Nat Geo TV Shows Help Tsunami Islander Save 1,500

Neelesh Misra in Port Blair, India
Associated Press

January 7, 2005

The Friday night slot on the National Geographic Channel—showing documentaries on tsunamis and other natural disasters—was a favorite of Abdul Razzak's. And when the December 26 tsunami struck his home island in the Indian Ocean, those TV programs would help him save some 1,500 of his neighbors.

It was the morning after a night of Christmas revelry. There were no ships scheduled to come toward remote Tarasa Dwip island, home to 3,500 people. Razzak, an employee of India's Port Management Board, was posted on the Tarasa Dwip port observation tower.

"Suddenly the observation tower was shaking. I and two of my colleagues woke up and we ran down,'' he said. "Then I remembered what I used to see on National Geographic last year, every Friday, 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.''

Tsunamis can be caused by three reasons, Razzak recalled: an undersea earthquake, a volcano erupting within the sea, or a massive boulder plunging into the water.

"I immediately told my colleagues to take my motorcycle and rush to as many villages as they could and tell them to evacuate immediately,'' Razzak said.

Razzak himself ran past the jetties and the villages, screaming, "Go back! Go to the hills! The water is coming!''

In five villages men, women, and children scrambled up hills, some two miles (three kilometers) away. They panted and screamed, holding hands and hugging their children close as they ran. Many fell and hurt themselves.

But they all obeyed Razzak.

Within minutes the first big wave came and caused some damage. Less than ten minutes later the second wave crashed and then a third that was even higher, some twenty feet (six meters).

The five villages were demolished as their 1,500-odd residents watched from a hill. Only three people died—two women and a baby girl.

No help would reach the island for five days. Villagers laid out wet rice from a government warehouse on the hilltop to dry. That, and coconuts, was their lunch and dinner until they were evacuated to safety on other islands in several trips this week.

"People said I had saved their lives. But at a time like that nothing like that comes to mind. It's only, Save them, save them, save them before the wave comes,'' he said.

Before going back to his port tower, Razzak said he would spend time at home in Diglipur town for a few days with his wife, two daughters—and cable TV.

Editor's note: Asked what documentaries he thought Razzak had seen, a member of the National Geographic Television and Film division said he believed the programs in question were Killer Wave: Power of the Tsunami and Volcano: Nature's Inferno.

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