Velankanni

Velankanni is the site of an important Christian shrine 12 km south of Nagapattinam on the Coromandel Coast, in Tamil Nadu, India. It was one of the worst hit areas in the tsunami that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

Marian Shrine

2004 Tsunami

On December 26 2004 the shrine, the surrounding area and the seashore were bustling with activity. Thousands of people were celebrating mass or bathing in the ocean.

The mass (in the Malayalam language) began at 9 am. At 9.15 am there was a loud noise and the waves started coming towards the shrine with great speed and enormous force. They washed away all the shops, came up to the Viyagula Matha chapel, and with the same force returned to the sea, bringing down the structures and taking people with them. On the other side of the compound the water entered violently demolishing the walls, and water entered through the retreat center. It pulled down walls along the Stations of the Cross and brought with it many dead bodies. In a few minutes the adoration chapel, bus stand, parking zone and many lodges were filled with four feet of water. After five minutes there were bodies scattered everywhere. The electricity went off, communication went dead and the holy town became a ghost town.

As nobody was prepared for this disaster, the people could only stare at each another helplessly and it was a few hours before any action was taken. By late afternoon shrine officials had started organizing efforts to address the situation. First the pilgrims were asked to leave Velankanni and many of the local residents and shrine workers also left.

With the small available work force the operation began slowly. The only thing that they could do was collect the dead bodies but little was done on the first day as there were not enough people. A request was made to other parishes to send volunteers and a few responded immediately. Volunteers from Anna Nagar and Madakottai parishes, about 80 youths, arrived in Velankanni shortly after midnight.

Early in the morning on December 27 they started collecting the bodies. Everything was done with bare hands as no equipment was available. There were also no medical teams or government officials. At the end of the day more than a thousand bodies including many children were collected. Some of them were identified but many were not and late in the evening the unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave.

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