Anxious days as ethnic groups wait for news

Sri Lankans living in New Zealand are still waiting anxiously for news of loved ones in their stricken homeland.

"We have never heard of anything like this, the sea flooding into the land," said the president of the New Zealand Sri Lanka Foundation, Dharmasena Maddugoda.

"Forty years ago we remember a cyclone hitting the northern part of Sri Lanka and that was the worst disaster."

Mr Maddugoda said Sri Lankans in New Zealand remained anxious last night as many were still having problems contacting relatives. What news was coming through was "very, very disturbing".

Mr Maddugoda told the Herald last night how a friend's friend had been swept to his death. The man was a prominent Sri Lankan lawyer and politician.

"He owned a hotel and from the third floor window saw something was happening on the beach after the first waves washed away, so he went down to see what was going on. The next wave took him and two others and his body has since been found. We are hearing a lot of these stories."

Another friend's mother had gone to the markets at Matara on Sunday only to find them under completely under water.

Mr Maddugoda said he had seen footage on the news of Galle, where he studied, showing buses floating in areas which would have been "very, very busy" when the tidal waves hit.

The Sri Lankan community was now rallying around to do what they could. Their annual New Year's Eve dinner in Auckland had been cancelled and the money from the tickets would be donated to victims.

Indonesian Community Association founder Ibu Hatono said most members he knew came from regions well away from Aceh, which bore the brunt of the damage.

The few with families in the worst-hit region had been told their relatives were safe, he said.

The managing director of Radio Terana in Auckland, Robert Khan, said last night almost all the Indians who had relatives in the worst-hit areas had established they were out of danger. But about 10 per cent had not been able to get through to families, which remained a concern.

Aucklander Vijay Desari said he was still trying to reach family members in Machilipatnam, a port on the Bay of Bengal, and friends in Chennai.

"We are worried, the telephone lines are down."

President of the Bengalee Association of New Zealand Amit Ohdedar said he had fielded a few inquiries but most Bengalese were following the news and calling relatives in West Bengal.

"It is apparently not so bad there, just a little damage."