An elderly tsunami survivor in Nagapattinam looks on as AMURT volunteers dig piles of mud from her home.
(click photo for higher resolution)



To assist surviving Indian children cope better with post trauma stress syndrome AMURT  volunteers engage them in games and art.


During a second Tsunami warning AMURT volunteer carries an injured elderly man to safety. (click photo for higher resolution)

AMURT volunteers locate, bury or cremate victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake / tsunami. (click photos for higher resolution)

Nagapattinam, January-March 2005

Our team located and buried or cremated hundreds of dead bodies in and around Keerakolaichal in Nagapattinam district. We were able to locate the bodies with the help of military helicopters, and the villagers and townspeople themselves. Grief-stricken tsunami survivors would approach us asking us to carry their dead relatives away.

Our team helped hundreds of local people clean and repair their damaged houses. As is characteristic of fishing towns in southern India, Nagapattinam (population: 200,000) is spread out into many small hamlets along 100 kilometers of coast line forcing our teams to move by jeep. The task was laborious as most houses were inundated with up to 6 feet of water and are full of sand.

Our team members distributed relief supplies to the people in temporary relief camps built by the government. Cooking stoves, cooling utensils, water containers, mattresses and clothes were distributed to thousands of people.

AMURT’s organized play groups and sports activities for children in the relief camps and affected villages. They also held training sessions for local organizations to train them in child counseling and child activities,

In the course of the relief work we come across people with many moving stories to share. Anjammal, a middle aged woman, was mending her fish net when a sudden wave of water crashed into her house. Water was swirling up to her neck, yet somehow she could grab her two children and start swimming. She saw one of her neighbors being swept away and grabbed her hair to save her. That neighbor was also holding onto her two children. Anjammal kept swimming and brought everyone to safety. She wonders how she got such strength in a fraction of a second.

Local government official are extremely supportive of our work. Dr. P. Umanath, Sub Collector of Nagapattinam, writes in a letter: “I place on record the selfless and tireless service rendered by the AMURT team during the initial periods when the services of volunteers were particularly crucial. A special mention should be made … about their role in the disposal of dead bodies, particularly the human way in which the operations were handled by the team, and the cleaning operations of the damaged households.”

AMURT Received several letters of appreciation from the local government (click photo for higher resolution)