My brother in law and family were at the Eden resort in Sri Lanka, his son
is studying Geology at University next year and he is interested in natural
phenomenon. Although the word tsunami did not enter his mind, when the sea
went out over 150 yards, he realised it was going to come back with a
vengeance, so they were on the third floor when it hit. One of the early
bits of news footage on Sky had my nephew saying "Oh shit" in the background
when the camera man is saying "I hope they can swim" as the wave went over
the swimming pool and into the hotel basement.

We got a phone call on Boxing morning saying they had survived and were
going to try and get home. 

They got on the first flight back to the UK and are all well.  They were too
traumatised to really tell us anything for the first day or so. My niece had
met a girl from her school on the beach the day before. She is dead and her
mother is missing. They think hundreds were killed in their resort, a third
of them westerners.

Doctors.net.uk is looking to coordinate some ideas for raising funds.


Trefor

-----Original Message-----
From: GP-UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of kupton
Sent: 30 December 2004 21:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: News from Réunion


Thank goodness some people got warning. What happened in Mauritius? That has

not made the news so hopefully was Ok and what about Madagascar or Lamu? 
There seem to be quite a few places yet to get any news out, or perhaps 
hopefully unscathed.
The TV coverage is horrifying.
Couldn't get through on the phone to send dosh last night so had to use the 
Oxfam web site. Hopefully that means a lot of dosh is being sent from here.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Leuty" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 7:04 PM
Subject: News from Réunion


As you may know, her indoors comes from the island of Réunion in the Indian
Ocean, several thousand miles from the epicentre and not far from Mauritius.
There was some warning. A fleet of helicopters were scrambled to warn
everyone to leave the beaches. In the event a few fishing boats were lost 
but
no-one was killed.

My father meanwhile is now resident in Western Australia, closer to the
epicentre but with a coast sideways-on to the tsunami. It was experienced as
a very high tide, but nothing worse.

Commiserations to those of you with family or friends more seriously 
affected.

(And send some dosh if you haven't done so already.)

-- 
Michael Leuty
Nottingham, UK

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