Tsunami newspaper

A lucky survivor Chris Burke told us his tragic story.

“The water pinned us between the railing and under a metal awning that had been covering the balcony. We remained underwater for about 20 seconds. A thought came that I had better do something or I might not be around much longer. I reached up and grabbed an exposed edge of the awning and pulled as hard as I could. It actually started to break free of the house. We all got our heads above the water and breathed in the air. But since we were still pinned, I pulled the awning with every ounce of energy I had and it broke free. Keep in mind, the time from when I first heard people screaming to this point was maybe 35 seconds”

“At the hotel there were dead bodies all over the place. The injured were screaming, sobbing, and crying. People were laid out with crush injuries, huge lacerations with bone exposed, people who had lost large amounts of blood, fractures, head injuries, people in shock and many other injuries associated with such a disaster. As bad as the scene was, no one knew the enormity of the situation, and we wouldn’t until days later. I had recruited a few people to help me gather supplies and asked others to find out who was injured and to lead me to them. I was working at the hotel for several hours with Thai military helicopters coming and going with supplies and evacuees. Later I headed for higher ground and helped a group of injured people there when rumors of another wave spread.”