Samantha Ward

Tsunami Story!!!


11\02\ 2006


Dear diary,
I’ve been in India for one week now, and a tsunami’s already hit! It hit yesterday around lunchtime. I had been dark and cloudy all day, so we had expected it to rain, but no one was expecting this. The helicopter will be here in 20 minutes, and with the way the wind’s blowing, I hope I’ll still be here. While I’m waiting, I’ll tell you everything that’s happened since I’ve been in India.

I had just graduated from college with a major in criminal justice. I wasn’t very experienced, but I had a job, and I had been good at this in college, so when the Head of the School needed to send someone to India, he asked me to go. There had been a bunch of murders, and he said he wanted someone he could trust. I said OK, and went home to get ready to leave in a month. I started learning Arabic and researching the murders. In one month, I was on a plane, heading to India.

After I got here, I checked into my hotel and went to the forensic lab. I started working and didn’t stop until late that night. I had a lot of work to catch up on, but it didn’t take me long to solve the case. The murderer was arrested and given the death penalty. I guess that’s the way it goes in India. The next day, the tsunami struck.

I was eating lunch with the only other CSI in the lab. There was one other girl, but she was busy, and couldn’t come. I wish she had. She wouldn’t have died. We were just finishing lunch when we saw the wave. We started to run, but you can’t outrun a tsunami. Everywhere we looked we saw people running, and screaming. Everyone ran toward the church tower, because it was the highest place around, but with all the craziness, people were knocked down, and most of the people didn’t make it. I tried to get as many people as possible to run to the hotel with me and get on the roof, but they didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Arabic, so a lot of people didn’t follow. The tsunami hit, and as we saw all those people we couldn’t help, we started crying.

Then it was all over. The water looks so deep, and I shudder to think of all the bodies under there. I don’t see anything moving. The helicopter radioed me and said they’d be here in 20 minutes. I called my mom and told her I’m alive. She was crying, and it made me realize just how grateful I am to be alive. So many people died, and they will never have justice. The tsunami was a part of life, and no one could control it. I guess it’s game over. This case was closed before it opened.

Posted by CAA Students Blog at 9:57 AM 0 comments