Their graves still litter the beach. The tsunami hit at night, destroying villages across a thin spit of land bordering a lagoon. It followed a powerful earthquake out at sea. Lagoon rife with disease Rescuers attempted to bury the dead as soon as possible, but many bodies were jammed into the tops of palm trees. The waters of the lagoon became so infested with disease from the rotting bodies that the whole area had to be sealed off.
Health problems persist.
Most of them are so sick that you really have to hope they are going to recover. The wave has changed everything, perhaps for ever. The people of the lagoon were a seafaring people. They have now moved inland, too frightened of the sea which once provided their living and their way of life. We find it very, very hard.