Tsunamis impact physician in Cape

Halfway around the world from the death and destruction, a jolt of fear coursed through Ismeth Abbas as he watched the results of Sunday's tsunamis play out on television.

"It was scary," said Abbas, a Cape Girardeau doctor. "I saw on the news the pictures, and I knew it was India by the cars and the people."

His first thoughts were of his father, Shajahan Abbas, who lives in the southern part of India. No one answered the phone at his father's home when Abbas called after seeing the news report.

Abbas, like many in the United States who could not immediately reach family and friends in South Asia, could only hope for the best.

Mary Burton, director of the American Red Cross Southeast Missouri chapter, said her office has not received any international disaster welfare inquiries, a service the Red Cross offers to help families track down missing relatives.

However, Burton said if anyone is struggling to contact family members impacted by disaster, the Red Cross could put them in touch with a U.S. consulate or other connections in South Asia.

Eventually, Abbas learned that his father had traveled to Chennai, a city of 4 million on the Coromandel Coast in the southern part of India's peninsula, to be with family that day.

"They were six miles from the edge of the tsunami," Abbas said. "They had no warning."

Most of the damage in Chennai was to beach resorts. No deaths were immediately reported. Abbas spoke to his father, who had a cell phone. The news from Chennai was bleak.

"He said there were so many homes and vehicles trashed up. The water came and then it went back," Abbas said.

Abbas' relatives lost homes and property. The village Shajahan Abbas grew up in, where homes are coconut leaf huts, was destroyed.

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