More 1st person acct. from Phuket, Thailand

[Union Thug]

Here's another tsunami update. Again, please excuse the typos. I'm cutting/pasting directly from the e-mail(editing only names)

Hi,Thanks everyone for all the emails,its nice knowing people were worried about xxxx and I.I heard he was on cnn here ,and also again on channel 5 with live photos.Ok tonight I went to Patong again,last night the main beach road was closed.Tonight it was open.I t was TOTAL DEVASTATION.Its the largest beach and shopping area,and where the largest group of tourists are.Anyway Its about 1 mile long and 4 blocks deep and full of big stores and small shops.Also big hotels,Sheraton,and eveything and I mean everything is destroyed.There must have been 40 -50 cars pushed through hotel lobbies,into department stores,piled up on top of boats,motorcycles,refridgerators.The road like everywhere has about 4-6 inches of sand on them,all the way back 3 blokes.Theres huge,120 foot boats up by the street and several smaller,30-40 footers on the road.I took some photos,but it was just after sunset so I hope they turn out.Thats where 100's or maybe even 300-400 people were killed.In the 9 years I've been coming here I've never seen less than 200-300 people walkimg on the street,its like Hong Kong.The water surged up for 4 blokes about 3 meters high,9 feet.I really can't believe anyone who was on that street survived.But I went to the Patong hospital with an aa friend from South Africa,and we went in the lobby and asked if there were any farangs,foreigners,that we could help out in any way.The nurses were very glad we came.We visited about 6 rooms and heard some scary,and very sad storys.The first room we went in was a Swedish young man in the bed with a major cut all the way down his leg.His Thai wife was sitting next to him with alarge bandage on her chin.We asked him how he was doing and he said that this was nothing because they had lost they're 3 month old daughter,just washed away.She just started crying uncontrollably.It was heart wrenching.We gave them a hug and they were very appreciative that we came by.Next we visited a couple from Germany,who were swimming in Kamala Bay,north of Patong.They both got smashed up on the beach and then dragged way out and they lost site of each other .His legs were really mangled up from the coral and she had 2 black eyes and hands all cut up.That was 10 am and it wasn't until 10pm that she found him in the hospital.She saw his name posted outside in the tent set up for people looking for family and friends.They both started crying when they were telling the story.They hadn't really talked to anyone as she was staying at the hospital with him.There hotel was without power,and still was.The next room was a man and his wife from Norway.They were in a bar across the street from patong beach,way back in aHotel lobby,when the huge wave roared thru.She was slammed into something,not sure what,and got a major.45 stitches on her right check of her bum that also went down her leg.She was standing as she said she could not sit down.He was bruised all over.He said there was a man sitting next to him and when it hit he got caught between the bar and a big beach chair,he was screaming for help to the man,but he was holding on to his wife and had his arms around her and a pole.Then the water sucked out and he never saw that guy again.Again if you could just see that the water was 6-9 ft and no where to go but into a plate glass window of a starbucks or bar or resturant,and 60 cars motorbikes and buses all slamming around pushed thru anything in its way.People were sucked out into the ocean screaming for help and being slammed by cars,boats etc.I heard today the death toll in Patong alone is close to 1800,but its only rumors.the local radio is not doing a good job at all,and that was told to me by an a.a. friend who speaks fluent Thai.I'm way too tired to continue now as its midnight here and I'm very tired.Tomorrow my South African friend and I are going to a different hospital in Phuket town,where the nurse said there were many many farangs who would appreciate a visiter.So thats my plan for tomorrow.I have so many more story I've heard from people all day today,very incrediable survival storys...Time to try and sleep.....More tomorrow.

[pacifictiger]

1. thanks for posting this

The US media seems to be mostly oblivious to the devastation. Not sure if it is due to lack of caring or just the difficult logistics of getting eyewitness accounts and reporters to the area.
To think the world got behind the US september 11th tragedy, with 3000 killed.
Here we are talking about at least 8 times that number of dead, and hundreds of thousands of people injured and homeless.

[BeTheChange]

2. Maybe if we werent tied up fighting war all over the place..

We could scramble a couple aircraft to go take a gander at the situation and help with aid.


With the technology we currently have there is no reason we shouldnt have a more realistic picture of what is going on over there.

[anitar1]

3. 1st person account

Thank you for posting this.My thoughts are with all of the people there.It is difficult to even imagine this horror.

[flamingyouth]

4. Thank you for posting this

I have several friends from Thailand who are (understandably) freaking out right now, worried about relatives and friends there. Plus, think of how many people visit Phuket, especially during the holiday season. It's just awful. My heart aches for the victims of this horrible catastrophe.