On 26th Dec '04 early morning several hrs before the catastrophe happened, Honolulu Tsunami Monitoring centre have been trying to call [Wicky] our Meteorological Dept. monitoring centre in Pallekelle and Colombo but failed as the department was closed for Christmas.
They also got in touch with the Presidents' office. However, it was informed that she's out of the island on a private vacation.
Finally they called Prime minister's secretariat, but Prime Minister was out on his morning walk. Thinking at least it's best to keep him vigilant on this, the Honolulu officials left the message with the person who picked up the phone to inform the Prime Minister that there's a Tsunami coming from Indonesia.
On Prime Minister's return, the operator told the Prime Minister about the call, said Tsunami from Indonesia is arriving in 2 hrs. Prime Minister promptly took action to send a delegation to the Katunayake Airport with name boards
"Welcome Mr. T. Sunami - Indonesia".
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