Witness statements from survivors of the Indian Ocean Tsunami:

“My husband, my child and myself were driving along the coast in the car.  Then we saw a lot of people gathered at the beach and some were running along the coastline too.  We asked what had happened, they told us the sea came onto the road.  At the time we thought it may be a common thing, then suddenly two men came running in front of the vehicle and told us to turnaround.  People had very confused emotions and nobody knew what to do next.  We saw the wave strike just 100 meters away from us.  We were lucky to escape, but before long, mothers came crying… they said they had lost their small children in front of their very own eyes and seen them floating in the sea.  They were unable to hold them since they hadn’t been able to grab them under the water.”
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA

“I was working at a resort in the Maldives.  At 1100 the sea started to rise and suddenly guests and staff were fighting for their lives:  the waves got so high some were nearly washed out to sea.  All of our rooms were destroyed.  To our horror the wave came back again, from the opposite direction, and smashed us again.  All the power and water are gone and all the staff have been evacuated.  But some resorts within sight are not affected.”
SOUTH ARI ATOLL, MALDIVES

One famous reporter from the biggest news TV station here cried her heart out when reporting live from Banda Aceh.  She was devastated.  (who is this famous reporter, who does she work for)

“The city’s like a huge dumpster, dead bodies everywhere, debris blocking the streets with victims of the tsunami in those piles.  Help hasn’t arrived yet even there in the capital Aceh.  People who are hungry tried to break in to a grocery store only to find food covered in mud and water and bodies of people who couldn’t escape at the time of the tsunami.”

JAKARTA, INDONESIA