One 1st person accout of the tsunamis in Thailand

Kirsti was my host in London. Mid is her husband. (Yes, she has given her permission for this to be posted here.)

Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 21:24:15 -0500

Hi There,

We're fine now but were on Ko Lanta, part of the area that was hit but thank God we were ok.

The tidal waves hit us but the worst one was 4m high which took out the whole beach and the restaurants and bars - devastating and there were a number of people that were hurt,particularly divers, but no-one died, unlike other places only just north of us.

I felt the earth quake early in the morning but it went on so long I dismissed the idea of it being an earthquake, even thought it was Mid shaking the bed at one point, then decided it was strong wind. Have been in 2 others but much smaller. Lots of p[eople said the same as me though, they dismissed earthquale becasue of length.

A couple of hours later coming off the beach to wake boys up, Tasha had left at 8, noticed small waves, well everybody did, because it was so unusual, no waves on that beach ever!!

But the waves were pushing the water further and futher up the beach and it just felt very wrong. People's responses were mostly to watch but some became concerned. One older Norwegian woman quietly gathered her children and grand children and hurried them back to their huts to leave.I ran back to Mid and said maybe it was nothing but 3/4 of the beach was gone and we should get the hell out of there just in case. ( We were due to leave that day anyway so thankfully our bags were packed).

He went to watch as did Harry, George (a boy after my own heart) went towards the back of the resort, and I frantically got our things together, in between hearing the unnatural roar of the water getting closer. I screamed at Mid to get Harry and come, several times, with the water coming further in adn just as they finally took note of my hysteria a huge 4m wave (not huge compared to what other people had to contend with but it felt VERY frightening) came crashing towards us.

It was like being in your own disaster movie, is the only way I can decscribe it. Your brain is running at 100miles an hour - what to do , just run, grab our stuff and run, when would another come, could it reach us?

Everybody was panicking now and going towards the road which is a good 300m from the sea. We hijacked a tour group on the resort bus with our bags and ourselves and went with them up on to a hill where we stayed for about 19 hours, sleeping under the stars with 500 other nervous tourists and locals and thousands of mosquitoes, until the all clear came, well actually no all clear ever came but when we awoke in the morning there had been no more waves, although we were aware of the devastation, and estimated numbers of people that had been killed. We grabbed our stuff headed to the port and got on the ferry that required as little time on the water as possible to get to the mainland. We travelled all day and,

We are now on Ko Pha Ngan in the Gulf Of Thailand where we came to meet Tasha and Simon, safe, unless we are very unlucky and something else happens on this side.

I know how lucky we were, keep seeing hearing such terrible stories, but it still feels very stressful, mainly I think because of all that COULD have happened, and, of course, more information feeds that. I know those thoughts will recede over the next couple of days but sleep is proving difficult!!!

Boys were fine, George was the most distressed, Harry was a tower of strength and mine of earthquake asnd tsunami information. Mid was also quite calm, even when he realised the seriousness of it all with my harridan shouting. I can't ever remmeber being as scared in my life. Even up on the hill where you rationally know you are safe, your imagination runs wild.

I had just spent a few hours over the previous 2 days sending Merry Christmas e-mails and telling everyone exactly where we were and how lovely it was so I called Mum early in the morning your time to warn her what had happened that we were fine but that she would probably get a deluge of phone calls because unusually everyone knew where we were!! She did, but also she kept watching 24 Hour News so that we would know up to date info becasue there was so much info around but we weren't sure how much we could rely on it.

Anyway, this is the first time I've been near a computer and yours was the first e-mail so you have now recieved a longer repsonse than I had planned, but I think in some ways it has been good for me, hope it hasn't been TOO much info.

Eveyone from home has been so supportive with messages, and yes it really does make a difference in that situation even though there isn't really anything anyone can do.

Hopefully now we can get on with the rest of our holiday without any more upset. A lot of relaxing on the beach or by the pool is doctors orders for me...

Speak to you soon, and Happy New Year!!

Love Kirsty xx