December 26th, 2005 - HOPE staff got news of the disaster from the residents near Elliots Beach in Chennai. All our staff, with volunteers, immediately rallied themselves. They formed teams to rush to the sites of disaster spread across the coasts of TN - Foreshore Estate, Pudupattinam and Oyyalikuppam in Kanchipuram District, Sonakuppam and Sothikuppam in Cuddalore District, and Nagapattinam District.

At all the sites, the staff could plainly see that distributing food was not their only work, if alleviation of misery was their objective. Scores of homes lay destroyed. Dead bodies, men and animals, lay strewn all over. The people, mostly villagers, had lost all their belongings, from boats and nets to clothing and utensils - practically, beggars on the streets!

There was another, darker side of it; families had lost members, children orphaned, old people made destitute. There were widespread feelings of deprivation, of insecurity, of hopelessness. The fear of a dark future immobilized the masses.

Kanapathychettypalayam - Flagging off of new boats (July 2005)

Report from Pudapattinam and Oyyalikuppam (June 2005)

Report from Cuddalore (Feb 2005)