Today marks the anniversary of one of the luckiest days of my life - dodging the 2004 tsunami by seconds - twice. First time on a speedboat unknowingly and by the time the second wave hit we had just been hoisted onto a truck and driven into safety as we could see the wave approaching. We had checked out of our beach resort in Phuket that morning to leave for one of the smaller islands for a couple of days and later to join friends in Phi Phi to celebrate New Years. None of the 3 beachresorts we booked for that vacation exist today. Neither had I, if we had been 5 minutes late that morning 10 years ago. I remember calling my mom to say that something had happened in Phuket - we had heard of several hundred dead already but no one really knew - but that I was ok and not to worry if the news would even ever reach Denmark. Little did we know, what had actually happened and what we were going to go through the next days and weeks. Later that first day I met Anton, 27, from Johannesburg, who had been out diving outside Phi Phi - a Christmas gift from his family who he was also traveling with. Parents, grandparents, brother, sister-in-law, 5 year old niece and his own girlfriend. We only found 4 of them in our 5 day search but it was more than we had hoped for and a lot more than most others I met during those days, working as a volunteer in the Phuket rescue camp. I called my cell phone provider letting them know that no matter what happened and what amount my bill was coming to, we would figure it out - I needed that line open as it was our only communication with the outside world and what it meant to hundreds of people around me. They called me after a few hours and told me not to worry - I wouldnt be charged a dime. The first 36 hours I heard ridiculous low death tolls not even close to what we had carried ashore or held in our arms and seen with our own eyes - they were still sending down airplanes full of tourists from Europe and neither the Danish nor the South African ambassador had showed up yet - bureaucracy I was later told. Several other nations had opened up desks at city hall rescue camp - I set up my own desk for the SAs and Danes. Calling home lists with found, missing and confirmed deaths to my mother in Denmark, who with her diplomatic skills and connections made sure to pass the information on to the right people. We helped out everywhere we could and were sent out to Phi Phi and Khao Lak to translate for the many Scandinavians out there. I didnt sleep for 3 days until they finally sent someone down who took over and they could start sending people home. The director of Star Tours, a Danish travel agency, mr Stig Elling (who by the way made a world of difference to many many Scandinavian travelers and made room at his hotels to give survivors a roof over their head), offered me a room and forced me to take a break and get some rest. It was like being re-born and I stayed in my room and watched CNN and for the first time realized the enormity of it all and I just started crying. I couldnt stop. I saw images of myself on CNN, looking at lists and taking notes. It reminded me that there was work to be done. By the pool at the hotel a larger group of Danes had just arrived from Khao Lak - the emptiness in their eyes, and their bruises told me everything. I went straight to them and tried to figure out how we could get them home as fast and as easy as possible. The Danish embassy people had placed themselves at some hotel away from everyone else - apparently because the refuge camp was too depressing I was told (!) which just made it even harder to get there. I spoke with them several times during those days on several occasions needing their help and ending up using Star Tour staff or local volunteers instead - like getting supplies and clothes for people who had just been rescued, or showing survivors around the overcrowded hospitals in the search for their loved ones. Or getting transportation for them so they could go to the embassy and get their temporary papers made so they could return home. I negotiated with the consulate that just one from each family needed to go there and get papers - it was obvious that the poor people could not hold it together much longer. A little girl had clung to a palm tree for almost 2 days before being rescued and hadnt dared climb down with all the death and destruction she had just witnessed below her. On the sixth day, we were urged to be on one of the ambulance planes back to Denmark. The heat and all the death in the small area of Phuket was forming a dangerous amount of rot and diseases could form and spread quick. A couple of hours over midnight on New Years Eve I stood sobbing in the comforting hugs from my closest family in Copenhagen Airport. I hope to never again witness that scale of chaos, hopelessness, heart wrenching stories and casualties. I havent yet been able to return to the shores of Phuket, Khao Lak and Phi Phi, but am right now sitting across the Indian Ocean in the Maldives overlooking the clear blue waters, and sending my most heartfelt thoughts and best wishes to the several hundreds of people I met during those 5 days and to the many other hundreds of thousands that lost their loved ones to the Tsunami of December 26th 2004. ❤️
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 08:37:55 +0000