Elia PowersHe traveled to Sri Lanka as...

Elia Powers

He traveled to Sri Lanka as a photographer, asked to document the

damage and recount a slice of the tsunami disaster.

As Mikel Flamm spotted his first subject and grabbed hold of the

camera lens, the true purpose of his mission came into focus.

“I’ll never forget what I saw,” the 54-year-old said. “A man was

sitting on a pile of rubble, on what used to be his home. I was taken

aback. Even reporters were distraught by what they saw.”

Flamm, a former Newport Beach resident, works in the

communications department at Habitat for Humanity International, an

organization that builds permanent homes for low-income families

worldwide.

Habitat for Humanity has focused the majority of its post-tsunami

rebuilding efforts in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia

and Bangladesh.

Flamm, a photojournalist and former newspaper reporter, has been

stationed in Bangkok, Thailand, for 15 years.

He was visiting family in Newport Beach on Dec. 26 when disaster

struck.

“He was almost in tears when he heard the news,” said Flamm’s

father, Don. “We were all disturbed, but he felt so close to the

situation.”

Flamm cut his vacation short when he accepted a two-week Habitat

for Humanity mission in Batticaloa, a city in eastern Sri Lanka.

He had been to the country in early December to visit a new

project site, but when Flamm returned on Jan. 7, he said he found a

vastly different landscape.

“Along the beaches, most of the homes we’d built were destroyed,”

he said. “It was shocking to see the damage.”

Flamm estimates that 100 Habitat for Humanity homeowners either

lost their entire properties or suffered irreparable damage.

K. Vadivel, 55, the first man Flamm encountered on his mission,

put a face to the tragedy.

In a written description, Flamm said he found Vadivel sitting

listlessly next to piles of broken cement and shattered roof tiles

where his family’s home once stood.

Vadivel lost his wife in the tsunami. He and his three children

live in a temporary shelter a few kilometers from their former

property.

Flamm, whose duty was to photograph structural damage and report

back to Habitat to Humanity directors, said he couldn’t be a passive

observer.

Using contacts within his organization, he arranged for Vadivel’s

daughter, 19-year-old Manimala, to work in an office helping city

residents apply for new housing.

More than 300 people came to the Habitat’s Batticaloa office last

week to apply for a new Habitat home, Flamm said.

Flamm informed Manimala and her family that they were eligible to

live in a future Habitat for Humanity planned community, which is

under construction.

As Flamm wrote, “Manimala sat next to me and said, ‘I am very

happy today ... My family will like it here.’”