“We were lucky... we were very lucky. I was on the beach with my mother but we managed to run to the car and then drive off to safety. We saw the wave and ran!” Those were the first comments Andrea Magro gave journalists upon her arrival at Gudja airport from Sri Lanka yesterday.

Andrea, a 24-year-old from St Paul’s Bay, was visiting her mother in Negombo, where she lives. Negombo is a city in the west coast of Sri Lanka where over 7,000 people have been made homeless. Shortly after being given a warm welcome by her relatives at Gudja airport, Andrea gave an account of her experience during the last few days.

“We went to the beach to have a coffee – you know, it was Boxing Day, but sensed that something was wrong immediately as the tide was too far out. We were tense and decided to make it back home. Then the water started rushing in. We saw the wave and ran. We managed to make it to the car and drove back home,” she said.

They managed to drive away to her mother’s house which was further up from the beach and was not struck by the tsunami. The water was one metre deep across a huge area, she explained, describing the aftermath.

“The electricity was out shortly after the waves rushed in and it was very hard for us to communicate with Malta to assure our relatives here that we were safe.” Furthermore, the coastal area where they were before the giant waves struck was completely devastated. “Hotel rooms in the area were in a complete mess,” she said. “At the airport it was terrible. There were people looking for relatives, in complete despair, and others who lost everything, including their documents.”

Asked to describe the scenario and the local people’s reaction to the disaster, Andrea said that most of the people did not know what had hit them, while others who lived away from the badly stricken areas just could not comprehend the magnitude of the disaster. “Many people are poor and do not have a TV or radio – we had to explain to them the extent of the devastation,” she added.

Asked whether she would go back, Andrea immediately replied that she would “most definitely” and that she may consider going soon to help. Her mother has gone to the south to give a helping hand to one of the relief agencies there.

Unlike the three preceding days, yesterday the Foreign Affairs Ministry did not call a press conference to give an update about Maltese citizens in the area where the catastrophe struck. Ministry sources confirmed that there was no change from the information given on Wednesday.

This means that one 30-year-old Maltese woman is still

unaccounted for.