TSUNAMI STORIES THAILAND

A collection of tsunami stories from Thailand

Researched and compiled by Bill O'Leary

Cover Painting by Timothy O'Leary

"Tsunami" - a poem by Madison Wetzell

Edited and Produced by Grenville Fordham

A non-profit publication by Image Asia

Copyright Bill O'Leary and Image Asia Co., Ltd.

All proceeds from the offering of this book go to "Minor Tsunami Recovery Fund"

This charity is for 13 children of Khao Lak District who lost parents and gaurdians in the December 26th 2004 tsunami.

THE ORPHANED CHILDREN THIS PUBLICATION HAS HELPED ARE PANUPHONG NUASANG, WANNA SAIYANG, PITAK CHAOPRAKNOI, SARAN SAE-AUEW, PIYANUCH UTTAMOUNG, SITTHIPHON KRUEYOD, SISUTHI SOMABUTR, SUWANNWEE MALIWAN, TAWATCHAI, SUNISA, RATTANA MANEE AND TANAWADEE KRISAPORN.

Special thanks go to Anil Thadani, Bernd Kunkel ( Mr. Blue ) Bill, Kathy and John Heinecke, Boom and Kevin Quilty, Captain Bernard Berteau, Captain Ed Sheils, Damian Barrett, Harry Usher, Jens-Peter Marseh ( Fatty ), John Gold, Khn Kwan and Khun Noot ( Khao Lak ) Madison Wetzell, Manfred Neustifter, Mark Heather, Patrice Fayet and Htoo Chit.

INTRODUCTION

by Bill O'Leary

The December 26th 2004 Asian tsunami changed our lives forever. It arrived unstoppable, unannounced and unapologetic. Just after 10:10am on Boxing Day, a series of ocean surges thrashed the west coast of Thailand. About an hour earlier, a massive ocean-floor earhtquake ( one of the largest ever recorded ) west of Sumartra's north coast had shunted up over a thousand kilometers of fault line, dislodging billions of cubic tons of seawater at the surface.

This displaced energy sent a swift silent pulse through the deeper water, moving fasater than a commercial aircraft. Aproaching Thailand's Andaman Sea coast, the menace went completely unnoticed. Nearing our holiday beaches and fishing communities, teh swell crests slowed, drawing in unprecedented water volumes from teh tidal shores. Closest to the earthquake's epicenter, the entire northwest coast of Sumatra already lay completely destroyed, leaving none in any state to raise the alarm.

Our shoreline receded as if someone had pulled the plug in a bathtub, leaving fish and boats high and dry. Only a few individuals recognized the warning signs. Most had no inkling of the horror in store.

At sea level, thousands of Thais and foreign holidaymakers were gearing up for another glorious windless day on the beach. Many lay strectched out on sun beds wondering curiously was the ocean waters receded hundreds of meters out. Some took photos or reced down to the newly dried areas to collec the thousands of stranded fish. A few minutes later, the boiling sea returned and junst kept on coming.

Miles and miles of ocean advanced ashore, getting deeper and deeper, ever more powerful as it spilled over beachheads across mowed lawns and esplanades into hotel rooms and street stalls. Terror and pandemonium erupted as everyone scrambled as best they could to save themselves. Many drowned, still lying in their bedsor trapped inside their homes, hotel rooms and bungalows. Those caught outside in the whirlpools of rising water fought to survive in a washing machine tangle of motorbikes, cars, corrugated iron, broken glass and concrete blocks.

On Thailand's Andaman coast, the destruction seemed completely random. For example, as Surin Beach in central Phuket, there was a slight one-meter surge that sent tourists running and giggling up the beach as it displaced a few deckchairs, while just a mile south in Kamal Bay, three eight meter waves killed hundreds as they tore through the backstreets of the quiet beachside community. Further south at busy Patong Beach, three mondster waves pummeled onshore and thirty miles east-south-east of Phuket at the famous Phi Phi Islands, two five-meter surges combined from north and south to destroy the tourist shanty town in Tonsai Bay. But by far, the most tragic location was at Khao Lak where a twelve-meter wall of white water wiped the dubutant tourist town clean off the face of the planet as if annihilated by an atomic bomb.

Within an hour, from Langkawi to Ranong, thousands of tourists and Thai nationals had perished along with billions of dollars of property.

The Indian Ocean brutally annihilated us at random. It was as if the Andaman Sea, so famous, majestic and calm, had risen from a long slumber like an angry giant. Then, not liking what it saw, it went on a stomping rage down the entire Dhra Isthmus. Snarling and kicking, marauding and murdering, holding down and drowning, impaling and skinning, crushing and burying our fated fellows, while we gaped mesmerized in horror, hoping and praying that our loved ones were safe.

What follows here - and in the book - is a small collection of survival tales told to me by friends and acquaintances in their own words. To some extent, of necessity, teh stories follow the same format, with activities before the first wave struck, panic, and then tales of courage, despair and generosity. I beleive each story allows us a unique view into the human condition.

Before December 26th 204, we had little knowledge or fear of this slumbering monster. Now this brute's hushed nae, a disquieting contradiction in Japanese terms, wil live on for generations : TSUNAMI

 15,000 copies of this charity book have been sold out.

There are none left...

Now only available as eBook

Tsunami Stories Thailand PDF eBook
(You can Download it Now for Free!!)

All proceeds to from the sale of the books went to :

MINOR TSUNAMI RECOVERY FUND
A registered charity in Thailand Donations are tax deductible

To donate directly go to http://www.minorinternational.com/tsunami/

Funds still required for ongoing educational expenses for the children.