A visit to Azheekal on the 4th anniversary of Tsunami

Azheekal :
We all remember the deadly waves which hit our coastal regions 4 years back.But people at Azheekal wish to forget those days…On the 4th anniversary of the disastrous tsunami, we had a visit to Azheekal beach near Ochira.It was one of the worst affected areas in kerala with a death toll of about 143.We selected this beach as one of our christmas hangout places because we have a friend there….(Rajeesh  S7 CSE)

the tsunami smrithi mandapam at Azheekal

Rajeesh is also a victim of Tsunami….Actually they like to forget what happend on that december 26th..But out of our eagerness to know-excactly what happend on that day..he explained to us..
before going to that you should have an idea about the geographical condition of Azheekal…Azheekal is a small village in Alappad grama panchayatu.Alappad is actually an island.A narrow piece of land bounded by the Arabian sea in the west and the Kayamkulam Lake in the east..There is no direct link to connect the island to the main land except a bridge at Panikkarkadavu near karunagapally.The villagers in Azheekal were using  ‘kadathu’ to go to oachira which is just 6 km away.

http://wikimapia.org/beta/#lat=9.062474&lon=76.501236&z=15&l=0&m=b&v=1&search=Alappad

(Now after Tsunami there is abridge at Amritapuri (Amritasetu) and another bridge is under construction connecting Ayiramthengu and Azheekal..)

the new bridge connecting Azheekal and aayiramthengu

Now Lets hear it from Rajeesh himself…

” 26th december 2004

It was a dull morning at Azheekal.Nature was very different that day..(Every minute change in  nature will affect the inmates of Azheekal).By 10 am water from lake started rising and falling.Similar was the situation in the sea…people thought that it was due to tide..but this was like both high tide and low tide apperaing very close…
people were eager to see this phenomenon as it was the first time in Azheekal..Myself and some friends also went to see this interesting phenomenon which showed its destructive phase very soon…By 12.50 pm sealevel started falling very rapidly….Suddenly it regained its full strength and a huge wave was seen approaching us..we started running for our life..The wave hit the shore and i found a safe place in a tree trunk…the island was filled with water..there was no seperation between the lake and the sea.by this time another huge wave hit the shore.We were in a state of chaos..totally confused!!!…And when the water started decreasing we rushed back to our houses.but still we were unaware of the fact that we were hit by something called ‘Tsunami‘…And in fear of another disastrous wave, we rushed to the mainland in boats.By then we realized the fact that many of us lost our relatives,houses and everything…

Still now we dont like to remember that day, still we live on the same place with the fear left by Tsunami…. ”

back from Rajeesh…
now we are seeing an entirely different Azheekal..Many social organizations recreated the village.We wont see any remnants of Tsunami there..But the people of Azheekal cant forget that day……………….

Azheekal is now a perfect holiday destination