News Forum - Thailand – the 17th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

[Thaiger]

A powerful underwater earthquake rumbled off the coast of northern coast of Sumatra island, Indonesia, at 7:59am local time, setting off a series of underwater shockwaves that would eventually be felt right around the rim of the Indian Ocean. It was the Boxing Day Tsunami (or Indian Ocean Tsunami, or Asian Tsunami) and it started affecting the shorelines around the Indian Ocean, first in the Indonesian region of Aceh, and then Thailand’s southern Andaman Sea shores not long after on Sunday morning, December 26, 2004. The magnitude 9.1 quake ruptured a 1,500-kilometre stretch of fault line where the Indian and Australian […]

The story Thailand – the 17th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Shade_Wilder]

I spent a year of my life working in Banda Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia assisting with the recovery.

I arrived there about a month after the Tsunami and thus was spared the horrors (I don't use that word lightly) that others felt; pretty much everyone that I knew that was there at the beginning had variations of the same comment "It changed me".

My first day there, my colleagues took me to "Ground Zero", the location at the shore where the waves first hit. It was truly an incredible sight; looking out to sea, it was a surfer's beach with some breaking waves and just a nice thing to see. However, when you turned from the beach and looked inland, it was nothing but mud flats where 80,000 people lived before. Words fail me to describe the devastation.

The saddest things were little signs, about 3 inches by 6 inches, scattered around the site. They said things like this land (mud pile with puddles would be more accurate) belongs to "Budi" (An Indonesian equivalent of "Somchai"). These little signs are the thing that I remember most; they were small but human pleas to be remembered and tiny gestures of hope that one day a life might be re-built there.

Apologies, I simply don't know the words to do justice to the devastation. Approximately 175,000 people died in Aceh and thinking about them today still shakes me to my core.  

I hope all will say a prayer of remembrance.

[JamesR]

I remember being told by my sister the disaster was on the news on Christmas Boxing Day.

I tried phoning my partner in Phuket but could not get through to her as all the lines were jammed, she had managed to make it to high ground I found out two days later.

I had left Phuket a few days earlier as I decided on the spur of the moment to spend Christmas in the UK, I would have been on Patong beach at 10 am when the tsunami struck for my daily walk.

A Thai friend who owned a bar near the beach at Patong was swept down the street but survived as she managed to hold onto a tree, she said a number of bodies passes her, they were not alive.

Another friend had his restaurant flooded and I saw him live on Sky News being interviewed.

I later visited a few of the areas destroyed and they were all laid flat, it was a terrible sight. 

 

[Alavan]

My room how it looked 10 days before the tsunami and when I came back in February 2005

[Marc26]

I had just moved to Patong on Dec 5th 

 

I was staying in Karon but slept at my gf's(now wife) room by the fire station in Patong 

 

We had a big night so slept in and woke to a ton of commotion 

 

We didn't know what happened until we got up on the hill that goes into Patong

 

Ended up driving to the old Expat Bar on road to Central 

 

Then couldn't get back into Patong until early next morning

We slept on the side of Patong Hill 

 

The next day it was a mass exodus out of Patong, although we stayed around.

 

Being in Phuket after for months was pretty sad, it was so dead for businesses 

[Marc26]

8 hours ago, Shade_Wilder said:

I spent a year of my life working in Banda Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia assisting with the recovery.

I arrived there about a month after the Tsunami and thus was spared the horrors (I don't use that word lightly) that others felt; pretty much everyone that I knew that was there at the beginning had variations of the same comment "It changed me".

My first day there, my colleagues took me to "Ground Zero", the location at the shore where the waves first hit. It was truly an incredible sight; looking out to sea, it was a surfer's beach with some breaking waves and just a nice thing to see. However, when you turned from the beach and looked inland, it was nothing but mud flats where 80,000 people lived before. Words fail me to describe the devastation.

The saddest things were little signs, about 3 inches by 6 inches, scattered around the site. They said things like this land (mud pile with puddles would be more accurate) belongs to "Budi" (An Indonesian equivalent of "Somchai"). These little signs are the thing that I remember most; they were small but human pleas to be remembered and tiny gestures of hope that one day a life might be re-built there.

Apologies, I simply don't know the words to do justice to the devastation. Approximately 175,000 people died in Aceh and thinking about them today still shakes me to my core.  

I hope all will say a prayer of remembrance.

I was in NYC for 9/11 and saw the 2nd plane go in with my own eyes

 

Because of that I knew phones would be jammed

So I called my family immediately and told told them I was fine right when it happened 

Then phones were out for days

[JamesR]

8 hours ago, Shade_Wilder said:

I spent a year of my life working in Banda Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia assisting with the recovery.

I arrived there about a month after the Tsunami and thus was spared the horrors (I don't use that word lightly) that others felt; pretty much everyone that I knew that was there at the beginning had variations of the same comment "It changed me".

My first day there, my colleagues took me to "Ground Zero", the location at the shore where the waves first hit. It was truly an incredible sight; looking out to sea, it was a surfer's beach with some breaking waves and just a nice thing to see. However, when you turned from the beach and looked inland, it was nothing but mud flats where 80,000 people lived before. Words fail me to describe the devastation.

The saddest things were little signs, about 3 inches by 6 inches, scattered around the site. They said things like this land (mud pile with puddles would be more accurate) belongs to "Budi" (An Indonesian equivalent of "Somchai"). These little signs are the thing that I remember most; they were small but human pleas to be remembered and tiny gestures of hope that one day a life might be re-built there.

Apologies, I simply don't know the words to do justice to the devastation. Approximately 175,000 people died in Aceh and thinking about them today still shakes me to my core.  

I hope all will say a prayer of remembrance.

Well done, I can not say more as you have experienced more of the grief involved than I have the right to mention.

[JamesR]

10 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

I was in NYC for 9/11 and saw the 2nd plane go in with my own eyes

Because of that I knew phones would be jammed

So I called my family immediately and told told them I was fine right when it happened 

Then phones were out for days

Yes, I remember that deep pit in my stomach when I was trying to call Thailand. 

[JamesR]

14 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

I had just moved to Patong on Dec 5th 

I was staying in Karon but slept at my gf's(now wife) room by the fire station in Patong 

We had a big night so slept in and woke to a ton of commotion 

We didn't know what happened until we got up on the hill that goes into Patong

Ended up driving to the old Expat Bar on road to Central 

Then couldn't get back into Patong until early next morning

We slept on the side of Patong Hill 

The next day it was a mass exodus out of Patong, although we stayed around.

Being in Phuket after for months was pretty sad, it was so dead for businesses 

Was the Expat Bar in the Expat Hotel in Patong? My partner was working there as a receptionist on the day it happened?

[JamesR]

Just now, JamesR said:

Was the Expat Bar in the Expat Hotel in Patong? My partner was working at the hotel as a receptionist on the day it happened

 

[Marc26]

3 hours ago, JamesR said:

Was the Expat Bar in the Expat Hotel in Patong? My partner was working there as a receptionist on the day it happened?

 No

This was the Expat in Kathu on the road to Central Mall

I believe a couple NZ guys owned it 

 

We stopped there to watch news

Had beers and the owners put out q roadt for everyone

 

After a couple hours pickups were pulling up with people all bloody from Khoa Lak

 

Later around 5am my wife and I rode our MB down on beach road 

It was wild to drive through that 

[Marc26]

Just now, Marc26 said:

 No

This was the Expat in Kathu on the road to Central Mall

I believe a couple NZ guys owned it 

We stopped there to watch news

Had beers and the owners put out q roadt for everyone

After a couple hours pickups were pulling up with people all bloody from Khoa Lak

Later around 5am my wife and I rode our MB down on beach road 

It was wild to drive through that 

 

[Marc26]

One other thing 

 

I had wiped out on my MB a couple days before 

So was going to hospital to get my cuts cleaned 

 

After tsunami I didn't go for a week 

When I went back there were people paying all over the hallways 

[Lowseasonlover]

I remember it well, the day before I had some friends arrive from England and we had been sitting in one of the restaurants for lunch down bye the hotel in Nai Harn.

The following morning the place looked like a war zone but fair play to everybody they got the place cleaned up another friend of mine got his JCB helping to clear the place up I've still got the photo's 

Below is a photo 4 days after on Kata beach I'd been helping the guys from the Navy 

[Lowseasonlover]

This was Nai Harn beach shortly after the Tsunami hit

[Jason]

It was a shocking tragedy. I saw this simulation that was done by an Australian study. I had never been to Thailand and so I researched which hotels were above the high water mark and were unaffected. I saw the piles of flotsam and jetsam at Kata Noi. Things were still washing up, long after. I saw the alarm towers and the warning signs. To this day I still make sure when I go to the beach, that the motorbike is close by and so is high ground to flee to. 

 

[Saltire]

I remember it well to, not beacause I was there, but my nephew and his new wife were on the beach on their honeymoon when it hit.

His wife said to him she could have sworn the sea just dropped, and she was right. Apparently it gets sucked out before the giant waves sweep in. My nephew had read this somewhere that it is a precursor to a tsunami and when he loooked around their hotel staff were bravely clearing the beach of people, shouting for them to run to high ground. Everyone kept running up hill, not knowing how high would be safe. He watched it come in and yes it changed him.

When they returned to their hotel room on a high floor it was like nothing happened. It took 2 days for my sister and our family to find out if that were ok. after a few rough nights the hotel chain moved them to a partner hotel in Bangkok.

 

[Chas]

Khao Lak, January 22nd 2005:

 

[Chas]

Patong, January 2nd 2005:

       

 

[Chas]

Karon, December 30th 2004:

 

 

[Chas]

Rawai, 26 December 2004:

[Chas]

Koh Sirey Bridge, December 31, 2004: