what saved tricomalee harbour was mother nature .the entrance is narrow and even then it is not directly exposed to the ocean . the tsunami had to come in through trincomalee bay and turn northward to enter through the narrow gap between eagle point and ostenberg to enter the harbour . by this time the power of the wave was greatly reduced and only the water level rose so our fleet ,lives and properly were saved
the tsunami hit near by places like Mutter , kinniya and naval installations on the Easter coast and in the other Naval areas . this was notknown to the naval dockyard until later when reports of the devasting effects of the tsunami came in . the Navy had a big role to pay in rescute and relief operations in most of the coastal areas affected by Tsunami , despite suffering our own losses our attention was directed to serve the needs of the public
Rescuring people , providing first aid clearing roads of derbis , dispatching the injured to hospitals and recovering dead bodies were some of the immediate tasks performed by the navy . the next stage included sthe uk , india , usa Thailand Pakistan and Bangladesh arriving in our ports
etting up temporary shelters , providing food , water and medicine and assisting civil and volountary organizations in providing relief to the victimes
being the guardian of the port : the navy was asked to co-ordinate international aid and relief efforts arriving by the sea. there were a large number of wars ships including vessels from
The sri lankan navy played a key role in the re-construction and rehabilitation phase which followed; senior naval officers were appointed as the distinct co-ordinating officers who