A great earthquake generated a destructive tsunami in the northern Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean on November 28, 1945. The primary source of the quake was the Makran Subduction Zone 100 kilometres from Makran. Its magnitude on the Richter scale was 8. It caused significant damage to many houses at Pasni and Ormara. The tsunami waves destroyed many villages in the Indus delta.

The disaster took place during the last days of the British era was underreported. The reports mentioned damage to the infrastructure; however, they underreported the causalities in the Indus delta. The waves completely destroyed the settlements, and many were killed at Dabo creek 30 miles away (four hours by boat from Karachi). Dabo creek was never resettled.

Information about the Makran tsunami or references to it in newspapers have some details related to the damage to Pasni (Makran coast) and the enormous losses suffered by the fishing community in the area but the tsunami had also hit the Sindh coast where the damage in the creeks remained poorly reported.

The media almost always report the aftermath of an event. This is partly because it is difficult for journalists to reach an area where a disaster has just occurred, to assess the damage and the loss to livelihoods and lives. The Indus delta witnessed the aftermath of a tsunami. The stories of the event have remained in the hearts of the fisher folk in the creeks.

Since my childhood, I have heard that a huge tidal wave had appeared at Dabo creek and drowned everything. Many families of the fishing community lost their lives and property. Dabo creek is a four hours’ journey by boat from Ibrahim Hydari. It was populated mostly by fisher folk. They were engaged in collecting dried fish and prawns. It inspired me to research the tsunami by interviewing eyewitnesses.

The tragedy is called as the Dabo Ji bood (the Dabo creek flood). I often heard my grandmother speak about it as some of her close relatives had died in the incident. I had asked her about when this incident happened and was told that Pakistan was created after the event. The 2004 tsunami revived the discourse because the experience was quite recent.

The event took place in the last days of the British era, and the disaster was underreported. The reports mentioned damage to the infrastructure; however, they underreported the causalities in the Indus delta.

In 2011, I met Khameso Khan at the Qadir Bukhsh village in Kharo Chhan creek. He was 75 years old at the time. While talking about coastal hazards, he told me that he had been an eyewitness to the horrifying disaster. “We never heard of or saw anything like that ever again,“ he said. He said it had caused a great loss of lives and property. I asked him when the incident had happened, and he replied that he remembered that two years later the Hindus in the area migrated to the “other side” that was then called India. Another eyewitness mentioned, “I saw a woman drowning in the seawater. I immediately held her by her hair and tried to pull her back, but she shouted and said, don’t take me out of the water. The sea has taken clothes off my body.“ He said that before the construction of Kotri barrage, this had been a prosperous delta. It was densely populated and many families owned 100 or 200 buffaloes, cows and others cattle.

It was about that time, he said, that Sukhi Bunder (harbour) was inhabited and people were settled there. The local people remembered a Hindu businessman whose merchant ship was loaded with cloth and raw materials at the harbour to sail for South Africa. After the tsunami, Sukhi Bunder ran out of coffins for the dead, they said. They said the Hindu businessman donated all the cloth for the shrouds.

Some people said that they had remained safe because of the indigenous wisdom of their elders. According to one community, the tsunami started from Dabo creek and swept towards Kanhir creek. They said it hit at least eight creeks on the Indus delta. All these creeks, they said, had been affluent and thickly populated. The tsunami, they said, destroyed everything, including agricultural land.

I recorded interviews with 47 eyewitnesses. They all said that the sea was full of dead. Some of the respondents said they had buried 35 people. A few respondents stated that the scenes after calamity the calamity were gut-wrenching. They said they had seen bodies and boats hanging from tall trees. Some said the mangrove forests had saved them. They said the affected had been amongst the most prosperous.

More than 70 years have passed since the disaster hit the creeks, but there are lessons to learn from the experience. It is still possible to develop a strategy to prevent similar damage in the future. Unfortunately, the lack of preparedness in the face of natural calamities is shocking.

The writer is a researcher and   social activist