Tsunami alert and Indian visa update.

Well, if you've been watching the news at 7:00 AM this morning, you may have heard that there's a tsunami alert out for Sri Lanka (as well as Indonesia and parts of India and Malaysia). There's been a huge under ocean quake near Sumatra today and they've issued the alert saying we may see a small tsunami at 7:30 pm. Don't worry, we are both ok, I'm on the 7th floor of an apartment tower and Scott is on the second floor of our house (which was a safe zone last time and that was a much huger wave). I just talked to Scott and he says that its like a scene from a movie out in Batti. People are all fleeing the ocean and the roads are all blocked and he's harbouring half the neighboorhood on our roof. The memories of the 2004 Tsunami are fresh and people who lost their homes, and members of their families and many many friends are obviously not going to forget that soon. Indonesia has now lifted their Tsunami alert so it seems as if this will be a small wave if we see anything at all. It's supposed to hit here in 12 minutes now. Check out the news tonight and see what happens. Reuters Alertnet will have updates for sure. The warning systems here seems to be working as by the time I heard about it and called Scott, he had been warned by at least 6 of our staff already!

As for the Indian visa saga. I am now the proud holder of an Indian tourist visa. And the process was surprisingly smooth this morning, orderly quiet lines and I got my visa today, the same day I submitted my passport. I have since found out that if you hold a Sri Lankan residence visa, you get the Indian visa on the same day, but if you are Sri Lanka it takes 2 days and if you are a tourist, 5 days! Crazy. I went back at 4:00 to get my passport back with the visa in it, and though I was successful, it was not very smooth. And not everyone was as lucky as I. One French girl had been told this morning that she would receive her visa this aft, so she booked and paid for a ticket tomorrow and they then refused her visa telling her to come back on Monday. She and I tried everything and by the time I had to leave, I had fetched her friends that work for the French embassy so hopefully it'll work out.

Anyways, I'll post an update when I hear what happens tonight. Take care and pray for Sri Lanka today.