A Tsunami Story

[CrazyExpat]

I'll never forget that day and while so much time has passed, it seems like just a few weeks ago. We started our morning very early here on the west coast, the day after Christmas five years ago. My producer Jeff Nguyen and I got the call as the sun was just beginning to rise over California and within two hours we were packed and on a plane headed for destruction we could have never imagined, or have been prepared to see.

For the next three and a half weeks we watched as people from around the globe came to do anything and everything to help the people of Southeast Asia. Despite criticism from other nations, American Marines stationed in Thailand were me of the first "boots on the ground" helping those in need. Americans ended up being the most generous with time, money and hands-on work that continues to this day....yet you don't hear other governments saying any of that. At the time some leaders and governments were quick to criticize the U.S. response and monetary promises, but they ended up being the slow to act. Some of their monies never arrived, while all of ours did....and much more.

The pictures in this slide show are just a few of hundreds I have saved and many more still stick in my mind. I could have never imagined the destruction in Patong Beach for example. Homes and businesses four blocks in from the ocean were leveled, yet areas on bluffs overlooking the million dollar view were left untouched by the incredible force of mother nature. We saw and smelled dead bodies. A human head lay on a street on Phi Phi island. People there lined the dock, both alive and dead, waiting for a trip back to Phuket. Boats were tough to find because many who owned them believed the spirits of those swallowed by the ocean would bring them bad luck and danger. Thousands swept into the sea have, and will never, be found.

Across the countryside, makeshift morgues, with trailers full of dry ice brought to try and preserve the bodies of those lost as best as possible. Meantime everywhere we looked there were stacks of coffins being built and plywood walls erected with either pictures of dead bodies waiting for identification, or pictures of families with arrows pointed to those unaccounted for. It was if horror was intertwined amongst paradise. Because the tsunami only hit from a certain direction and at a certain height of water, much of Thailand lay untouched. All around Patong for example was still stunning, yet the beach area below was pure destruction.

It was tough meeting the people…the aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sister, mothers and fathers…who rushed to Thailand spending every day looking through hospitals and body bags hoping somehow they'd find their missing loved one. Yet though it all we saw perseverance and strength as people from different cultures and parts of the world held hands and did the work that many could never dream of, while others might recoil in horror at the thought. Here are parts of a few of my blogs from that time....raw and unedited. I literally sent them during the three or four hours of downtime we would get a day. At one point we worked 44 straight hours and there wasn't a hint of complaint from the crew. We knew this disaster was like no other modern man had seen and we knew we were lucky not to be here looking for a dead member of our family.

12/27/2004

It took only 30 minutes to grab anything and everything we could, so long as it fit into one suitcase. Within two hours of the call we were on a plane headed for Tokyo and from there on to Thailand. A producer and myself, two suitcases and one video phone packed neatly insides a hard gray case. Seventeen hours later we arrived at the stoke of midnight, the city sleeping and recovering from the massive toll to its south and across the Indian Ocean.

This is the height of tourist season in this region of the world. To equate the number of people that come here, imagine tsunami's like these hitting the Caribbean Sea. Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, India and other areas filled with tourists from all over the world, hit hard by waters as high as 35 feet. Most had no warning because there is no warning system for the Indian Ocean region, only Pacific Ocean nations. Because of this, the death toll now approaches 25,000 and expected to rise considerably as more bodies wash ashore and rescue workers get into more remote regions.

Along the coastlines of these countries and islands, bodies of people and animals are strewn about, some piled amongst rubble swept into stacks from seas that pounded these areas just 24 hours ago. Relief efforts are underway and hospitals in Bangkok and other major cities have dedicated areas to treat the wounded and dying.

1/01/05

Clothes lie in piles, separated by size and gender. Mounds of water bottles reach the size of a VW bug as supplies to help those ravaged by tsunami's continues to pour into Thailand. We are now doing our reports from the village of Phuket on the island of the same name; about a half hour drive from the western coast. Here in the town square, home to a pair of white municipal buildings, a launching pad of sorts for relief has been set. You can get food, both cooked and non perishable, you can get consular information from about one hundred countries, you can get psychological counseling and even free plane trips back to Bangkok where most major airlines have a counter.

But while we see so many good signs that recovery is on the way, there are sickening reminders of what has taken place in this region of the world.

As I sit at this computer inside one of the buildings, I see fliers in seemingly every possible language. On them pictures of loved ones who've vanished due to the powerful Indian Ocean waters. Many of the pictures are of young children, a heartbreaking sight. Some are of entire families, loved ones leaving local numbers, home numbers and web addresses, hoping by some miracle their missing son, daughter, husband or wife will be found alive.

There are still thousands unaccounted for here and all will never be located. Hospitals, temples and roadside shacks have been transformed into makeshift morgues….the smell can't be shaken and permeates every inch of air in the area.

1/05/05

In this region, this horrific time in South Asia, there are amazing stories of survival that have some people asking why their life remains and those of younger have perished. Such is the case of the Meusch family, from Toms

River New Jersey, sailing around the world with about 25 other sailboats. Christmas brought them to the bay off of the island of Phi Phi.

Most of the crew had stayed on their respective boats that fateful morning, but Helen and Ed ventured shoreward. Their dingy on the beach and their eyes on the water as it seemed to disappear and pull back from the shoreline. They decided to walk out into once covered land, as did many others. They turn and ran as fishermen in the distance began yelling and waving as the tsunami came shoreward. Ed says he knew they were in serious trouble when a motorboat came crashing down near them, it scattered into pieces as the couple decided to bear hug and ride it out.

The water hit them, "flattened us against the sand," said Helen. "It seemed like it kept us down there for a minute."

Ed remembers being washed over the beach where the once stood. He says "I kept waiting to hit something...a tree, a building and boat. I figured the water would eventually stop, we couldn't possibly cross over this island."

But they did. The main land portion of Phi Phi sits between two large rock mountain/formations. The strip about a half mile long and about 300 yards wide.

Within a minute or so, the Meusch's had been washed from the east bay across the island to the west bay, hit by several hard waves and kept under water most of the time. There Ed kept hold of Helen, saw that she was turning pale and grasped for anything to pull his head above the water.

"While under a boat for a second I thought it was over and there was a peacefulness about it," says Ed. At that time his hand latched onto an overturned motor that was attached to a small boat. He pulled himself up and got Helen's head resting on the boat. He could see she was dying.

Just then a fisherman in another small boat who had lost his niece caught their eye. Distraught he picked them up and got them out of the waters. There they both could see people screaming for help, some seriously injured and many other bodies just floating like dolls in a bathtub. A charter boat approached and took the couple aboard. Oxygen was given to Helen, here intake of water severe. Ed and the captain grabbed another person, tried to help even another, but then the decision of a lifetime. Leave the island and head for Phuket three hours away and get Helen, fading fast, to a hospital. Or risk letting a wife die to look for others. Ed made the call for the hospital.

Helen has since recovered after days in intensive care and a bout with pneumonia. They will rest here on the island of Phuket for the next six weeks, then fly to Africa to rejoin their sailing friends.

Helen says tearfully "I feel like I belong to the people of Thailand. They saved my life, this hospital saved my

life, my husband saved my life."

Ed remains very grateful and thankful his wife has survived, but he is battling with a life or death decision. He tells me, "I remember their faces, each and every one. I will never forget them. I have to live with the fact that we left for Helen and I didn't try to save more lives."

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/12/26/a-tsunami-story/?test=latestnews

[patong]

I could have never imagined the destruction in Patong Beach for example. Homes and businesses four blocks in from the ocean were leveled, yet areas on bluffs overlooking the million dollar view were left untouched by the incredible force of mother nature. We saw and smelled dead bodies.

I was living in Patong when the tsunami struck and can confirm that there was much loss of live and destruction, but when I read words like the above then I must protest. I actually viewed the results of the tsunami 30 minutes after the waves struck. In Patong the damage did not extend as far back as even one block, in fact the damage only extended back half a block (about 300m) from the beach front, very few building were 'levelled', and I never 'smelled' dead bodies. To be honest I never actually witnessed any dead people or body parts during my general inspection of the damage for the rest of that memorable day. No doubt the damage was like a war zone, with lots of piled up rubbish, debris, wrecked cars & boats, and many people died, but this zone had a very limited depth from the sea and the majority of Patong was untouched by water damage. I think the writer was describing other areas, like Kamala, Phi Phi Island, Khao Lak, and other very hard hit areas.

[Bob]

I was living in Patong when the tsunami struck and can confirm that there was much loss of live and destruction, but when I read words like the above then I must protest. I actually viewed the results of the tsunami 30 minutes after the waves struck. In Patong the damage did not extend as far back as even one block, in fact the damage only extended back half a block (about 300m) from the beach front, very few building were 'levelled', and I never 'smelled' dead bodies. To be honest I never actually witnessed any dead people or body parts during my general inspection of the damage for the rest of that memorable day. No doubt the damage was like a war zone, with lots of piled up rubbish, debris, wrecked cars & boats, and many people died, but this zone had a very limited depth from the sea and the majority of Patong was untouched by water damage. I think the writer was describing other areas, like Kamala, Phi Phi Island, Khao Lak, and other very hard hit areas.

I stayed at Patong Beach for a few days a month before the tsunami hit and I did see a lot of the photos and videos taken from that area. I agree with you that there was little/no damage 4 blocks back and most of the 4,700 or so deaths in Thailand occurred elsewhere (mainly the Khao Lak area).

But I had heard that there were some deaths right on the beach (I mean there were some tourists or whoever that actually walked out to the receding area to retrieve sea shells or whatever - not realizing, of course, what was coming) and back on the main street. Across the street there (on the east side), there was a rather large basement supermarket. Since I saw photos and reports that the water level got up to about 2 feet in the street, I presumed that the basement supermarket was totally inundated and I couldn't imagine how several deaths there could be avoided. Did you happen to see anything there?

[patong]

Yes, you are talking about the Big One supermarket in the basement of Ocean department store. That was a really sad story as all the staff were drowned when the wave flooded the basement. They had nowhere to run, even the back car park had a high wall all round. Took the divers quite a few days to recover the bodies. I believe about 12 girls died, and the bodies were in bad shape when recovered. The supermarket reopened some months later, but I never felt comfortable shopping there and after a few visits just completely stopped shopping there. Started using the supermarket in the other Ocean mall near the top of Bangla, which suffered no damage or flooding just 150m back from the beach road. Interesting only the lower half of Bangla road suffered any water damage. The top half was in full swing within a few days.

I don't believe any concrete structure buildings in Patong were knocked down by the water. Sure plenty of the small shack type shops were destroyed. But some (a few) buildings were badly damaged and had to be demolished. The Ocean department store right on the front suffered very little structural damage and is still there, fully operational within 6 months. Even the Italian restaurant famous for the video of the wave washing through it survived and still stands, same Italian owner, still in business.

[patong]

Here is a photo I took looking at Ocean department store a few days after the wave, and another shot of the beach road at the junction of Bangla Road, and few shots of cars just scattered about.

[Wino]

The tsunami story is a sad one. So many innocent lives lost. You would think five years later, the Thai government would have equipment and warning systems in place. Not according to this article. Here is a quiote, "A former emergency chief at the Thai government-run National Disaster Warning Center has revealed to the media, that the project is severely underfunded and is risking the lives of millions of people."

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000011557

[lvdkeyes]

I recall seeing Nate Berkus on Oprah's show after the tsunami talking about being caught in the tsunami with his boyfriend. He told about them holding on to each other and a tree until the water swept his boyfriend away. I don't believe his body was ever found, I may be wrong. He was so overwrought while telling the story it was heart breaking to watch him. So sad!

[Wino]

Hard to believe the Thai government cannot allocate money to maintain the tsunami warning equipment. The US has donated the equipment, yet Thailand cannot afford to keep it going. What a waste!

[patong]

Hard to believe the Thai government cannot allocate money to maintain the tsunami warning equipment. The US has donated the equipment, yet Thailand cannot afford to keep it going. What a waste!

If you have lived here for a while it's so easy to believe. So so much public money goes into so so few pockets.

[Wino]

Where are the watch groups? The free press? Why aren't the people up in arms? A country donates all the equipment and the Thai government cannot do the upkeep? Tragic.

[patong]

Where are the watch groups? The free press? Why aren't the people up in arms? A country donates all the equipment and the Thai government cannot do the upkeep? Tragic.

T.I.T.

[Wino]

This is Thailand, but I thought things might change for the better. Chances of another major tsunami are small, but it would be nice to have a warning system in place.