[ADXA] ALL OK IN VU4 LAND

[LennyK5OVC at wmconnect.com]

Subj:   [DX-NEWS] All OK in VU4 land !!!    
Date:   12/27/2004 6:43:53 PM Central Standard Time 
From:    k4vud at hotmail.com (Charles Harpole)
Sender:    DX-News-owner at njdxa.org
To:    kf2ti at mindspring.com, dx-news at njdxa.org
    
    


Hello DXers...

Dec. 27 at 2300 Z

Hey, a whole lotta shakin' goin' on.  Sorry to be out of touch for a while, 
but the phone service and thus email service went out with the first quake 
on Andaman, VU4.  This is my first minute to get to a reliable email 
service.

1.  Morning after Xmas, I was resting from sleep and thinking about what to 
do that coming day when my bed started to quiver like a large train was 
coming by.  Then, the room started to rock about when I stood up.  Walking 
and standing were difficult,bottles were faling off the shelves, and my 
fifth floor room floor felt like rubber.  I got braced within the bathroom 
door until things settled down.  Then, I found my pants and shirt and ran, 
shoes in hand, down the stairs and joined everyone else from the hotel in 
the open out front.  Bharathi was already safely outside there.  She was on 
the air at the time, but quickly figured out what was hapening and got out.

2.  There were extra holiday guests at the hotel.  Various groups formed, 
and I sat with some English speakers at a table in the hotel garden.  I 
noted to all who would listen that a BIG WAVE would come with an ocean 
quake.  We were, by then, drinking tea and looking down on the ocean from 
about 80 feet above high tide.  The sea rapidly turned brown near us, but 
there was no real surge.  As the day went on and 8 to 10 more small tremors 
came and went, several of us took quick runs to our rooms to get 
necessities.  The radios were left in the room.  The roof antennas showed no 
signs of damage at all.

3.  As the other team members came to our hotel, we learned of the big wave 
that hit the water front in Port Blair.  Saraha had taken some videos there 
with the water still about a foot deep over the street that fronted the 
ocean.  All team members were very OK.

4.  In the immediate Port Blair area, four people died (one from landing on 
his head as he dove out his home window seeking escape), the local newspaper 
reported.

5.  Port Blair and all but 4 of its citizens escaped serious damage.  Most 
of you have now seen the video of the real damage that occurred in other 
places around the Indian Ocean rim... very bad for people and property.

6.  By that afternoon, the team had set up one rig outside with a mobile 
whip and tuner...powered by the Hotel generator... and Bharathi was taking 
health and welfare messages from the people standing around there.  Many 
wanted to tell relatives on the Indian mainland that they were ok, and 
Bharathi established contact with many India ham stations in various cities 
as needed.  Traffic was being passed.  She told my wife in Thailand that I 
was ok via contact with an HS station who passed the message by telephone in 
Thailand.... very nice to be a ham !

7. The team got cots from the hotel and, along with most others, slept out 
in the open that night.  I slept fitfully near the lobby door on a couch 
inside, reasoning rightly this time, that the worst was over.

8.  I will have more reports later, but the main news for ham radio is THE 
TEAM IS COMPLETELY OK AND SAFE.  They have suspended normal DXpedition 
operations while helping out with health and welfare messages and whatever 
other duties may have come to them after I departed Port Blair vy early this 
morning (as I was originally scheduled to do).  I suspect they will go back 
to DXpedition work soon because Port Blair escaped the worst damage and the 
after shocks apparantly have also stopped.

Thanks for all the good wishes.  73 for now,

Charles Harpole
k4vud at hotmail.com