Diver in tsunami

[pink_fins]

Part 2

2 more minutes pass, I have a little less than half a tank, I stick my head
up again… the current has weakened but is still stronger than anything I
have ever tried to kick against in my time diving previous to today…

The group is nowhere to be found, which isn’t nearly as traumatic as it
sounds because the visibility is crap now that all the sand has been kicked
up by the current. We have a rule in diving; if you are separated from the
group you search for 1 minute and then surface. I had far exceeded that
rule out of necessity. I ascend slowly, as you are supposed to, and am
unable to control my rate of ascent as well as my direction- so am again
being forced even further south, far further than I want to be.

What I encountered when I got to the surface can only be described as chaos,
there were boats everywhere, all out of control. The swells are 6 feet
high, which is extremely abnormal out here where there is very little
shallow water to cause such an occurrence. I signal to my boat, which is a
very long ways away from me at this point, to come and pick me up. I am
unable to switch to my snorkel because the waves are coming from every
direction, so I keep my supplied air in. I nearly start to signal to other
dive boats for help when my boat spots me. I eventually get back on board
our boat by way of a floatation device attached to a long rope; boats are
playing dodgem while attempting to pick up all of their divers and
snorkelers. I get on board, take off my scuba equipment, but keep on my
wetsuit, fins, mask, and snorkel, expecting to need to perform a rescue on
one of the students. At this point I still have no idea what has caused all
of this. There are whirlpools that are created by the island and the
current; there are what appears to be various “rivers” flowing in all sorts
of directions. It absolutely blows my mind that everyone makes it back to
the boat safely.

When everyone got back on board, I check my phone like I always do, and I
had missed 13 calls, all from the dive shop I work for. There is also a
text message from a friend that says “John, this is not a joke, there is a
seriously huge tsunami headed your way, do not allow divers to enter the
water” This message was sent 4 minutes AFTER we had already entered the
water.

We were not aware that what we were witnessing was a tsunami until after we
were all back on board and had eaten lunch. We were not aware of the
extreme nature of this earthquake/tsunami(s) until watching CNN later the
following day. It is hard to imagine that sort of thing being the case when
you are underwater. There is nothing in the manuals that trains you how to
react in such a situation because the chance of you being underwater during
one is infinitesimal.

On the way back to Ao Nang, the small beach city I live in, the carnage we
see is unbelievable. There is debris everywhere. Phi-Phi Island is
destroyed. There are multiple helicopters seen hovering.

We are told by our shop to head back to Ao Nang immediately, which we do,
but at a very slow pace because there are pieces of other boats, trees, and
oh yeah, people in the water. We pick up all the people we see, they are
cut up very badly. This is where I get to use my first aid training, which
were highly inadequate for the situation and something I never thought I
would actually need to use. Basically, I was giving them water, towels if
they were cold, and simply telling people to hold the gauze in place, and if
they were Thai, telling them “mai chai” which means “no,” anytime they
remove the gauze. What else could I do really? We pick up some tourists at
Poda island, which is within sight of Ao Nang, and one of the women’s nose
is nearly removed from her face, another woman has a broken arm (obviously
broken; visually) and an unbelievable amount of cuts and scratches on her
body. The driver of their boat refused to abandon his ship, was thrown into
the rocks with the boat, and was not found. There was a young Thai woman
crying uncontrollably on our boat, she was cradling her baby in her arms
that didn’t make a sound the entire trip; you can make the connection here I
am sure.

One of the most eerie things I have seen in my life was a speedboat, driving
in circles at full speed, because NO ONE WAS ON BOARD. I can only assume
that the inhabitants attempted to outrun the wave, and failed.

We arrived back to a much different Ao Nang than we left. There are boats
in the street, trash and sand and wood floating all over the place, there is
a rather large boat in the process of sinking in shallow water. There are
helicopters, military, and people with latex gloves on that I presumed were
doctors… everywhere. And of course there are a slew of people who are doing
nothing to help but are taking pictures and videotaping. It is organized
chaos.

Our dive shop staff met us at the boat and helped us carry everyone in. I
was carrying a Thai man with a broken leg who made painful sounds every step
that I took the entire 150 meters or so of shallow surf that I walked
through. It is amazing what sort of strength you can muster when your
adrenaline is pumping because I never really thought myself capable of
carrying a full-grown person that sort of distance. As soon as I got to the
beach the military, doctors, and various people with a stretcher take him
from me, and it brought tears to my eyes when this broken, injured Thai
person that I couldn’t even communicate with on the boat, looked at me while
being carried away, put his hands together and bowed repeatedly in a sign of
thanks (this is called a "wai" if i am not mistaken.)

I spent the next couple of hours helping however I could. I walked around
with a basket of bottled water and a first-aid kit for the people with minor
injuries. The only people being assisted by the medical crews were the
people who really needed it right away.

300 boats were sunk at Ao Nang alone. I saw about 30 of them, stacked one
on top of the other, plugged into a canal where the drivers thought they
could escape the wave and were wrong.

Ralay Beach, Ton-Sai Beach, and Phi-Phi Islands are all destroyed: These
tourist destinations sit right on the beach, maybe a few feet above sea
level for a majority of the lodging and restaurants. Phuket is badly
damaged and had many casualties. Ao Nang sits up from the beach, and is
just dirty and damaged, not destroyed (these are all very popular tourist
beaches by the way.)

The earthquake that caused this all was a 9 pointer on the Richter scale. I
learned from CNN that it originated in Sumatra which is about 600-800 miles
away from here. 23,000 people have died from the tsunamis. Can you believe
that? 23,000 people! I am not sure of the specifics but I know that only
900 or so are from Thailand. Indonesia, India, and most notably Sri Lanka,
were much more heavily hit. I can’t even imagine how many people were
injured; the hospital here in Krabitown is packed to capacity, with more
people coming in all the time. I have to imagine that the same is true for
all of the surrounding areas.

The only injuries I suffered were superficial cuts on my hands from grabbing
some sharp points on the rock that I was hiding behind at the end of the
initial surge. I realize how fortunate I am to have not been injured.
There has been many times where I was diving at locations that have large
shallow areas, and the surge therefore would have created a wave that could
have been deadly for me and everyone I was with.

As it stands now, I don’t know if I am going to be able to stay here. My
ability to live here counts on my ability to work in the tourist scuba
industry. It remains to be seen if people are still going to come here, but
I sort of doubt if that will be the case. My plight seems rather
insignificant though, given the situation and the sad state of affairs for
so many families. Not just the ones that lost lives, but the ones that lost
their boats or property which was their only source of income. I don’t know
how these people will “bounce back.”

It’s kind of strange how these things seem to happen wherever I am. I am
starting to wonder if I am following the adventure, or if it is following
me.

Anyway, I am not even sure if this should be considered and episode, it is
more of a message to all of you that I am ok. I am unable to call all of
you because it is rare that you are actually able to use your cell phone
because everyone is trying to use their cellphones and the network is always
busy. I understand that some people have been very worried. I apologize
for not getting to you sooner, but hopefully you can understand.

Know that I am safe, and am doing everything I can to help over here.