SURVIVORS RECALL TSUNAMI HAVOC;

Sabastin is a ply wood shop owner at Madikeri. He returned home yesterday along with his wife and two children from Tamilnadu., narrowly escaping from the jaws of death. Only the Maruthi Omni he drove to Tamilnadu is missing!

He explained the harrowing experience his family underwent at Tamilnadu on this 26th.

He was driving his Maruthi Omni with his wife and two children to visit Velankanni Church at 5.30 a.m. They thought they lost the way. They drove back 7 K.Ms to enquire the route. Some one said we were on the right route and we took the same course. We were only Kms from the Velankanni Church.

"Something happened" he says. I don’t know what went wrong. Our Omni gave a big jolt. That’s all we know’. Next time when they opened their eyes, they were in a hospital. His wife was injured. He and his children had small bruises.

Then they learnt that Tsunami had hit around Velankanni Church at the time of their vehicle being pulled off the road. The Omni was thrown off and the inmates were fallen outside. Luckily the water had swept away only his vehicle. All those assembled before the Church was swept away too. Those who were inside the Church did survive. Sabastin says that he is saved simply by the grace of God who delayed his journey to the Church by few minutes.

He was second time lucky. When he regained conciousness, he found the hospital service unsatisfactory. He immediately called a taxi to shift his wife to another hospital. They boarded the car and drove for five minuites, the Tsunami attacked the hospital with all strength. He said that all the 65 inmates of the hospital, including the staff who treated them five minuites before became victims. "God saved us for the second time" he and his wife state with tears rolling down from their cheeks.