Father Teresa to islanders

Port Blair, Jan. 11 (PTI): Razzak Ali, 39, who saved several lives on the island of Teressa, 380 km south of Port Blair, on Black Sunday has earned the sobriquet ?Father Teresa?.

?I used to watch the National Geographic channel and knew what a tsunami was all about. That it would strike Andaman some day was something I never thought,? he said. On December 26, the wireless operator at the port control tower saw the sea churn ferociously and recede immediately. ?Oh my god! Tsunamis are coming,? he shouted and ran down to warn everybody around. On his way to the interior of the island, he saw a moped rider, Mohammad Nazam, passing by and asked him to spread the news. ?Everyone, run to higher ground,? Ali shouted. In a little while, the tsunami hit the port building and the police station.

NRI fund

Cuddalore (PTI): A group of Indians in the US has come together to form a fund to help restore the livelihood of fishermen in Akkarai Ghori village in Tamil Nadu. ?Hundreds of Indians living in the US decided to form a fund to support at least one village,? a member of the group said. A team of volunteers from the Washington-based NGO, Asian Development Fund, has taken to repairing boats and fishing equipment in the village.

Radar images

Washington (AP): Images of the tsunami were caught by a series of radar satellites, allowing scientists of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop measurements of the wave in mid-ocean. While a tsunami can rise to great heights when it arrives at the shore, such a wave is often barely noticeable in the ocean. In this case, scientists found that two hours after the undersea quake that caused the tsunami, the wave was about two feet. An hour and 15 minutes later, it was down to about 41 cm. After eight hours, the main wave was down to about 5 to 10 cm, though a portion in the Bay of Bengal was still about 25 cm, the scientists said on Monday. Researchers hope the work will help them develop models to improve tsunami forecasts.

Staying put

Porayar (PTI): About 9,000 families in Nagapattinam district have expressed unwillingness to return to their houses destroyed by the tsunami. The government has ordered construction of temporary dwellings for them and work on this has started, a district official said.