March 29, 2005
written by: Tirian Mink
Tonight I was sitting cross legged on the floor of a Monti?s Tailor Shop in Khao Lak, just down the hill from the Tsunami Volunteer Center where I live. There were 6 of us volunteers: Sarah, Nick, Lisa Ruth, Damien, Ester and myself, and our host Monti.
Monti is a cheerful Indian man who has lived in Khao Lak for 5 years, and owned 3 shops before the tsunami destroyed them on December 26th. He invited us down to his newly reopened tailor shop to express his appreciation to us for being here, and helping the people recover from the disaster.
He played Bangra dance music, and served Indian snacks and beer. He showed photos and talked about his family in India, and his experience with the tsunami here in Khao Lak. We were listening intently while he told us how his brother narrowly survived the tsunami.
Monti's brother was in his house when the water started to flood through the door and come through the floor. He thought at first there was an irrigation problem and started to pick his things off the floor and place them on the bed to keep dry. Then the bed started to float and the water rose higher and higher, pouring through the doors and windows. Soon he found himself treading water as the house filled to the roof. When the water finally reached the roof he survived by punching a hole through the roof and popping his head through for air.
Back to the present...
It was about midnight in Khao Lak at this point, and the town was still surprisingly busy. Shops that have been closed since the wave came, have now reopened and tourists, a rare site for the last 3 months, have started to come back little by little. If you didn?t know better you might have been fooled into thinking you were in a normal tourist destination, not a disaster area.
Then we saw people running down the street.
We ignored this at first.
Then we saw crowds of panicking people running in every direction. Within 2 minutes the road was full of cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks and people on foot.
What in the hell is going on we wondered? Maybe another tsunami?
Then a few minutes later, Paul, another volunteer from the Center, received a phone call from a friend in Bangkok informing him of a large earthquake, 8.7, near Sumatra.
We were sitting in a store that was 18 feet under water when the last tsunami hit. We decided to get to high ground quickly.
We quickly helped Monti close his shop, bringing in the mannequins and taking down the suit displays from outside and closing the doors. Motorcycles and cars were speeding down the road, skidding to a stop and picking people up, only to speed south towards the hill. Shop owners were frantically closing their doors and rounding up their families. Cell phones were ringing in every direction as people were communicating the danger to their loved ones.
Monti took Sarah on one scooter, and Nick took Ester and Lisa Ruth on the other, and they high tailed it up the hill. Damien and I ran to the road and waved down a speeding car heading in our direction. The driver seemed to want to keep going, but changed his mind last minute and came skidding to a stop. We rushed into the car and slammed the door while he raced off.
We were al going to the same place- the top of the hill. The location of the Tsunami Volunteer Center. In between frantic phone calls to friends and family, he told us that this jeep we were riding in, saved the lives of everyone in his family. That was in December. Now its nearly April and the fear is greater than ever.
Cars were coming from all the little side roads and funneling up the hill towards the Center.
When we arrived, dozens of people had already come and were bustling around, talking on phones, checking the internet, counting family members. Maybe 120 international volunteers and 200 local people came up in cars, motorcycles, pick-ups and running on foot. The fear in the eyes of some of the locals was palpable- it was writtten on peoples faces. A grandmother carrying her grandson came out of the back of a pick-up truck sobbing in hysterical fear. She was comforted by many people.
Cell phones were given to anyone who needed one, to call whoever they needed. This is the new tsunami warning system. I received warning calls and text messages from all over Thailand (its good to know people care). I forwarded them to others in Pipi, Phuket and Khrabi. Some people called the village leaders in the area. This is tsunami warning system now. No one is waiting for the governments to come up with a solution.
The news was being broadcast live from Bangkok, and Michita, a bilingual Thai volunteer, was giving the translation on the megaphone for the non-Thais.
We were all trying to account for the people we knew, our team members and our friends.
I checked the US Geological Survey?s Earthquake Watch site, and the quake was confirmed. The wave might be coming! Where are our friends and coworkers?
I took water, coffee and chairs out to the dozens of locals who were standing out on the highway.
At about 3:00 am the anouncement went out. There would not be a tsunami here tonight. If there was I would be down on the beach now searching for survivors. Today there was no tsunami- this was just a drill.
It is now 4:30 am as I write this. If there was a wave it would have hit around 2:00 am here in Thailand. Sri Lanka and India are much farther from the epicenter, so I guess I won?t know what happened there until after I sleep a few hours.
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