Posted on 01/01/2005 2:02:22 PM PST by gortklattu
From an earlier posting:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1310914/posts
Photo family's amazing survival From correspondents in Stockholm January 2, 2005
A SERIES of heart-rending photos showing a mother dashing into the tsunami off Thailand in a desperate bid to save her family were cabled out around the world this week.
But the family's fate remained unknown until today, when the Swedish mum came forward to say they had all survived.
"I was yelling at them to run, but they couldn't hear me," 37-year-old Karin Svaerd told the daily Expressen, describing her desperation as her three sons, brother and brother-in-law snorkelled in the water last Sunday, unaware of the pending danger.
The series of three pictures showed confused vacationers on the Ray Leh Beach in Krabi, Thailand, looking at the water receding before the tsunami hit the beach.
Another shot showed swimmers running in to shore once they saw the tower of water approaching.
But Mrs Svaerd, unlike everyone else in the picture, was running out toward the wave in a desperate bid to reach her family.
Her sons Anton, 14, Filip, 11 and Viktor, 10, could not see the wave. Witnesses heard her scream: "Oh my god, not my children!"
Today, Mrs Svaerd told Expressen: "I yelled 'run, run'." But her voice was drowned out by the roar of the water.
"I got 150 meters out before they started to run. By then they'd also seen the wave."
The family got caught in the tsunami and was tossed around underwater. But one by one they managed to get to their feet and make it to higher ground.
An hour after the first wave hit, the family members, including Mrs Svaerd's husband and sister, who were sunbathing on the beach, had managed to locate each other.
"We all survived. That feeling is hard to describe," she said.
Agence France-Presse
You merit pig scum, idiot.
It's not a personal attack. It's an obvious conclusion drawn from your moronic comment.
Tell me what you really think.
Do you really think those waves look that big?
Save your moronic 'body surfing' comments for your close group of bearingless friends who might think the largest natural disaster in decades is a real hoot.
I also think that it's not a wave, per se, but a constant force that drove billions of gallons of water onto dry land, killing hundreds of thousands, leaving millions homeless, and hundreds of thousands more to die from post-tsunami disease and starvation.
When I think about that, and then I think about some idiot making body surfing comments, I just shake my head that someone who posts here would say such plainly stupid things.
If I'd seen the shoreline regress 600 meters back into the sea, and then saw a large wave coming back towards me, body surfing wouldn't be on my mind, as I'm sure it wasn't to the people in those pictures running full speed for high ground.
Regardless, what would POSSIBLY motivate you to make your moronic 'body surfing' comment?
"What I think of those waves is that they killed 150,000 people, probably more."
No, those particular waves did not even kill the little kids in the picture, even though the waves did eventually catch up with them.
Stop being a drama queen.
When I saw the first picture I thought how stupid of her, the second picture I thought...Oh my, the only reason I would run toward a wave like that was to try and get to my children or husband....and then came the third picture.
I guess I'm a drama queen for being pissed off that some immature kid thinks body surfing jokes are AT ALL appropriate in discussing a tragedy that cost 150,000 lives.
Your folks did a terrible job trying to instill any sense of decency in you.
What about the people 20 feet outside the camera's lens? What about the people 100 yards from the camera's lens? I'll betcha your allowance money that plenty of them died. In fact, I'll even bet that water from THAT WAVE you saw killed people. Maybe they weren't on camera. Maybe they were 100 feet inland.
You're just pathetic.
Isn't it wonderful! Ping! Glad to know they are alright!
I have seen a video that starts off something like "another one is coming." The fact that the person filming was still standing close to the water suggests the first wave was less severe than the second. Perhaps these folks were fortunate to be hit by the "weaker" wave.
Although when I first saw these pictures, I thought the impact of the wave with the people, then the people with the ground would kill them almost instantly. This picture has been troubling me and I am glad to hear they all survived.
Amazing. Praise the Lord.
Because you're a friggin' idiot, and that 'good body surfing wave' killed 150,000 people. I'm sure immature jerks like yourself in Phuket thought, 'Hey, bitchen body-surfin' wave!' until it killed everyone in their family.
It's called tact. It's called common decency. It's called having a conscience.
I realize they may be strange concepts to you, but maybe you ought to think about them before popping off about body surfing.
Amazing how fast one can run when the pucker factor is set on high !
Stay safe Miss Anne !
You are being a drama queen.
It was a rather innocuous comment.
Ease up.
Have you considered the fact that some people process tragic images differently than others?
Have you considered that saturation of morbid/graphic photo's of dead and swollen bodies that we have seen, day after day after, can cause people to focus on other objects in the tragic photo's?
Max has already explained himself, although he shouldn't have, as everyone here is entitled to their own opinion.
Who died and made you the "inappropriate comment police" anyway?
I wasn't offended by your comment, it's a natural thing to think of for anyone who has spent much time around the water.
IMO, it doesn't follow at all that your comment implies lack of compassion on your part. Those who have read Niven's "Lucifer's Hammer," about the destruction caused by a comet strike on Earth, may recall the scene in which a surfer surfed a tsunami that he was caught in.
My son is a surfer, so my thoughts also went in this direction...I wondered how he'd fare if caught in that kind of situation.
Awesome! I was sure that poor family hadn't made it. Great news to start the New Year!
Thanks for your comments, Sam.
If you think so, then you're in the same boat as Max. No tact, no compassion, no decency.
"Processing tragic images" does not allow for dumbass comments. Offending the thousands dead and millions homeless for insinuating that the wave that killed their family 'looked good for body surfing'...
I don't understand you folks.
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