An ISU professor who was visiting Sri Lanka when last month’s tsunami struck is uninjured and is performing aid work in the devastated coastal areas of the nation.

Kandauda Wickrama, associate professor for the Institute for Social/Behavioral Research, said he hopes to study the aftereffects of the tidal waves.

In a telephone interview with the Daily from Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Saturday, Wickrama said he and his family were visiting Sri Lanka to attend his daughter’s wedding on Dec. 24. The first tidal wave hit between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, Dec. 26, he said.

“After hitting, the water went back to the sea,” Wickrama said. “People went to see that; people did not expect a second wave.”

The second wave struck 10 to 15 minutes after the first wave, he said, penetrating about one kilometer inland.

“The second wave was very much stronger than the first wave, and the second wave took these people,” Wickrama said.

He said there were additional waves after that, but they were not as strong as the first and second.

Recent estimates put the death toll at 156,000, with 30,000 dead in Sri Lanka itself.

“This tsunami’s effect was great because it was on Sunday,” Wickrama said.

He said on Sunday people go to church and temple, in addition to going shopping in coastal farmer’s markets.

“These open markets were really hit,” Wickrama said. “Merchants and all the people who went to market were taken away by waves.”

He said after the wave struck, he and his family participated in relief activity.

“We got dried rations, because for one or two days the roads were blocked,” Wickrama said. “When we got accessibility, we went with a van and with food.”

Social and emotional aid are necessary, in addition to material aid, Wickrama said.

“There are some families who lost parents and families who lost kids. There are families who totally disappeared,” Wickrama said. “This is a tragic situation that can be studied. It has to be studied.”

He said he is working with colleagues in the United States to draft a proposal to study the mental health consequences of the tsunami.

“I am especially interested in how this trauma will affect kids who lost parents,” he said. “This trauma will have a lifelong effect, I think, for kids.”

Wickrama said he plans to return to Toronto as soon as he can make travel arrangements. He is on sabbatical this year doing research with the University of Toronto.