THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The massive waves that lashed the state capital on Tuesday night left a trail of destruction at the densely populated fishing village of Cheriyamuttam in Poonthura, displacing several families in the process. The swell surge that started hitting the coast by evening continued to batter the shoreline.
As many as 60 houses were hit hard by sudden waves, according to local residents.
“I was sleeping with my six year old daughter and was woken up hearing an explosive sound at around 3 am. The entire house was filled with rocks, garbage and debris of the house. My husband was sleeping in the verandah and he went to a shock. He is under treatment,” said Sahayarani, one of the many families, who had a near death experience on Tuesday night.
When the announcement came about the swell surge alert on Tuesday from the church, the fishermen's families took it lightly thinking its just routine. Though they didn’t move from the area, they kept awake and alert till 2 am.
“This is the first time something of this magnitude is happening in this area and we hardly knew the seriousness. We remained alert beyond midnight, and after 2am, we all went to bed. But this happened unexpectedly,” said Sahayarani who is yet to recover from the shock.
Tall waves almost razed her house to the ground. A majority of the families suffered heavy losses. Other than the dresses they were wearing, nothing valuable could be saved from their houses.
“People are panic-stricken as nobody expected such destruction,” Poonthura councillor Mary Jipsy said.
“There are around 100 houses in the area and we have already moved out around 60 families. The alert is on till 11 or 11.30 pm tonight. We have warned the families to stay away from their houses till Thursday morning.”
The fishing villages are becoming increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events with each passing year.
“We have nowhere else to go. We depend on this sea for survival. Unfortunately, we cannot sleep peacefully even for a few hours after a hard day’s work,” said Janet, another villager.
