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."
No I'm not jealous. It's annoying because people who are not attractive don't get the attention they deserve. How many women were murdered while pregnant before Laci Peterson came along? God blessed this model immensely. I've come to accept the fact that I'm a loser in the genetic lottery and not be jealous of women better looking than myself. My opinion expresses a point proven well throughout sociology and that's if you're pretty you'll get more attention.
There's nothing about me that the media would want to focus on if I look at what they're interested in typically.
good point
That reminds me of Northern Exposure. Janine Turner's character's boyfriends all died tragic deaths: one being hit by a re-entering satellite.
She does look a bit like she is holding on for dear life the way her hands are in her hair like that...
No, I may have been wrong about the other picture showing her holding on for dear life. HERE she is holding on for dear life. With BOTH hands this time!
Original, too. Just wish I'd thought of it sooner.
How long do I get to think about it?
As the ticket-taker at Silver Dollar City remarked upon seeing my skinny 7 year-old son a few years ago - "That young 'un needs ta eat a few more vittles".
It would be more accurate and tasteful to venture that he was probably happy in the immediate moments preceding his untimely and tragic death.
Interestingly, deaths like this are not as hard, in general, as having someone leave you and for a divorce against you. The death was not an intentional act against you. Both end up with the same result - the one you love is gone. With divorce the one who left often comes back around to keep the pain alive (child custody, etc.).
I've got good news and I've got bad news.
First, the bad news: Sounds like she got roughed up pretty badly.
Now the good news: Once she heals up...she's available.
Grow up, Beavis.
This young woman showed incredible guts and will to survive. If she were a Marine from Kentucky on vacation and experienced the same thing she'd be our new poster girl. The fact that she took advantage of the tools God gave her to profit in a society we created (who would walk away from half a million a year to have his picture taken?), added to the fact that she hangs her hat in NYC (the horror!) gets her nothing but disrespected here.
If you can float, then float.
If you can grab floatation, grab floatation.
If you have any clothes on, close them up and blow air into them; when they're wet, they will hold air for some time; every lb of lift counts toward increasing your time to exhaustion.
Take off your slacks. Tie the ends of the legs together. Grab the waist and throw the opening over your head, to trap air and fill the legs with air. Clasp the waist area snug and put your head, an arm, and shoulder through the opening created by tying the legs together --- you have affected a life-ring. You'd be surprised how long you can stay afloat with that life-ring.
If you go near any water by yourself (there's nobody around to help you, who can help you), take floatation and wear it.
On any boat, on any ship, if you're out on deck when the weather is anything but tranquil, wear a life vest of some type.
No matter how unbeautiful people that may appear.
When you're young and in endurance shape, you can take chances, but little kids can't, and older people can't.
Glad she is alright. Question, does she look a bit...well, could she stand to..., dang, that girl has love handles!
Oh well at least I am consistent :o)
You know... I've been thinking about this, but more so, the responses to the article.
I think that an article like this is important. What I mean is that it gives us a (somewhat) familiar name and face to go along with the tradgedy. It can make it a bit more human.
Let's face it, when you hear the numbers (the other morning, it was 5,000, then 20,000, now 40,000) they're just staggering. Be mentioning Miss Nemcova, it sort of hits home that here's a person we know who was caught up in this.
The fact that she's a celebrity seems to bring out a bit of salaciousness in the magainze, but it also brings out some nastiness in the people posting here too.
This is one of the greatest natural disasters we've seen in the modern world. It would be nice if people could hold their bile against a survivor who happens to be a "supermodel."
Mark
bttt
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