Survivors return from tsunami hell (From Western Telegraph)

Survivors return from tsunami hell

As pembrokeshire people return home from the stricken tsunami disaster area, each has a graphic story to tell.

Solicitor Paul Cowper and his family endured a gruelling seven hours trapped on a balcony, surrounded by torrents of raging water in Sri Lanka.

Their rented beach house in Tangalle was one of only two properties left standing along three-quarters-of-a-mile of coastline.

This week, the lawyer told how they watched 'a surging wall of water' which carved rivers on either side of the house before storming into a lagoon at its rear.

"The speed and power of this torrent was unimaginable," said 52-year-old Mr Cowper, of Saundersfoot, who is managing partner of Lowless and Lowless. "It turned our house into an island. The whole sea was rising incredibly fast and powerfully."

As the water struck, he, wife Jane, step-daughter Joanne Brindley, her partner Will Hammond from Llanmill, Narberth, and two friends from Devon, fled to a concrete balcony on the back of the house.

The holidaymakers' Sri Lankan neighbour, Sarath, has been hailed a hero by Mr Cowper.

"His five-year-old son was swept out of his arms and drowned, but it was he who raised the alarm and eventually led us, and other people who made it to our balcony, to safety.

We walked a mile through a swamp, up to our shoulders in water, dragging injured people with us. We really got out by the skin of our teeth."

The party spent three days in a hotel on high ground before making it to Colombo on a bus sent by the British High Commission.

They flew home on New Year's Eve, with mixed feelings.

"I would have liked to have been part of the huge vigil in Colombo that night, but there was nothing really we could do at that stage," said Mr Cowper.

A trust fund to help rebuild the lives of the people of Tangalle has been set up by Paul Cowper and his family.

"START (Sri Lankan Trust to Aid and Rebuild Tangalle) will raise cash for local people in an area hit incredibly hard," said Mr Cowper.

Donations to START can be made through the NatWest Bank, Haverfordwest.