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N.Y. supermodel held on for dear life for 8 hours in raging surf
NY Daily News ^ | 12/28/04 | Adam Lisberg

Posted on 12/28/2004 5:10:05 AM PST by jimbo123

Jet-setting supermodel Petra Nemcova survived the terrifying Asian tsunami by clinging to the top of a palm tree for eight hours - wincing through the pain of a broken pelvis and haunted by the sight of her boyfriend being swept out to sea.

"This huge wave just pulled us out of the house," Nemcova, 25, told the Daily News last night from her hospital bed in Thailand. "It was so powerful I couldn't get up. I couldn't get out of it."

"People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming, 'Help, help.' And after a few minutes, you didn't hear the kids anymore."

Nemcova and her fashion photographer boyfriend Simon Atlee, 33, were spending the holidays in a beachfront bungalow at the Thai resort of Khao Lak when Sunday's catastrophe struck.

"I heard people screaming and I looked out the window and people were jumping out of the way, jumping into the pool," said Nemcova, who lives in New York and London and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2003 swimsuit issue.

"I was screaming, 'On the roof! On the roof!' I tried to go on the roof but I got sucked away," Nemcova said.

Before she and Atlee could react, a wall of water shredded their wooden bungalow and sent them sprawling into a churning sea of debris that swallowed Atlee without a trace.

She kept her head above the floodwaters and was able to grasp a palm tree before she could be swept out to sea - but had to clutch it for eight hours, watching bodies float past in a scene of unimaginable devastation.

"I just tried to survive and tried to think positive," Nemcova said.

She gripped the tree in excruciating pain under the burning tropical sun until rescuers found her at sunset and carried her to an overwhelmed local hospital on a makeshift stretcher.

"I was so broken, I couldn't walk," Nemcova said. "There were so many people with horrible injuries, with blood everywhere. It was like a war movie."

Nemcova was airlifted to an inland hospital, where doctors found she had a broken pelvis and serious internal injuries.

"There might be pieces of bone stuck to my organs," said Nemcova, who was medicated with morphine but still agonized at her boyfriend's disappearance.

"I can't find Simon," she said. "It was horrible. I'm very lucky, but I can't find Simon."

In New York, her sister Olga Nemcova, 23, and friend Jamison Ernest, a fashion designer, knew only that Nemcova and Atlee were vacationing somewhere near the exotic island of Phuket.

Using credit card records, Internet searches and international cell phone calls, they launched a marathon search that eventually tracked down Nemcova in the hospital.

After a tearful conversation yesterday morning, they got back to work trying to arrange medical-evacuation flights to get Nemcova to the U.S., or perhaps her native Czech Republic.

"I'm just happy that she's okay," Olga Nemcova said. "Now we're praying for Simon."

They frantically E-mailed pictures of Atlee to hospitals and rescue organizations in Thailand, hoping someone would recognize the tall, handsome Englishman with the piercing blue eyes.

"Thank God that Petra is alive," Ernest said. "The biggest concern is to find Simon. He vanished without a trace."

Nemcova and Atlee began dating about two years ago, becoming a dashing, witty couple in the international fashion scene. They were comfortable on glamorous beaches: He shot all the pictures for her 2005 calendar, many of them as they waded together in the warm waters off the south of France.

"They were planning on being in Thailand for two or three weeks - just to be there and go scuba diving, relax on the beach, take a break from their schedules," Ernest said.

Nemcova booked the trip as a surprise for Atlee, so his family in England had no way to find him yesterday until they got a grim call from Ernest.

"We know nothing," Atlee's sister Jodi Hansard said from London, where she waited in agony for any word from British officials. "We knew that they were in Thailand, but we didn't even know where they were."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ivolunteer2phuket; petranemcova; sumatraquake; survivor; tsunami; tsunamiinmypants
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To: TFine80
I'm impressed that she held on.

One might think that, under the circumstances, and if you know how to swim, you could survive such an event.

The problem is undertow and objects in the water.

The public would be amazed by the number of trees and parts of trees, that travel downstream, about 3ft under the surface of the river.

Most small boats never encounter such a "torpedo," but swiming out from shore, such as along the Ohio River, you can be "torpedo'd" and just plain "disappeared beneath the waves."

Just takes one knock on the head or a punch in the gut, or a caught ankle or wrist.

I am grateful that she managed to hold on, but I am concerned about the damage to her guts; she may have a bigger battle ahead of her.

61 posted on 12/28/2004 6:58:40 AM PST by First_Salute (May God save our democratic-republican government, from a government by judiciary.)
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To: samtheman
Please share your version of PC with the rest of us.

Don't encourage pinheads.(;>)

62 posted on 12/28/2004 6:59:34 AM PST by Stentor
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To: First_Salute

What is the best thing to do in such a situation?

Try to swim to higher ground? You can't wade it out or float on something, it seems.


63 posted on 12/28/2004 7:00:58 AM PST by TFine80
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
"Ok, wots up with that name? Was it invented by some junior high boys or wot?"

It's a well known vacation spot in Thailand. Whats up with you? Have a dirty mind?
64 posted on 12/28/2004 7:02:42 AM PST by monday
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To: monday

It is safe to assume that you either were never a fourteen year old boy or have long forgotten the experience.


65 posted on 12/28/2004 7:11:17 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Deadcheck the embeds first.)
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To: First_Salute

She will be effected by this event for the rest of her life. Not only from the physical damage to her body but also from the mental damage. It seems likely now that she lost someone she loved and that she engineered the chain of events that led her and her boyfriend to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Who knows how this will affect her but I wouldn't be surprised if many years of depression, second guessing and regret are in her future.


66 posted on 12/28/2004 7:11:50 AM PST by XRdsRev (New Jersey has more horses per square mile than any other U.S. state.)
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To: Bon mots
"I thought the same thing when I saw that stupid headline.
40,000 brown people, mostly children dead. So what.
BUT A NEW YORK SUPERMODEL, OH DEAR ME!!! THE HUMANITY....

Elitist New Yorkers."

Like it or not, supermodels are more interesting than anonymous "brown people" as you so rudely call them. You and all the others putting her down wouldn't even be reading this thread if they weren't. You, and all the other culture snobs, would have skipped right over it without so much as a thought. You guys crack me up.
67 posted on 12/28/2004 7:15:57 AM PST by monday
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Comment #68 Removed by Moderator

To: samtheman
"Get a grip, people. This story has local interest for New Yorkers and was published in a New York paper along with a multitude of other stories about the larger, sadder event."

It's not that. Some people enjoy putting down anyone they perceive as richer, prettier, more successful, etc. than they are, out of jealousy and sheer nastiness. It's human nature for many people and FR has it's share of these people.
69 posted on 12/28/2004 7:20:54 AM PST by monday
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To: Puppage

70 posted on 12/28/2004 7:21:10 AM PST by gopwinsin04
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To: Huck

71 posted on 12/28/2004 7:23:23 AM PST by gopwinsin04
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

It's pronounced poo-ghet. *sigh*


72 posted on 12/28/2004 7:23:43 AM PST by null and void (I refuse to live my life as if someone, somewhere will be offended if I laugh...)
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To: antivenom

"...the asinine remarks that sputter off their fingertips is a form of jealousy..."

exactly


73 posted on 12/28/2004 7:23:46 AM PST by monday
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To: monday

There's no jealousy about it. The MSM does take more of an interest when it's one of the pretty people. It's very annoying but that's the reality that rich, successful pretty people DO get the big time attention.


74 posted on 12/28/2004 7:26:03 AM PST by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: TFine80

I wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy... God really must appreciate beautiful women... :)


75 posted on 12/28/2004 7:26:46 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: cyborg

Pretty tough for a skinny girl.


76 posted on 12/28/2004 7:27:32 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim (I'm here because I'm not all there.)
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To: null and void

It's pronounced poo-ghet. *sigh*

Close enough for any fourteen year old I ever knew.


77 posted on 12/28/2004 7:27:44 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Deadcheck the embeds first.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Agreed.


78 posted on 12/28/2004 7:28:49 AM PST by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: cyborg
"It's very annoying but that's the reality that rich, successful pretty people DO get the big time attention."


lol.... but there's no jealousy about it huh? riiiiight.... so why does this fact annoy you? Why would you even care who got "big time attention" if you aren't jealous?

PS. who should the media focus on? you?
79 posted on 12/28/2004 7:33:12 AM PST by monday
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To: jimbo123
Sad. Life is full of ironies. This lady is lucky to be alive even with all of the tragedy that surrounded her. She sure won't be a spoiled brat like other supermodels after something like this happens to one.
80 posted on 12/28/2004 7:36:05 AM PST by vetvetdoug (In memory of T/Sgt. Secundino "Dean" Baldonado, Jarales, NM-KIA Bien Hoa AFB, RVN 1965)
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