At 10:30am on Dec26th, the electricity in the shop went out- again! Not an uncommon occurrence so no real surprise so far. Andrea had quite literally just walked into the shop. Then we started to realise that something wasn't quite normal. The Thais were running up & down the road in panic shouting to each other. I was able to translate it as "water coming", though couldn't understand what they meant. Then my Thai manager P'Aod, appeared racing up the hill in the jeep having dropped his girlfriend home to get changed for work-(it was the day after Christmas & they had been at an all night party). He screeched the car to a halt & told us that water had flooded the main rd & everything had gone! We still had no idea what he was talking about. He kept looking down the road as if he was being chased. After 5 minutes tourists started walking along the road soaking wet & covered in cuts & grazes- they looked completely dazed!.JPG)
So we all got in the car & went down the rd to see what was happening. Less than 100 mt down the rd at the next town of Bang Niang we saw a lake covering what was the main rd from Bangkok to Phuket. It was unbelievable. There was bits of buildings, trees & cars &motorbikes everywhere. Aod , my Thai guy, said he had to go home & see if his girlfriend was OK, to which I said fine, you walk through the lake & I'll take the jeep back to the shop & ring someone for help.As we drove back, the lost souls walking up the road were now double what was there 2 minutes earlier & some of them were bleeding really bad- massive cuts!
We came into the shop & got the 1st Aid box out. A pathetic 1st aid kit more used for small cuts & burns. We started treating the injuries as they came & within half an hour we were treating about 50 people. Their injuries ranged from massive grazes to deep cuts. Then the pick-ups started arriving full of people in the back with unbelievable injuries. One guy had snapped his forearm. 
The bones stuck out of his arm at right angles & it looked like the only thing holding his arm together was the skin. Another girl had quite literally smashed her knee to smithereens. One old lady came up to me & told me her ear hurt. I said let me have a look and as she took her hand away from the side of her head, her ear fell off- well it stayed attached to her ear lobe! Meanwhile some of these people were going where’s my Mum, where’s my little girl, I've lost my family, I saw my Mother swept away etc etc.
Through out this everyone kept saying there was another wave coming so we had to move all these people up behind the buildings & into the trees, High land! Way B4 this we'd also run out of 1st aid stuff. The local shop keepers had closed the shops so we couldn't get any more 1st aid stuff, and everyone was covered from head to toe in mud. The cuts as deep as they were , were also completely full of mud & the amount of sand & mud- it was unbelievable.
Meanwhile the pickups kept dropping off more & more people. The people we moved into the trees stayed there while the new arrivals were then put into the nearby restaurant. Same sort of injuries & some- broken legs, severe head injuries, and now some of these arriving were also now being unloaded off the pick ups and quite literally dying in our arms as we tried to get them off the trucks. I couldn't understand where all the help was. Where were the ambulances! I got into the jeep & tried to drive out of town as the phones weren't working. Then I realised why we weren't getting any help. We were 
completely blocked off! Although the lake had now receded the roads were cluttered in debris- electricity poles, parts of buildings, trees, cars, & now bodies as well- on both ends of the road was the same devastation. We could do nothing.
By the time I got back to our two 1st Aid posts the only doctor in town had arrived & was able to open his surgery. I couldn't move any of the people we had been taking care of in the trees or in the restaurant because now the surgery was full aswell. Within a 50 mt radius there must have been 300-400 injuries, people of all ages & nationalities, moaning, screaming, crying. We were completely helpless & the pick
ups kept coming with more & more injuries & more & more dead bodies. The worst thing I saw that day was this mother who had a tree through the left side of her body, she was wondering around looking for her children & then she found them. Her injuries were so bad I don't even know how she could stand. When she had her kids in her arms at last the kids were hugging her & then she just fell over dead.
At this point I looked around me & realised how many dead people we were surrounded by. Someone started collecting plastic bags and then just putting them on the faces of the dead so the 1st Aiders weren't wasting time on them.
This went on till about 3pm, till we started getting movement from those we thought were dead & had plastic bags over their heads!
When I started thinking about all my staff & work colleagues, I thought the worst. P’Aod, came back with his girlfriend who had severely damaged her spine- it was bent! But she was walking- and she had also broken every finger on her hand. Then people started arriving from Bang Niang, including my friend Klaus. He told me of the people we knew who were still alive & those of whom we had no idea. We got on a bike & a jeep &drove to Bang Niang to look for our friends.
Bang Niang- where I lived, where Andrea had left 5 minutes before the wave came, where all our friends lived, was gone. There was nothing other than mud, trees, foundations, & bodies! My house was still standing though the front & back wall had gone & the water level had risen to the 2nd floor balcony. I carefully stepped inside to salvage anything I could. I picked up some clothes & some photos & my camera- undamaged & went outside again to find Klaus. He had gone into a hotel. Here he said were about 50 people. No one in charge. Only the dead & dying! He brought 6 people out of the hotel & left everyone else there. There was nothing he could do for them. If they weren't dead already they had less than 30 minutes of life left in them. Some people came to help Klaus & then he continued to look for our missing friends.
The beach, what we saw, resembled that of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. There must have been over 100 bodies there. Some old, some young- all dead.
We were convinced we had lost everyone. There was nothing we could do. We went back to the shop & thank god in the time we had been away some of our friends had been able to make their way to the shop. By this time we were now only missing 2 staff & 1 of Klaus Friends from Germany who had come over for the Christmas holiday.
I stayed & Klaus took the jeep & went out looking for his friend. Paul, one of the guys we had just met up with told us how he had been washed up on land almost 1000 mt from the beach- you may have seen the police boat washed up in the jungle- that was Bang Niang- that was where the waves full force had hit.
By now it was only about 5pm. We were still alone with no outside help, no power , no emergency medicine & people still dying all over the place.
Gradually we started hearing of this meeting point that people were collecting at in the hills. We decided to take everyone up there as people were still talking about this second wave, and it seemed our best option. We took people up there.
It was what we had been dealing with earlier but on a far larger scale- there were now 1000's of terrible injuries- but no corpses.
The bones stuck out of his arm at right angles & it looked like the only thing holding his arm together was the skin. Another girl had quite literally smashed her knee to smithereens. One old lady came up to me & told me her ear hurt. I said let me have a look and as she took her hand away from the side of her head, her ear fell off- well it stayed attached to her ear lobe! Meanwhile some of these people were going where’s my Mum, where’s my little girl, I've lost my family, I saw my Mother swept away etc etc.Through out this everyone kept saying there was another wave coming so we had to move all these people up behind the buildings & into the trees, High land! Way B4 this we'd also run out of 1st aid stuff. The local shop keepers had closed the shops so we couldn't get any more 1st aid stuff, and everyone was covered from head to toe in mud. The cuts as deep as they were , were also completely full of mud & the amount of sand & mud- it was unbelievable.
Meanwhile the pickups kept dropping off more & more people. The people we moved into the trees stayed there while the new arrivals were then put into the nearby restaurant. Same sort of injuries & some- broken legs, severe head injuries, and now some of these arriving were also now being unloaded off the pick ups and quite literally dying in our arms as we tried to get them off the trucks. I couldn't understand where all the help was. Where were the ambulances! I got into the jeep & tried to drive out of town as the phones weren't working. Then I realised why we weren't getting any help. We were 
completely blocked off! Although the lake had now receded the roads were cluttered in debris- electricity poles, parts of buildings, trees, cars, & now bodies as well- on both ends of the road was the same devastation. We could do nothing.By the time I got back to our two 1st Aid posts the only doctor in town had arrived & was able to open his surgery. I couldn't move any of the people we had been taking care of in the trees or in the restaurant because now the surgery was full aswell. Within a 50 mt radius there must have been 300-400 injuries, people of all ages & nationalities, moaning, screaming, crying. We were completely helpless & the pick
ups kept coming with more & more injuries & more & more dead bodies. The worst thing I saw that day was this mother who had a tree through the left side of her body, she was wondering around looking for her children & then she found them. Her injuries were so bad I don't even know how she could stand. When she had her kids in her arms at last the kids were hugging her & then she just fell over dead.At this point I looked around me & realised how many dead people we were surrounded by. Someone started collecting plastic bags and then just putting them on the faces of the dead so the 1st Aiders weren't wasting time on them.
This went on till about 3pm, till we started getting movement from those we thought were dead & had plastic bags over their heads!
When I started thinking about all my staff & work colleagues, I thought the worst. P’Aod, came back with his girlfriend who had severely damaged her spine- it was bent! But she was walking- and she had also broken every finger on her hand. Then people started arriving from Bang Niang, including my friend Klaus. He told me of the people we knew who were still alive & those of whom we had no idea. We got on a bike & a jeep &drove to Bang Niang to look for our friends.
Bang Niang- where I lived, where Andrea had left 5 minutes before the wave came, where all our friends lived, was gone. There was nothing other than mud, trees, foundations, & bodies! My house was still standing though the front & back wall had gone & the water level had risen to the 2nd floor balcony. I carefully stepped inside to salvage anything I could. I picked up some clothes & some photos & my camera- undamaged & went outside again to find Klaus. He had gone into a hotel. Here he said were about 50 people. No one in charge. Only the dead & dying! He brought 6 people out of the hotel & left everyone else there. There was nothing he could do for them. If they weren't dead already they had less than 30 minutes of life left in them. Some people came to help Klaus & then he continued to look for our missing friends.The beach, what we saw, resembled that of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. There must have been over 100 bodies there. Some old, some young- all dead.
We were convinced we had lost everyone. There was nothing we could do. We went back to the shop & thank god in the time we had been away some of our friends had been able to make their way to the shop. By this time we were now only missing 2 staff & 1 of Klaus Friends from Germany who had come over for the Christmas holiday.
I stayed & Klaus took the jeep & went out looking for his friend. Paul, one of the guys we had just met up with told us how he had been washed up on land almost 1000 mt from the beach- you may have seen the police boat washed up in the jungle- that was Bang Niang- that was where the waves full force had hit.By now it was only about 5pm. We were still alone with no outside help, no power , no emergency medicine & people still dying all over the place.
Gradually we started hearing of this meeting point that people were collecting at in the hills. We decided to take everyone up there as people were still talking about this second wave, and it seemed our best option. We took people up there.
It was what we had been dealing with earlier but on a far larger scale- there were now 1000's of terrible injuries- but no corpses.
Here we found all our friends, except Klaus mate- Harry.
As night came on we then had a no light problem and nowhere to lie down either.
I decided to take some of us back down to my shop and we made base upstairs- we were still waiting for Klaus. Eventually about- 11pm he came back. He hadn't found his friend still. I was convinced he was dead.
One restaurant charged up his generator & we were able to watch CNN- all they said was how bad Phuket had been hit. No mention of Khao Lak- in retrospect how would they know - we were cut off! They also mentioned Sri Lanka & an earthquake in Indonesia. I thought wow- this is globally big- the tsunami is on its way thru Europe now. How ghastly. Knowing what has just killed thousands is now on its way thru Europe! Its going to be ages till we get help!
No one slept that night. The Mosquitoes were pretty bad that night as well!
At first light we started another search. This time we went through areas where the Thais had started to collect the bodies. And we looked at the faces of the dead to see if Klaus friend was among them. Still nothing.
.JPG)
That day was a very long day. The road had now been partially opened at least and Khao Lak was now getting noticeably emptier, but we all decided to stay together untill we knew about Harry.
I don't really know what happened that day. I remember thinking how blase I had become about looking at dead people. I remember this overwhelming smell, & I remember looking in puddles and seeing prawns! & fish in them. I remember thinking how I must contact my family to tell them I am OK, and I remember thinking we need to get petrol. Somehow I got a message home, and we started syphoning petrol from smashed bikes & cars. I don't think we ate anything that day- I can't remember.
Then unbelievably- about 10pm, Klaus came back with his friend- he had been taken to a Thai hospital with severe injuries to his shin! We organised a car & then Klaus drove his mate to Phuket hospital. That was the last I saw of them. But I heard Klaus saved his mate’s leg from being amputated!
Now we were able to think about leaving and by 10am the next day we were on our way out of the Khao Lak disaster zone.
Post note-
Khao Lak was the worst hit area in Thailand where over 5000 people from over 70 countries lost their lives.
As night came on we then had a no light problem and nowhere to lie down either.
I decided to take some of us back down to my shop and we made base upstairs- we were still waiting for Klaus. Eventually about- 11pm he came back. He hadn't found his friend still. I was convinced he was dead.
One restaurant charged up his generator & we were able to watch CNN- all they said was how bad Phuket had been hit. No mention of Khao Lak- in retrospect how would they know - we were cut off! They also mentioned Sri Lanka & an earthquake in Indonesia. I thought wow- this is globally big- the tsunami is on its way thru Europe now. How ghastly. Knowing what has just killed thousands is now on its way thru Europe! Its going to be ages till we get help!
No one slept that night. The Mosquitoes were pretty bad that night as well!
At first light we started another search. This time we went through areas where the Thais had started to collect the bodies. And we looked at the faces of the dead to see if Klaus friend was among them. Still nothing.
.JPG)
That day was a very long day. The road had now been partially opened at least and Khao Lak was now getting noticeably emptier, but we all decided to stay together untill we knew about Harry.I don't really know what happened that day. I remember thinking how blase I had become about looking at dead people. I remember this overwhelming smell, & I remember looking in puddles and seeing prawns! & fish in them. I remember thinking how I must contact my family to tell them I am OK, and I remember thinking we need to get petrol. Somehow I got a message home, and we started syphoning petrol from smashed bikes & cars. I don't think we ate anything that day- I can't remember.
Then unbelievably- about 10pm, Klaus came back with his friend- he had been taken to a Thai hospital with severe injuries to his shin! We organised a car & then Klaus drove his mate to Phuket hospital. That was the last I saw of them. But I heard Klaus saved his mate’s leg from being amputated!
Now we were able to think about leaving and by 10am the next day we were on our way out of the Khao Lak disaster zone.
Post note-
Khao Lak was the worst hit area in Thailand where over 5000 people from over 70 countries lost their lives.
1 comment:
Very moving account Jim, brings tears to my eyes. What an awful day and following few days it was. It's funny but I dont remember the smell but I do remember the noises, the crying and fear but especially the helicopters, more than anything I remember the sound of rotor blades. Here's to those that made it and in memory of those that didn't...cheers!
Andy
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