Boxing Day Tsunami! A Close Escape
The Indian Ocean tsunami occurred on Boxing Day, 15 years ago. This is a story of a lucky escape.
The Boxing Day tsunami strike Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand. Image source
On the morning of 26 December 2004, I drowsily turned on the TV set to see what was going on. I flicked to one of the news channels and saw pictures of what appeared to be a massive flood. But I soon realised it was much bigger than that: a huge undersea megathrust earthquake had occurred 160km off the western coast of northern Sumatra, in the Indian Ocean. The energy released by this earthquake was equivalent to 370 years of energy use in the United States at 2005 levels.
This set off a gigantic tsunami. Within 15 minutes of the earthquake, waves began striking the coast of northern Sumatra. The Aceh region of Indonesia was the hardest hit as 30-metre waves battered the coast.
Death and damage caused by the Boxing Day tsunami. Image source
Two hours later the waves reached Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. They swept through the Indian Ocean islands and along the east coast of Africa.
Concerns
The pictures I was looking at were from Phuket on the west coast of Thailand. The area had been devastated by the tsunami waves. Reports of thousands of deaths were pouring in, including many tourists.
My primary concern was for my close friend, Dave, who was holidaying in Thailand with his family. I eventually managed to contact him on his phone. He assured me all was well and the area they were in was not affected. But he was very concerned about his business partner, Gerald who was at a resort in Phuket with his partner, Mike. He couldn't get through to them and it seemed communication was down in the area.
The most concerning aspect was that Gerald and Mike had booked a day trip to Phi Phi island, about 50 km from Phuket, on that day. News had just come in that a 6 m wave had swept over Phi Phi and thousands had drowned. Being a popular tourist resort, this included many tourists.
Dave promised to let me know if he heard from them. I feared the worst.
Two days later, a clearly relieved Dave called and told me he had heard from Gerald. They were fine and were being evacuated and were heading home. The line quality was very poor, so that's as much as he could gather. But it was enough.
Escaping the devastation
A week or so later, Gerald recounted the story. It went something like this:
Gerald and Mike were having a great time in Phuket. In fact, they were having such a great time that they partied on well into the early hours of the morning. They had planned to get an early night since they had to be at the Phi Phi ferry at 9 am. But...
They got to their room on the third floor of the hotel and crashed into bed at about 3 am.
Sometime later, Mike woke up in the darkened bedroom and staggered to the bathroom. He looked at his watch; it was about 11 in the morning. On the way back to bed he heard some strange sounds from outside. He slightly opened the curtains and peeked out. He could not believe what he saw.
“Gerald! Gerald!”, he shouted. Gerald opened a weary eye and squinted at Mike. “What? What's wrong?”
“It's.. it's. God! Just come look!”
They couldn't recognise anything. It was just rubble-strewn water everywhere. All the buildings along the beach had been washed away. The water level was just a few metres below them.
They had slept through the whole thing!
In time Gerald and Mike were rescued and evacuated to a place of safety. A day or two later they finally reached the airport where they could fly home.
And they missed their trip to Phi Phi island.
Thousands of foreign travellers were killed in the disaster. All but two of whom died in Thailand.
Here is some raw footage from Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand (2004):