When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
- Matthew 9:36
The sun is shining after a stormy morning sky but the mood in Phnom Penh remains sombre. People are making sure their friends are safe and exchanging stories on what happened. The hospitals are still struggling. Latest report: 375 casualties and more than 1000 injured.
We are shocked and saddened to read that the reason we fell asleep to the sound of ambulance sirens last night was that the Water Festival ended in a tragic stampede merely a kilometer away.
One of Cambodia's most joyful seasons was cut brutally short when panic rose among thousands of festival goers as they attempted to leave the overcrowded urban island designated as the center of festivities.
The three day Water Festival that draws several millions of visitors to Phnom Penh to watch the impressive pirogue boat races and take part in a variety of ceremonies celebrating the unusual change of current in Cambodia's vital waterways was drawing to a close. A spectacular final firework show had ended at 7 pm and outdoor concerts were finishing up. It was after 10 pm when ambulances started racing down our street. At first we didn't pay much attention to it as any event that draws from 2-4 million people to the already compact neighborhoods of any city surely creates some need for medical attention. However, the ambulances with their sirens wailing kept on rushing past our building and as we finally fell asleep there was a sense of foreboding.
The next morning I woke up and went to check emails and world news as is part of my normal routine. The news of Phnom Penh's tragedy that happened only some blocks away first reached us though Finland's online newspapers. We made a few phone calls to check that people who we knew had visited the festival were okay. So far so good. People around us seem to be okay. We too are safe - this was our second Water Festival in Cambodia and both times we've been warned to avoid the crowds and thus we've mostly stayed indoors. With so many people entering the city crowds are always an issue but so is opportunistic crime and traffic accidents. Most foreigners tend to leave the city at this time but we've found it fine to be here just as long as we don't venture into the festival area. Basically it means we stay at home for three days.
This year we decided to stay in Phnom Penh again but spent two days and a night in a nearby nature reserve just to get some fresh air and change of scenery. By then the festival was in full swing and the official program was proceeding as planned. There were rowing practices in the mornings, the actual boat races in the afternoons, official ceremonies throughout the city, and impressive firework shows and free outdoor concerts in the evenings.
What the TV did not show is that there were related but relatively minor accidents each day. A colleague saw two motorbikes crash into each other full speed, leaving five victims including a 10 year old child. We saw the less tragic but still nasty aftermath of a five car pileup.
But no one in their worst nightmares could have foreseen what was going to happen. Hundreds of people were crushed to death and some possibly electrocuted or drowned when the festival crowds panicked on one of only two small bridges connecting the festival center to the city itself.
Only a week ago we drove the same route. We got in our new car for the first family outing and drove the kilometer stretch of Sihanouk Boulevard all the way past Hun Sen Park and Naga World to the riverfront and crossed onto Diamond Island on the now-tragic small bridge decorated with two huge fake diamonds. We wondered why they were putting up an amusement park on the man-made island as there was little else to do there. And on our way back over the bridge we noted how it was strange to have such a small bridge connecting such a big developing entertainment area...
Our heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones. Please pray for the victims, their families, and for those hundreds still in hospitals.
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