Students Endure Tsunami Crisis

This winter break, Kimberly Chen ’08 gathered with her family for a reunion on the resort island of Phuket, Thailand. On Dec. 26, the Chens piled onto a boat and headed to a nearby island to go snorkeling.

Out at sea, they were unaware that a powerful earthquake off the coast of Indonesia had triggered a tsunami that would kill more than 155,000. The deadly wave felt like little more than a bump to the Chens because tsunamis don’t develop into tall waves until they approach the shore.

The tsunami reached across the Indian Ocean to Somalia and destroyed coastlines across Southeast Asia, including Phuket. Chen and her family stopped at an island to eat, not knowing that the tsunami had just hit, and could not dock.

“It looked like it got completely ripped apart,” Chen said. “Little pieces of boats were floating around. The entire thing got wiped out.”

When Chen and her family returned to Phuket, they thought the destruction they saw had been caused by a storm.

“We had no idea what was going on. Someone said there was a storm but there was clear blue sky everywhere,” she said.

One of the villas the family had rented was on high enough ground to avoid the waves, but Chen said she feels lucky that her family did not remain on the shore.

“Three generations were on that boat,” she said with relief in her voice.

After a tense night in the villa, with family members sleeping in shifts to watch for aftershocks, Chen, her parents and brother took a plane to Bangkok, Thailand where they and the other tourists on the plane were greeted by an official from the American embassy.

While no one in the Harvard community is reported missing or dead, many Harvard students live in the areas affected or have family there.

Mridula S. Raman ’06, co-president of the South Asian Association, was still waiting to hear from relatives from Tamil Nadu until Dec. 31, the Indian state hit hardest by the tsunami. In India, over 8,000 have been reported missing.

“I’ve been to a lot of the coastal areas that have been destroyed, and I can picture the faces of the fishermen and locals who gave us tours,” Raman wrote in an e-mail. “I know that many of them likely perished. That the tsunamis have caused such widespread suffering is of course tragic; that they mainly hit those who were least able to cope—the poor—makes it so much worse.”

Naresh Ramarajan ’04, also from Tamil Nadul, is currently traveling around Indonesia as a Rockefeller fellow. “My best friend’s parents literally ran from the waves in [the Indian coastal town of] Cuddalore and bought their way into the first bus out of town for an enormous sum,” Ramarajan wrote in an e-mail from Indonesia. He added that his family and friends were all safe.

Ramarajan wrote that when he heard about the disaster, he decided to move to Sumatra to help with relief efforts.

“I’m hoping helping in Indonesia might somewhat ease my conscience about staying in Indonesia when my home state has been hit and needs help,” he wrote.

Patrick Toomey ’03, who was working with People’s Watch-Tamil Nadu, a human rights organization, had planned to meet with his girlfriend, Emma B. Wright ’03, at the coastal town of Mahabalipuram on Dec. 28.

“The tsunami quickly did away with those plans,” Toomey wrote in an e-mail from India. “Strange to think that we were two days removed from being on that beach.”

Students from the area who escaped the effects of the tidal wave said the disaster struck a solemn tone over their winter break.

Nadiah Wan ’07 was at her home in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, when the earthquake hit.

“We hardly felt anything, although several people in high-rise buildings reported very slight tremors,” she wrote in an e-mail from Malaysia.

Wan wrote that she had no family or friends who died but that many of them were “lucky to escape” from coastal regions.

“The atmosphere is pretty somber,” she wrote.

Weerawat Runguphan ’06 wrote that he is frustrated to be so far away from his home of Nonthaburi, Thailand when so many citizens are in need.

“What frustrates me is that I am stuck here, obligated to study for finals when everyone in my country is collaborating on the recovery,” he wrote, adding that his family and friends are safe.

Although many students hail from the areas of Asia hit hardest, only one undergraduate was studying in the affected countries during the fall semester, according to Jane Edwards, the director of the Office of International Programs (OIP). The student was in India on a program that ended in mid-December.

Edwards said she did not know of any Harvard students who had been injured or reported missing. She said that while it is uncommon, natural disasters have affected students studying abroad in the past, such as erupting volcanoes in Ecuador.

“As it happens, none of the countries affected, except India, receive large numbers of study abroad students, so the immediate effect will be of a general psychological kind rather than specific,” Edwards said. She added that no students have contacted the OIP about changing their plans to study in the affected areas.

—Staff writer Bari M. Schwartz contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Liz C. Goodwin can be reached at goodwin@fas.harvard.edu.