OT tragicomedy

Excerpt from Colombo Times...

On 26th Dec '04 early morning several hrs before the catastrophe
happened, Honolulu Tsunami Monitoring center have been trying to call
our Meteorological Dept. monitoring center in Palekelle and Colombo but
failed. They also got in touch with presidents' office however it was
informed that she's out of the island on a private vacation.

Finally they called Prime minister's secretariat, but Prime minister
was out on his morning walk. Thinking at least it's best to keep him
vigilant on this, the Honolulu officials left the message with the
person who picked up the phone to inform Prime minister that there's a
Tsunami coming from Indonesia.

On prime minister's return, the operator told prime minister about the
call, said T. Sunami from Indonesia is arriving in 2 hrs. Prime
minister promptly took action to send a delegation to Katunayake
Airport with name boards ' Welcome Mr. T. Sunami - Indonesia'.
Ramapriya