Here is a first hand account sent to us from a friend in Nepal. It was sent to her by a friend. It's long, but very interesting I thought.

Steph

 

Surviving the Tsunami

 

We know many of you will be anxious to know our story.  I have been too exhausted emotionally and with small infections on my foot, giving me fever and chills that have made me incapable of writing this all down.  I have been aching to communicate with family and friends and to write down our story as this has always been great therapy for me.

 

First of all, we are all MIRACULOUSLY alive and almost without a scratch.  There must be a higher being out there that decided it was not our turn to die.  We were so close to tragedy.

 

Before I tell the story, just wanted to let you know that we are now in Bangkok, at the Centre Point Sukhumvit (serviced apartments), safe!  We feel too exhausted to do anything else.  We have barely left the apartment since we arrived.  Francine (Jean-Marc’s sister), Jean-Marc and I are taking turns to keep the kids busy while the others find a bit to time to buy essential clothing, or recuperate.  It is amazing how emotionally wiped out we are.  We are really happy to be all together.  It is very important to have this time together, because we need to debrief amongst ourselves.  Coming home to family or friends would be wonderful for warmth and hugs, but somehow we need to be with others that experienced the same event and keep talking it out.  It is constantly on our minds – all day, and when we go to sleep, despite even having been spared the worst part of the disaster – when the waves hit.  The experience of living for about 20 hours with a group of about 60-80 survivors on a high but narrow rock ridge just behind the resort, and sharing stories about individual experiences left very strong impressions on all of us.

 

At this stage, we intend to stay in Bangkok for the rest of our trip (January 7 we were scheduled to return to Katmandu).  However, it appears that Jean-Marc may be swept up into yet another emergency mode of operation, assisting the Canadian Embassy in New Delhi, India to deal with the huge disaster in southern India.  The Ambassador has been communicating with him already to this extent, wanting to utilize Jean-Marc’s emergency skills.  I have strongly recommended that he refrain from helping now in Thailand.  He has not yet recuperated from his intense 7 weeks prior to our vacation, and he needs to decompress with our family after this recent tsunami.  We also understand that Kathmandu is having its own problems now – a week long blockade is slowly crippling the city (however the Maoists just lifted it yesterday. Finally some good news!).  We think Bangkok will be the best place to relax and pamper ourselves.

 

The Story….

 

Waking up on December 26^th, our family and Francine (Jean-Marc’s sister who joined us for the Christmas holidays) had planned our FIRST outing off the island (Koh Pra Thong) where our small and remote eco beach resort was located (Golden Buddha Beach Resort).  I had just finished a telephone conversation with my Dad at 9:15 am and we were getting ready to embark on a small long tail fishing boat which would take us to the neighboring Ra Island for a walk through the jungle and down to the beach on the other side for a swim.  We left Golden Buddha Beach at about 9:35 am and reached Ra Island around 9:55 am or so.  This was only about 5 minutes before the famed Tsunami hit the coast!  We were oblivious to what was happening around us, as we were climbing up through the forest.  Riel was complaining about being too tired to walk, so he sat up on my shoulders for most of the walk, delaying our progress.  (We have since been thanking Riel for his whining, which caused our slow progress and possibly kept us from arriving at the beach when the tsunami hit).  About halfway through our walk, we heard a loud bang and could hear the ocean quite clearly.  We thought it was a tree falling and that we were simply getting closer to the other side.  In hindsight, this must have been when the waves hit.  There were 3 large waves that hit over the course of 17 minutes.   When we descended the hill towards the beach, our Thai guide explained to us, when he saw mud on the forest trail, that this was very strange.  The rainy season had ended in November, and there had been no rain since.  We continued a bit to the side of the mud, through the forest, and as we advanced, there was lots of water in depressions in the earth – again, this was strange for this time of year.  We continued.  Then we noticed that the grass on land that was above the drop-off towards the beach (maybe 5 meters from the sea level), was very wet and we found some dead fish.  Our guide smelled the fish, it was fairly fresh – whatever had happened, had happened not too long ago.  Jean-Marc noticed the trunks of the coconut trees were still wet (several meters high).  He was getting edgy but did not let on too much.  We watched the sea.  It was very strong.  There was a raging river that had just been created (the guide knew what was none there before).  This river stopped us from getting down on the beach – thank God!!! 

 

We were talking about the fact that the water looked too rough here to go swimming.  We were concerned that the fisherman who brought us would try to go through the waves to meet us as planned.  The waves were enormous!  We hoped he would be smart enough to change his plans.  (Later we heard that he lost his boat and had to swim to shore but was safe. We have no news of his assistant, a young boy of 10 or so)).  The guide asked if we wanted a fresh coconut from the tree to drink.  We agreed.  Obviously the severity of what had just happened, was not completely registering with us.  We sat to drink and eat the delicious coconut flesh.  Then we noticed that the waves were starting to advance higher up once again and reach the top of the beach.  Jean-Marc told us to leave immediately. We quickly picked up our daypacks, I grabbed Riel and Katrine and we took off for higher ground.  Jean-Marc saw the ocean coming up where we were sitting a minute before, rushing up one of the newly made rivers from the big tsunami that had hit only 10-15 minutes before.  Luckily, the sea did not come up much further, and we were very happy to reach higher ground in a couple of minutes more.  We knew we had something to be thankful for.  That we had probably escaped a serious disaster.  But it was still not really registering…

 

We walked back through the forest trail, this time a bit further to a small village where our guide said we would be able to get a boat back to Golden Buddha Beach.  Upon arrival, the village was gone!  There were also supposed to have been several floating houses on the sea that house fisherman who farm fish in stationary nets.  These were completely gone – no sight of any building or people!  The sea was wild.  It kept rising and falling (but only by about a meter in height).  The current kept changing direction and was very strong.  We set ourselves up on top of a small rock outcropping about 3 meters above the sea, and were hoping that a boat would come to pick us up soon.  We were watching the sea level carefully, but were in no real position to climb any higher as thick forest surrounded us.  We heard a call from people that were about 2-300 meters further up the coast from us.  Our guide returned their call with his own bellow.  We knew we were lucky survivors!  Amazingly, we waited only about a half hour before a fishing boat full of fishing traps came to our rescue.  We had to quickly embark and crammed ourselves onto the little extra space remaining on the boat.  He took us across the straight, only 10 minutes or so, towards where a fairly large fishing village had been only.  We couldn’t make out any houses.  There were two larger boats that had come to rescue survivors who were wading out into the sea to get aboard the boats.  Our boat kept advancing into a small inlet that took us through the devastated village.  Complete destruction!  Almost nothing remained.  A medium sized boat had been carried 20 meters inland and turned upside down.  Debris was everywhere. From a village of 500 people or so, a single cement built house was the only building that remained largely intact, but window shutters hung askew.  A jeep was wrapped around a coconut tree and crunched up like tinfoil.

 

We were now on the island Koh Pra Thong, where our resort was.  We weren’t sure this was the best place to be dropped off.  We wanted to go back to the mainland.  But in the chaos, and the inability to speak Thai with the fisherman, and the fisherman’s wish to go help others (we think), we were set down here.  It was such an eerie feeling to arrive amongst all the destruction of this village and the isolation of a deserted place.  We also still had not had a chance to really find out what had happened.  We knew from the fisherman that several huge waves had come and wreaked havoc.  We had no idea of the extent of the disaster. We knew we had a long walk ahead of us – about an hour and a half, with two very tired kids.  Riel was carried on our shoulders the whole way and this, after the two treks in the forest on Ra Island with Riel on my shoulders most of the way. (Jean-Marc was still sick from his low level virus he had, and so wasn’t fit to carry Riel. Nonetheless he eventually took Riel and walked rapidly as he wanted us on higher ground as soon as possible).  Francine helped carry as well.  Katrine was amazing throughout the entire day!!  She did not utter a single complaint, remained very composed and understood that the extra walking was a must.

 

As we started our walk, Jean-Marc heard a cry.  Unsure if it was a bird or a child, he told Francine and I to go ahead with our kids and he and our guide (Nok) would go check it out.  They found a small Burmese boy of about 3-4 years old who was completely traumatized.  He must have been separated from his family, or hidden because of fright.  He was found very close to the beach – remarkable that he would be alive.  We were thrilled to have found a survivor and to have been able to help this little boy.  Was he on a boat with his family? Was he from the village? We don’t know.  Francine ended up putting him on her shoulders to help speed up our walk. The following morning he was turned over to Thai authorities.

 

We had no idea what we were walking to.  What remained of Golden Buddha Beach?  But at this point, we had no choice but to go there.  The beach we walked along was covered with debris – fishing boat cooler boxes for their fish, a clothing cabinet, teapot, thermos, several fallen coconut trees, two gas cylinders, single plastic shoes, a new soccer ball wrapped still in its plastic, pillows, a beautiful picture of two beautiful Thai children and many many other things.  The sea was still strong.  We walked along the beach as this was the quickest way to go.  I learned later from Jean-Marc that he was terrified the whole way that more waves would come.  He knew that large aftershocks were likely and could trigger new tsunami. He was looking for places that we would be able to escape too – there were none.  The terrain was very flat.  We forded several new small rivers that were still draining the sea water left on the land from the tsunami.  At one point we had to stop and jump up onto the meter high bank to avoid the rising seawater on the beach.

 

Golden Buddha Beach was coming into view.  But before reaching it, we had to pass the only other resort on the island.  It was completely washed away.  No clubhouse.  The remains of a few houses could be seen, but they had collapsed and been pushed 30-40 m backwards.  The water towers were all that remained.  Some dishes of the resort were scattered on the beach.  We saw a boat opposite the resort, stranded on the rocks of a small island.  We did not see or hear of a single survivor at the resort (Jean-Marc thought that 40-50 people must have been working and staying there. It was even more exposed to the open sea than our resort and had absolutely no higher ground for escape. We walked on.  The complete shape of the beach had changed.  What was once an idyllic crescent beach was now a flatter higher beach with very different contours and several draining rivers leading to the sea.  We finally reached Golden Buddha Beach.  Now the reality of what happened started to sink in.  We had something to compare – the before and the after.  Somehow, not knowing what a place looked like before, made it difficult to fully appreciate the extent of the disaster.  Our resort’s large clubhouse and yoga platform were completely gone.  No sign left of them!

 

Before being able to walk up to the resort, we had to forge what before was a gentle stream coming out of a mangrove swamp.  It had become a very strong white water river draining the seawater from the tsunami on the land out to sea.  Our guide, who was now carrying the Burmese boy on his back, was in the lead.  He started to ford the river with the child on his back.  Jean-Marc was telling me that he should never have tried that with a child first.  He yelled at me to go to their help.  I ran, but by the time I got there, he had turned back towards us and successfully arrived back.  We decided as a group that Francine and I would stay on higher ground with the kids while Jean-Marc and the guide crossed the river and went to investigate if it was wise for us to return to the resort or not.   Luckily I did not see it, but Jean-Marc told me afterwards, that he was tossed and turned by the current when he lost his foothold.  He almost lost his shoe, but, using white river skills,  he managed to get across to the other side.  Within a few minutes, the men were back with a sea kayak and three other men to help us.  At first, they were yelling something we didn’t understand.  We thought they had said “another wave is coming”  “go away”.  Francine and I picked up the kids as fast as we could and started running into the forest – I knew there wasn’t much elevation to protect us.  Then we heard more yelling – they were waving for us to come to the river.  We had misunderstood.  We changed direction and went to the river.  Nok took the kayak across to us.  We placed the kids in it.  Katrine, Riel and the Burmese boy were very scared, but we told them they had to sit down and that this was the safest way to get them across.  We planned our strategy to start upriver a few meters higher, hold the kayak, but let the current take it downstream with three adults holding onto to it.  Fighting the current would be futile and take too much energy.  Then they placed three men about 5 -7 meters downriver to catch the kayak if it was carried away.  We were all scared, but we had to do it. There was a threat of another wave coming and we had to get to higher ground.  We told the kids to sit down and they would be okay. Francine, Nok and I managed to keep hold of the kayak and guide it to the other side without losing hold of it.  It was very scary!  But afterwards we felt relieved.  We had made it.

 

Walking up off the beach, more reality hit.  The resort was totally wiped away.  There were still lots of smashed debris scattered on the grounds. The turtle project staff huts were gone. The cement turtle tank, which had 5 nine month old sea turtles in it still was in tact, minus the turtles.  The two storey office building was gone.  The large clubhouse and yoga platform were gone.  Most beach houses were gone, especially those closest to the beach.   We were told to hurry, people yelled to us from on top of the rock hill behind the resort, there might be another wave coming soon.  We ran.  I carried Riel on my shoulders once again, up a very steep slope, but I never even questioned my ability to do so.  It was survival mode.  We were told to be prepared for what we were about to see.  Some people had some pretty bad injuries. 

 

I anticipated seeing maybe 10 people on top of the hill – but we found so many.  There were about 70-80 people (I think) huddled very closely together on a very narrow rock ridge.  Most were foreigners as many of the Thai staff had left to walk across the island to a big fishing village that was an hour car drive away.  Many of them had families there.  People looked dazed and in a definite state of shock.  There were about 10 people with medium scale injuries.  About 4 people were seriously injured (broken collar bone, gashed limbs, pieces of skin missing, a finger almost fallen off).  People greeted us so warmly.  They were so happy to see that we were safe.  We had warm hugs from several people we got to know in the past week.  It was still hard to relate.  Lucy, Robin Needham’s wife (who is CARE US Director in Nepal) asked with teary eyes if we had seen Robin.  He was missing.  We had no idea what these people had been through.  For us it was exhaustion from a long walking day, nothing to eat since breakfast and the emotional uncertainty of what had happened.  But we were soon to learn that many people around us had horrendous stories to tell, while others were able to quickly run to safety.  We walked carefully between the people sitting on the ground, to find a spot where we too could settle.  We found a small space of about one metre wide, to sit and huddle together. 

 

Francine, Jean-Marc and I were soaking wet from fording the river, so we hung up clothing in the bushes to dry.  Carol (from Kathmandu) kindly scavenged a pair of pants for me (in fact they were my own pants from our house).  Looking around, we saw several people wearing Jean-Marc’s t-shirts – strange.  It was slowly dawning on us what had happened.  People had been up on this ridge for several hours by the time  we had arrived - some lucky ones arriving just before the tsunami hit, others came later in worse shape.  The first wave to hit the beach, covered the beach completely (a rise of about 3 meters).   Then people looked out into the sea and saw a huge white wall of a wave coming closer.  They fled screaming!  Most people survived miraculously, thanks to the only two hills on the whole island being at the resort.  Out of the 140 people at the resort, there were about 15 people (Thai and foreigners) missing, including the CARE Nepal country director who we had known for 10 years and a biologist from Halifax who had spent a hour with us two days before telling us about a turtle protection project. After the waves had finished, and everyone calmed down a bit, some men went out scavenging to find things to help the survivors.  Our house (Baan Yuth), which was back in the forest (the least desired houses on the resort – and the only one left for us when I made the booking), acted as a refuge to several women and children when the big wave hit.  The tsunami took out the bottom level of our two storey house.  So Francine and Jean-Marc lost all of their belongings.  Katrine lost a few things too.  We also had an extra house on the beach that we kept for Jean-Marc because he was feeling sick and needed extra sleep.  This house was completely swept away.  If the wave had come when we were all asleep….

 

It was great to see that our material possessions were put to good use.  We had a good emergency medical kit, flashlights, batteries, t-shirts, lots of snacks, mosquito nets, toiletry bag, huge bottle of drinking water, towels, blankets and other such things that came into very good use for our 24 hours spent on the ridge.  [Now I can finally say that my habit of  planning for emergency eventualities which means I stock up on extra items for “just in case” situations, really paid off!!  Hopefully Jean-Marc won’t bug me about this again! ]  

 

The men would go off with empty backpacks and return with whatever they had scavenged.  This felt like scene from a movie – perhaps Margaret Atwood’s latest book (I forget the title –Oryx and Cran?).  They seemed to have found a half decent supply of drinking water and food to last us through the night.  Items were haphazardly handed out, although people made sure that injured people and children had priority.  There was definitely some kind of organization happening to meet the needs of the whole group which was great.  Lucy, who was must have been very distraught over the loss of her husband, was never-the-less taking a roll call.  (Jean-Marc then helped her to organize the list) Everyone was asked to be quiet and to respond when their name was called.  Some individuals still had their cell phones, and phone calls and MS messages were being made to the mainland to contact embassies and local contacts.  Thus officials had an exact number of survivors, a list of their names and who was still missing.  (We lost our satellite phone.  The only bad luck we had.  Because I had used it to call Dad just before our boat trip, I left it at the office to be put in their safe until we returned from the trip.  It got washed away with the office.)  Jean-Marc also managed to get a GPS reading (which states the exact latitude and longitude of your location) from Robin’s satellite phone that was not otherwise operational. (Thuruya does not cover Thailand) This info was provided to rescue officials Even though survivors were in touch with people on the mainland as early as about 11:00am on the day of the tsunami, we saw no rescue help until late in the afternoon from a boat.   This boat took maybe 10-20 people.  Fifteen more people could have gone but with the constant threat of a new wave that might be arriving (we had received phone calls that indicated erroneously, that more waves were coming), people were very scared to descend the rock.  So some of the critically injured had to bunker down for the night with the majority of us and wait until the next morning to be rescued. 

 

By 5:00 pm men were going out to find bedding for the night.  They came back with several mosquito nets, blankets, sheets, straw mats, and some pillows and a few other things.  Some men helped to cut back the bushes so that we could make flat places for sleeping.  Jean-Marc came back with several of our bags strapped around his body.  He was quite a sight.  He had some essential clothing for the kids and myself, plus lots of our snacks.  He found a red car that we had given Riel for Christmas and one of Katrine’s favorite stuffed animals, Rainbow, a multicolored polar bear.  Although I questioned the ‘essentialness’ of these things, the toys ended up being great items to help the kids cope with the craziness of the situation.  They provided them some nice comfort.  They both went to sleep with the toys held tightly in their hands. 

 

Jean-Marc also came with two mosquito nets which I promptly gave away to more deserving causes.  I gave one to a group of children, and another to a lovely French family that we had gotten to know (Marie, Etienne, Joseph, Thadde and Marguerite) who were sitting beside us.  Marguerite (6 ½) had befriended Katrine and spent a lot of time with her in the two previous days.  Although they were staying in a cottage a few meters from ours, their family lost everything as Jean-Marc said there were no sign of their house - - even the plumbing had vanished.  Only the father had shoes on his feet, the rest had only the clothes on their back.  The mosquito nets were quickly going up and now the place started to look like a refugee camp.  There was almost no space between nets, and the little space people had to sleep on was covered in uncomfortable stones, rocks and roots from bushes.  But everyone made due trying to make themselves as comfortable as possible.  In the end, we found an empty mosquito net which had been abandoned by a Swiss family (they went elsewhere on the rock) and so, very relieved, I put Katrine and Riel in the small cramped space and even managed to fit myself in beside them for the night.  The kids had a hard time trying to fall asleep.  Katrine complained a lot.  They were simply overtired from quite a traumatizing day.  Katrine awoke several times that night in fear from the sound of the waves which we could hear clearly.  The sound of the ocean had become a source of fear to many of us, when earlier it had been a soothing, relaxing sound.  Francine and Jean-Marc were not so lucky.  They slept in the open, with mosquitoes buzzing at their ears all night long and with rocks uncomfortably poking into their backs.  I noticed them getting up several times to change position or sit up for a while. 

 

Once the children feel asleep and Jean-Marc returned from his duties (he spend a fair amount of time helping an injured and very traumatized family of four), we spent a lot of time talking about what had happened.  Marie, the French woman talked with us as well.  Then Lucy returned with her two sons from combing the beaches to look for her husband – empty handed.  She was exhausted.  We quickly shared snacks with them to help them refuel.  Later Lucy came to talk with us.  She told us her story.  She was in the office when the big wave hit, one the second floor.  She was washed out the window and she got hold of a tree and hung on as long as she could.  There were two Thai women hanging onto her legs.  She couldn’t hold any more and was taken out to sea.  She was swept across the peninsula (over the land, which was now just sea) and into the bay on the other side.  Then again she was swept out to sea and luckily found a door to hold onto.  During the lull of one big wave, people who had climbed up on a high rock near the ocean called to her to swim in to the beach.  She figured they could see what was happening with the ocean, so, despite her sore shoulder, she gave it all she had, got onto the beach, and then people yelled at here to climb the hill as soon as possible as they saw another wave coming.  She made it!  Her husband she said was not such a strong swimmer.  He was last seen running down the beach, warning others to run to safety.

 

The next morning people were getting up by 6:00 is.  By 7:00 am we were all assembling down on the beach waiting for the first means of rescue.  Fires had been built to attract the helicopters and many people were out on the beach waving any pieces of material they could find.   One lady found the office safe and was handing out the contents to the owners.  This was a lucky find and mostly it contained passports and money.  A bit before  8:00am (I think), the helicopters started to arrive.  The injured were evacuated first, then some women and children.  By about 9:00 the women and children and several men, waded out into the sea to get on two high speed coast guard boats that took us to Kuriburi.  There we were received by Lost Horizons staff (the company that owns Golden Buddha Beach) and driven in the back of a pickup truck to a Buddhist community centre in Kuriburi that was acting as a relief centre for the affected people.  There were lots of Thai people.  Those of us from our resort, were the only foreigners.  Jean-Marc and I decided that he should stay behind and help with the relief efforts.  They needed people to go search for possible dead bodies and/or injured people that had not yet been found.  Francine was such an amazing help throughout the entire time (and still is) and was so much help to me that we thought Jean-Marc should offer his services.   He ended up leaving the island by about 1:00 pm with the last remaining people.  After recovering two bodies, they had all lost what energy they had and there was little more they could do. (Since then, five other bodies have been found by a larger search party) They ended up drinking a bottle of wine on the beach before a rescue helicopter took him to Phuket.  He ended up getting a free flight up to Bangkok the same day on a military flight operating to help people who had no baggage or papers.  He ended up arriving in Bangkok, unbeknownst to us, at around the same time as us.   Meanwhile, at the Buddhist community centre, we were provided a warm welcome by the Thais.   They immediately fed us (we hadn’t had a proper meal in 24 hours) with all kinds of lovely treats.  They allowed us to make an international phone call for free (Francine called her parents) and Francine managed to organize flights up to Bangkok for a large group of people from our resort.  Soon we were off in pickup trucks again for Ranong airport and arrived in Bangkok by nightfall. 

 

We had agreed with Jean-Marc to meet up at the Centre Point, but it was full when we called from the airport.  So Francine and I and the kids found another cheaper hotel for the first night.  We weren’t expecting Jean-Marc until the next day, and were too exhausted to call the embassy, so we left that until the next morning.  We were lucky to get a room at Centre Point the next day, and by luck when I talked to the Canadian Embassy for the second time, Jean-Marc had arrived there to offer his help while waiting for our arrival.  He still hadn’t heard from us, and needed something to do.  So we agreed that he would come as soon as possible to be with us.  I have convinced Jean-Marc not to help on this emergency just yet.  He needs to rest with us first.  Luckily he agreed!  So we are now quite exhausted, but so thrilled to be alive and to be able to hug and enjoy each other.  We have lived through a real miracle.  It is great to be alive!!



Editor's note:

This is an example that needs to be used to make a point. Whenever possible and at your earliest convince, please take the time to volunteer with the American Red Cross, FEMA or any state or local program that teaches first aid and disaster relief. It will come in handy and perhaps life-saving. It only takes a few hours a month to become fully qualified in several areas.  Do as many people, young and older have done to inform and instruct---take a home study course from FEMA and at least become knowledgeable with the emergency operations and disaster control. This writer has taken several courses and certified with  FEMA for several emergency positions. Use the instruction courses to start and then be sure to get hands-on instruction ( you can not certify without hands-on instruction and drills).

Start now by going to this site  http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is317.asp  and signing up for a course. Its free and may someday save your life or a life of someone close to you.

 

Bill Gast

Editor, wesupportthevets.com