Been a bit of a nightmare 24 hours as I’m sure you can imagine. Got woken on Boxing day morning with the news of a natural disaster in Sri-Lanka with no real details. Then spent the next 10 hours camped out in front of the TV glued to the 3 digital news channels all telling different stories of earthquakes, tidal waves and thousands dead. Kept phoning all the contact numbers I had for Mum and Dad as well as the Emergency Disaster helpline but couldn’t get through to any of them…

Eventually managed to get through to a random family that ended up staying in my parents house after getting stranded and was able to ferry messages back to the UK to their family (most of whom didn’t even realise anything was happening) which was great for them but just left me even more worried…

At about 8PM UK time, Mum and Dad finally managed to get though on the phone very briefly to let me they were safe and well – very tired and a bit shaken but safe and well. Turns out they had set off for a holiday from Colombo in the West-Coast of Sri-Lanka to a hotel in the East-Coast (the worst hit area) and were en-route when the tsuami hit. Not knowing anything was wrong they pushed on for an 8 hour drive to find the East Coast littered with debris and several feet under water. After trying to push onto the hotel and finding it closed they turned round and started to head home and eventually managed to get a room in a hotel on high ground.

They’ve now managed to get back to Colombo and have already turned the manse into an aid station and collection point (no surprise). As a family we were all in Jamaica when Hurricane Gilbert devestated the island so I guess that must have prepared Mum and Dad for something like this a bit better than most. They’ve been able to start getting some relief for the east and southern coasts organised and more is on its way.

Haven’t heard what the situation in Colombo where my parent live is like, I think the house, church and neighbourhood are OK but they are only 20m from the sea so haven’t had that confirmed.

Just really, really glad they’re OK! (More news when I get it!)

James – http://www.dancingwithloons.com