Posted on 12/27/2004 2:02:29 PM PST by FReepaholic
That one doesn't really capture the excitement. Try this. Also good for Firefox and non-Windows users.
Maybe Leonardo will think twice about making something popular......His damned movie killed a bunch of people.
PS. I just lived through 2 hurricanes....and they were worse than these pictures I've seen on these threads or on TV.
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I don't know where the Marriot Phuket is located, but the airport would be a fair distance from the map in that diagram. Yeah, I've been up and down those roads in that map many times, as I used to be a young impressionable bachelor, spending vacations in Phuket. The last time was about 4 years ago.
Maybe you can verify this. I could be mistaken, but I believe Phi Phi island is pronounced "pee pee", not "fee fee" as I've heard many news people say. Maybe they are not allowed to say "pee pee" on the air.
I've heard it as both pee pee and phi phi, I've heard Phuket as fooket, bhughet, but not the one that sounds like the F word!
bump
Wow....that's some video. That Swedish dude in the black trunks looked helpless and sounded pissed-off. I wonder if those two older guys that he was trying to help before they were swept away were his family? I couldn't figure out the guy filming. It was like the camera was just strapped around his neck and on while he sort of floundered about.
28 Dec, 11.30pm - Two different worlds
Krabi is currently in a sort of limbo between two worlds: the normal, happy, holiday-maker scene, which today returned to the beach in Ao Nang; and the horrific, nightmare-ish scenes which can be witnessed at Krabi Hospital and morgue, some 20km from the beach area.
Someone arriving from a remote area with no access to television would be forgiven for thinking that absolutely nothing had happened here these last few days. All buildings are intact; the bars are full; the beach was packed with sunbathers during the day; and there are even a few tourists once again going out to the islands.
But while divers from the Royal Thai Navy searched local waters for bodies trapped underwater, helicopters overhead were a constant reminder that all was not as it seemed.
Now most local people are spending their time yo-yo-ing between their 'day jobs' of keeping the remaining, unharmed tourists happy and volunteering at the inundated main hospital. With more bodies being brought in from the islands throughout the day, the full scale of the tragedy resulting from the tidal waves is now beginning to be seen.
Why was Ao Nang spared?
It now looks as though Ao Nang and Railay (Ao Phra Nang) were the least worst hit out of all the southern Thai resorts. Why? An element of luck, of course, and a small factor of geography. But there are also strict building regulations here, which mean that all buildings - hotels, bars, shops and restaurants - must be constructed at least 10m from the sea (6m from the high tidemark). Most other Thai seaside resorts have bungalows directly on the sand.
A wall, which was bitterly complained about when it was built behind Ao Nang's beach front two years ago, also made a large contribution to the lack of structural damage. Originally conceived as storm protection, it also proved remarkably effective in stopping the onrushing 5m waves on Sunday.
New drive to repatriate stranded tourists The Thai government has finally sprung into action, with mobile intensive care units arriving this afternoon from Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok to transport the most severely injured people to the capital. Special flights from Krabi Airport were also scheduled to get injured foreigners to Bangkok and back home quickly - although many were reluctant to leave with missing friends and relatives unaccounted for.
The tourist association in Bangkok will be providing free accommodation and food for all passengers from the southern provinces of Thailand returning home.
We are fine and doing well. We did see the wave come in and the damage that it did. We are about 150 meters from the beach, but we are on the 14th floor. Hong had just gone outside on the balcony facing the beach and saw the wave coming in, but she didn’t know what it was. She had never seen anything like it (nor had most folks), but after the first one hit, she told me to come outside and look, as all the beach chairs and beach umbrellas were floating out to sea. I went out and looked and told her that this must have been caused by an earthquake somewhere, as the beach chairs and umbrellas, were well off the tide levels for this time of year and were 2-3 thick. It was incredible.
The next one came about 10 minutes later, but it was much more powerful. It pushed water well past the beach sand level, and the first to go were massage tents and small beach restaurant tents and motorcycle vendors. These were 10-15 meters past the sand area from the beach. The water came on up over the beach road, which is about 40-50 meters from the beach. It pushed on from there into shops and storefronts across the beach road. It then moved on down the road at from the circle here at Karon Beach, which was over 200 meters from the beach. Motorcycles, large ice chests, store refrigerators, etc. went floating down the street. In front of our apartment complex (entrance road makes a semicircle and there are stores and restaurants in front, were smashed with water, which stopped the flow from reaching our apartment complex. Bar stools, chairs, tables, etc. were pushed up our entrance road to the gate of the complex, before stopping. People were running down the road, screaming and hollering.
The ocean movement was just incredible. We watched it for over an hour and the ocean looked like the water in a bath tub after a big fat boy like myself, just got out of the bath tub quickly. The water would surge, flow left and right (parallel) to the beach and also would be sucked out to the sea. The ocean would recede from the beach by about 100 meters, and then would flow back to the beach, still overflowing the beach area, and onto the road, but not like it did the first time. It was really an incredible site.
We are at a beach (Karon Beach) south of the main tourist beach called Patong, but Patong is built up right across the beach road, which is literally just 10 meters from the beach. It was really devastated. I am attaching a picture of the main bar road called Bangla Road. It runs perpendicular to the beach and is about 250 meters long, before another road runs parallel to the beach road. The picture that you are looking at, is almost at the end of the road (the point the furthest from the beach). It is unbelievable. They said that a 6-8 foot wave just rolled down that road and went into shops that are on the road, which I described as parallel to the beach road.
Up on the northern part of the island is a place called Laguna. It is an area, which has 4 to 6, 5 star hotels and is an upmarket place for tourists – meaning once they go to that area, they usually don’t go to other parts of Phuket, unless the just want to – sort of like being in a Disney Land area. They are closer to the beach up there and they had waves go into the hotels (5 star hotels) up to the 3rd floor. People drowned in their hotel rooms. There is a holiday inn along the beach road in Patong and some folks said that they have 5 cars in their swimming pool, which is right along the beach road.
After the first two waves came in, we were told to come move our car to higher ground as they expected another wave to be even larger than the first two. So, we decided to leave and go to the center of the island, to the golf course. We stayed there until around 17:30 in the evening and the road to the south to the Karon and Kata beach areas, was reopened, but the road going to Patong Beach, was still closed as of that time, they were diverting traffic away from the Patong Hill road, into Patong beach. In some places in Phuket, it is like nothing happened, and from the beach to about 200 meters inland, it is like a war zone. We went to Patong today and the destruction was much more than I even expected. All the stores, restaurants, hotels are either gutted or collapsed. It is amazing and we were lucky.
Hours after the quake, and he was not aware of the quake.... these people had NO warning.
Most of the places in Phuket Patong area will be back in a few months. I may go back in April or so, depends on whether I get the job I'm up for.
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