Tsunami & After

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Sri Lanka's 'Baby 81' is going to America

     Colombo: Sri Lanka's most celebrated tsunami survivor, infant Abilass Jeyarajah, who was found alive amid debris and then sat at the centre of a media circus as his frantic parents underwent DNA tests to win him back, is to appear in his first talk show. The excited father said he had never been out of the country and the baby had brought him and his wife Jenita luck. They are due to fly to the US on Sunday, courtesy an American television network. Cherubic Abilass became a beacon for bereaved parents whose children were swallowed up by Asia's tsunami, which claimed nearly 40,000 lives along Sri Lanka's palm-fringed south, east and northern shores alone. The infant earned his moniker "Baby 81" as the baby was the 81st person taken to Kalmunai hospital on Sri Lanka's east coast after the Island's worst natural disaster struck on Dec. 26. The Jeyarajahs were unable to prove the baby was theirs because the tsunami washed away their house and its entire contents, including his birth certificate - sparking a high-profile investigation that culminated in DNA testing.

Tsunami changes Czech super-model's life (Go To Top)

     Washington: Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova, who was badly injured in the tsunami disaster last December, has said that she plans to focus her energy in helping tsunami victims after completing her recovery. Nemcova feels that the disaster has completely transformed her life and she might not model again, as fashion and fame don't attract her anymore. "I'm different now, with a completely different view of the world. Believe me, it (modelling) really isn't important. There are so many important things in the world like health, love and peace in your soul," a Czech newspaper quoted Nemcova, who is working out painfully in a rehabilitation center, as saying. Nemcova's father, Oldrich Nemec, also doubts whether she will ever resume her modelling career, unless it helps raise money for tsunami victims. "I think she will now part with modelling. She will appear on catwalks in France, Britain or the USA for charity purposes only," the Daily News quoted him as saying. Nemcova is planning to return to Thailand with her father and her younger sister Olga to work on relief projects there, perhaps in conjunction with UNICEF. "I want to return to Asia as soon as I recover a bit, and want to help all the people by doing manual work. It is important for me to provide active help, to work with my hands. This will definitely give me the strength I need," she said. Nemcova and her boyfriend, British photographer Simon Atlee, were vacationing at a Thai beach resort when the tsunami struck on December 26. Atlee was swept away and is still listed as missing, while Nemcova shattered her pelvis and clung to the top of a palm tree, listening to the screams of dying children until she was rescued.
- Feb 19, 2005

Tsunami survivor rescued after 40 days (Go To Top)

Jessy, a tribal woman, who survived the tsunami and was saved after 40 days from the forests of Campbell Bay islands.

     Port Blair: A teenaged woman survived on wild berries and rainwater for over 40 days on a tsunami devastated island of Pillopanja in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago before a search helicopter rescued her earlier this week. She had fled into the forest interiors when the massive waves struck but lost her way and could not come back to the fringes in time to be evacuated. Jessy, an 18-year-old mother of one, was found by beach locals who had returned to the devastated hamlet .

      She is now at a hospital in the nearby Campbell Bay being treated for malnutrition and mosquito bites and has had a stream of well-wishers, including Home Minister Shivraj Patil, visiting her. Her husband and child are missing and presumed dead. "I lost my husband in the tsunami. I ventured into the forest where I lost my way. I survived on wild berries. When I came back to my village, there was no one. Many a times, I saw helicopters ut could not draw their attention," she said.

     Around 7,500 people, a majority of them Nicobarese tribals who normally live on the coast, have died in the island chain which had a population of more than 356,000. Rescue and relief have been slow in coming to the islands mainly because all the harbour jetties were destroyed. Most of the 36 inhabited islands in a chain of hundreds can only be reached by sea.
- Feb 15, 2005

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