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Hannah: Her dream of floods came true.
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| By Associated Press January 1, 2005 |
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A premonition about floods led an Israeli couple living in an international community in southern India to build their house on stilts -- a move which saved them from the fury of the tsunami that tore through the region this week.
Yuval Skoles and his wife, Hannah, moved from Israel 20 years ago to live in the beach community near Auroville, a spiritual retreat community, near the former French colony of Pondicherry on India's eastern coast.
When he began building his beachside compound called Eternity, his wife had dreams about floods, so he built the main house on stilts, 5 meters (16 feet) above the ground.
In a part of India where ocean surges and tsunamis were unheard of before Dec. 26, it was, frankly, a bit odd.
"It's the only house of its kind on the coast," Yuval said.
When the tsunami struck that sunny Sunday morning, the couple were in the main house. Their daughter, her husband and son were staying in a guest house -- at ground level. The tsunami swamped the guest house.
His wife urged him to jump into the raging torrents to rescue their daughter and grandson; she even threatened to jump in herself. But they were nowhere to be seen.
"For 45 minutes I thought I had lost my daughter," Yuval Skoles said.
But his daughter and her family had sought refuge inside a hilltop Hindu temple. They later walked back to the main A-frame house on whitewashed concrete stilts.
They lost most of their possessions, and they have a lot of rebuilding to do.
But Yuval Skoles said he was happy. After fearing his family had died and then learning they had lived, he said nothing can get him down.
"Everything is great," he said.
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