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OT: Tsunami Earthquake Victim Account

nick in* england
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nick in* england Veteran

nick in* england

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This an excerpt from a former colleague of mine in Thailand.

 

Thank God you have heard from Catriona - I worried about her too, but was thankful I had not seen her as I was on Phi Phi Island which took the worst hit.  I was with two other friends and a ten year old boy.  I do not know how we survived - so few did from Phi Phi.

 

After being rescued we decided to carry on our holiday because we did not want the terrible things we had seen to be our last sights of such a wonderful country (we thought this was especially important for the boy).  Luckily our destination (Ko Samui) contained loads of our pals and they have been very kind and good to us and we are know trying to keep some new memories of this trip.  Two friends of ours decided to get married whilst we have been here and the wedding is in a few days.  Life being too short and all that . .  I know that some of you will want to know our story and I have written an account - perhaps you could forward it to others.

 

 

10.20am - Boxing Day

Buy boat ticket to tour islands for a few hours as this was our last day on Phi Phi (P P) and we had promised Zac (aged 10) that we would do it before we left.  Lisa had not really wanted to come, but at the last moment decided she would join us. Clare was on another island so it was just the four of us. Me, Felix (Zac's Mum), Lisa and Zac.

10.30

Get to pier with long tail boat driver.  The bamboo bridge is collapsing and people are falling off it in all directions.  It looks like a cartoon and we all stand there and watch.  Our driver jumps in to try and save his boat, but it immediately capsizes.  We cannot tell why.  Then someone shouts "Water come, water come".

We start running away from the pier and the panic gathers as we race along the alley which is Phi Phi high street.  I am behind Zac with my arms around his shoulder hurrying him along.  Panic is getting worse and as I look at the ground I can see the sea just behind me.  I dont look ahead, but Zac does and sees a huge wave coming towards us from the beach.  There is a huge wave behind us coming from the pier.  We try and get up a side alley on the right where everyone else seems to be running too.  It is clogged with people, so we jump into an internet cafe which is on the corner.  It has a few steps up to it and we think we will be safe. I worry about what will explode when the water hits the live computers

10.32

The wave(s) hit us.  I immediately know when it hits that we are all dead.  No spiritual thoughts just "F@ck, what a bloody ridiculous way to die".  We are in a washing machine of water and bodies and chairs and desks and computers.  We do not know what is the roof or the sides or the floor - there is no air, the room is completely full of water.  It is completely black.  I struggle for consciousness - I know I am drowning and only have a few seconds left.  A chink of light suddenly shows us where the top is.  I dont know how, but I still have Zac and I bring him to the top.  There is a 2" gap and I hold his head in it.  Felix tries to resasitate a young child, but the child is dead and then slips back into the water.  The child's mother is already there.  I shouted for everyone to punch out the ceiling.  I thought it was made of bamboo - it was concrete.  A guy manages to punch out a window (or maybe it came out with the impact) and I can cling on to the frame of it which means that Zac is no longer pulling me under.  I tell him to get on my back.  We crawl out of the window.  I expect air - there is more water.  I know I cannot possibly swim with Zac on my back still and tell him that he will have to swim on his own now.  There are some guys covered in blood waiting to pull us on to a balcony a little way away.

 

God knows how much later

We get to the balcony.  There is a french woman giving heart massage to a dead baby.  Everyone is covered in blood.  We immediately fear another wave.  A man climbs up a palm tree - it is about the only one left standing.  There is nothing left of P P - totally unrecognisable - just debris.  Our resort (Charlies) was the worst hit - just sand was left not even any debris.  It must have taken the brunt of both waves.  Thank god we were out of bed that morning.  Thank god we werent at breakfast.

11.15

Lisa and Felix are in the P P Hotel - the only building still standing and it has about 6 floors.  We have to get to this building because ours is collapsing and would not stand another wave.  It is about 8 foot away and the debris along the 8 foot is sheered off corrugated metal roofs, dead bodies (mostly just torsos), palm trees, glass.  Someone shouts to get the mattresses out of all the rooms we are in and throw them across the gap.  We get across the matresses but we now have to climb the P P hotel building.  They have knotted sheets for us.  Somehow we get up.  I dont know how.

11.30

The P P hotel is being used as a morgue and a hospital - but there arent any doctors or medical supplies.  We ramsack the rooms (will the residents ever return to them?) to find anything that might help.  I give two nurofen to a guy who has broken ribs and punctured lung.  There is bloody streaming down the corridors.  Men are dismantling the wardrobes to use as makeshift stretchers.  I find sheets and we rip them for bandages and use them to bind injured to their stretchers.

13.30

There is a rumour of another wave.  Some of the Thai people leave the hotel to get up the hills.  Looking out from the hotel we cannot see how you could possibly even walk along the alleys.  We decide to stay at the hotel.  We try to look for the resort where we had been staying (Charlies Beach Resort) but people tell us that it is the patch of sand a little way away.  Nothing is left - not even debris. 

15.00

Helicopters arrive to take the wounded - those that can stand it.  The bodies have to wait.

17.30

Rumour of a wave at 18.00.  The hotel smells of blood, sewage and gas.  I will never forget that smell.  It is no longer safe.  We have 30 mins to get up into the mountains and we hope that Zac can make it.

18.15

We arrive up the mountain in our flip flops and bikinis and a few sheets to keep off the mosquitos.  A swiss guy helped us and told us we had to take the long route because the easier route was too gruesome for Zac.  We loot any food and water we find on the way and Felix barters a tin of coke for a packet of fags!

The camp we found had about 200 people in it.  Nearly everyone was missing someone.  There were very few children there and those that were not in a good way.

We listened to the world news on someones transistor.  We realise the disaster is more wide spread than just P P.  We realise people at home would know and that some knew we were on P P and they would be beside themselves with worry.  We also hear that no one knows for sure what happened on P P yet because there is no communication. We cry for the first time.

06.00

We see boats come in to rescue us.  They take us to Phuket.  The Thai people meet us giving us food and sandals and so much sympathy and kindness.  When we tell them we are from Phi Phi they hold us. We go to a camp.  Clare had not been on P P - she was in Ko Lanta.  I cannot find out any news of Ko Lanta.  I have to trawl the pictures of dead people that had been washed up to see if I can find her.  I cannot believe that I am doing this.

11.00

The British Embassy advises us to get on the bus to the airport and try and get to Bangkok.

12.00

Phuket airport is chaos and full of injured.  We try and help them.  We have heard so many terrible stories and all we can do is try and give people hope.  Lots of missing people were from our resort and we know they could not possibly have survived.  Although the pier seemed to be the worst place to be that day, it actually saved us. 

19.15

The Thai military airlift us from Phuket to Bangkok.  We are met by the Embassy and given a toothbrush and beds for the night.

 

So, that is basically what happened.  The worst was the terrible look of people who had lost their friends, husbands, children.  I dont know how many cried on my shoulder or I just held as they looked blankly ahead trying to take in what happened - I have never felt so useless.  There was no wailing or panic though.  We hardly have any injuries and although I will never forget when that room burst with water I think it also probably saved us.  If we had been on the beach or in our rooms there is no way.  It is also amazing that we were all together - normally at that time one would be on the beach, one up the shops, one in bed and one at breakfast.  In that situation you would think that people would be very selfish - I saw none of that.  Guys with much worse injuries than me were trying to help me and everyone helped the children.  I can only think that maybe that is what it is like during a war????

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