooted by the tidal waves, which went upto ten metres in the morning.

Despite police warning the public not to venture into the sea, people were seen walking into the water.

Ennore coast, once vulnerable to sea erosion, escaped the wrath of the waves this time due to construction of 'anti-erosion walls.'

For most of the fishing community, today appeared to be a Black Sunday. Fisherwomen, who sell a lot of fish on Sundays, had gathered in good number at the Marina in the early hours of the day, only to be swept away by the waves.

Voluntary organisations rose to the occasion by organising shelters for those who were rendered homeless, in marriage halls and provided food.

Most of the ships in Chennai harbour were seen tossing up in the rough seas as the anchor ropes were cut by the waves.

Guhan, an old fisherman, said he had not seen waves rising up to this level during his 40 years of fishing.