the local paper did a special report on the heroes of the tsunami, ordinary folk who rose to the occasion to save the lives of others. i did a brief search and did not find any previous thread on this. here are snips on three of the many heroes mentioned.
Mr John Mailand
… Battling raging waves, he saved 10 kids until he himself was swept away by the waves. … Sri Lanka’s southern coastal resort of Matara, anyone with any sense at all fled. … Hurtling himself against the surf, Mr John Mailand, 32, dashed back to the beach not once, not twice, but six times, witnesses told … With each trip, he grabbed an armful of stranded children from the waves and cradled them as he sprinted towards a hut on a hill 50m above sea level where everyone else had clustered. … just as he was trying to extricate a debris-pinned mother and child, a second round of tidal waves swooped down on him and swept him away. Survivors said they saw the water pummel his bulky frame against a wall and snap his head against the concrete. … Others who witnessed (his) bravery said it inspired them to do the same. Before long, several Sri Lankans and a few Caucasians also started running down to the beach to free the stranded. … said: " We were all thanking God that we had escaped the disaster as we thought everyone still down there was probably dead. But when (he) kept coming back with more survivors, we felt ashamed that a foreigner was risking his life to help while … People were shouting for him to run away when the second wave hit, but he just continued trying to life the concrete slab off the woman and child. …
Captain Haniff Ariffin
… From his 4-m-high watchtower fronting the Shangri-La Golden Sands Resort, he was routinely scanning the horizon with binoculars when he spotted something “white and bright, which disappeared and reappeared 10 minutes later as a united row”. He could not make out what he was but sensed something sinister was about to happen. … Acting on his hunch, he alerted the other beach lifeguards via walkie-talkie, flailed his hardly-used bright red flag wildly and hollered for people to get out of the water and off the beach. … The waves also washed away the lives of at least 52 (locals) whom, who unlike the tourists, ignored his warnings. …
Selvakumar - link *
… he scurried to the safest place he knew, their family hut 40m from the seashore. … Their pet mongrel, Selvakumar, pounced into the hut after (seventeen-year-old) Dinakaran, then nipped and nudged him up the hill to safety. As Dinakaran recounted later: "That dog grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. He dragged me out. " …
the story of the dog is the only one i can find online.