Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004 |
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PHUKET (THAILAND), DEC. 27. Rescuers converged on beaches and islands on Monday to search for survivors of earthquake-spawned tidal waves that devastated idyllic resorts of southern Thailand. The Narenthorn Centre of the Public Health Ministry listed about 50 non-Thais as among those confirmed dead but they were not identified by name or nationality. The final tally of Western and Asian tourists who died is expected to be far higher. Media reported nationals of South Korea, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Chile, Czech Republic, Spain and the United States as among the dead and missing.
Dramatic operation
Thai warships steamed toward islands in the area to rescue survivors, at least 200 of whom were evacuated by helicopter from the resort Phi Phi in a dramatic overnight operation. Evacuations by air and sea continued on Monday, as did the search for bodies, said a police official. ``Disaster. Flattened everything. There is nothing left of it,'' said Jimmy Gorman (30), of England. He said he saw 15 bodies, including those of four or five children and one pregnant woman. The Meteorological Department's Seismological Bureau said 14 aftershocks were recorded in the Andaman Sea, eight of them on Monday. They had no impact on Thailand's coast or islands but small boat owners have been warned not to venture out to sea. The Meteorological Department said Thailand lacked an international warning system and proper coordination to get messages of impending disasters sent across the country. ``If we had the international warning system, we could give real-time warning to people,'' it said. The National Blood Centre in Bangkok called on people to donate blood, community radio said.
Wall of water
Witnesses described seeing waters disappearing away from the beaches in the minutes before the waves struck. Scientists say the effect is caused by tidal waves sucking shallow coastal waters out to sea before returning them as a massive wall of water. ``The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran,'' said Katri Seppanen of Finland, who was on island's popular Patong beach when the wave struck. More than 1,000 tourists from around the world flocked to the Phuket City Hall, where officials from 19 embassies, including those of Canada, Britain and the U.S., set up tables to issue passports to tourists who lost their documents. — AP
In a daze
Reuters reports: Vithit Akevanich stared in disbelief at the five dead bodies laying on the debris-strewn beach near his wrecked hotel. One was a Western woman in a swim suit, the other four were Thai tourists. Mr. Akevanich, still in a daze after the tsunami all but destroyed his 200-room Emerald Resorts and Spa, did not know who they were. A wedding party was staying at the hotel on Khao Lak beach in southern Thailand. ``I don't know what happened to them,'' he told Reuters as he watched rescue workers collect the bodies outside his hotel in Phang Nga province north of Phuket. ``I'm in shock. It's all in God's hands.'' Families across the world are waiting desperately for news of loved ones who were on holiday in southern Thailand when the tsunami struck. But the sheer scale of the disaster threatens to overwhelm Thai rescue officials as well as foreign diplomats handling distraught survivors and working to identify bodies and find the missing.
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