Bert was the manager at a gay resort known as Turtle Cove, half way between Cairns and Port Douglas. R and I stayed there in the nineties and had a great time. Bert was a good manager and looked after his staff well. From Turtle Cove he moved on to manage a resort on a Thai island, I forget which one, and was there when the Boxing Day tsunami hit ten years ago. I believe, as at 2012, he is back managing Turtle Cove.
I may have published his personal account before, but it would be many years ago. Bert is Dutch born and English is not his first language, so there may be a few odd sentences but have a read of his gripping experience on the day.
Bert's story:
Waves from Hell
It is about 8 am on Boxing Day 2004
and I am in the resort restaurant
checking the breakfast staff. The staff
asked me if I heard that
muffled bang just before, but I did not and no one
thought any more
of it. A guest who came later for breakfast said that his
bed shook a
bit at that time. But the weather was brilliant with clear skies
and
the sea right besides us was like a lake.
At 10.15 am. I attended
the annual meeting of members who own houses
on our property and our Company
takes care of. The chairman opened
the meeting and just finished the
attendance record at 10.30 am, when
we heard this enormous rumble. It
sounded like a 747 jumbo jet at
full throttle taking of on the beach about
50 meters away. The sound
was so loud that all of us jumped up and ran for
the beach expecting
a plane crash. All we saw was water rushing away from
the beach and
sucking sand with and just a swell was to be seen. But on the
far
horizon we saw a white line about a centimeter high and it was clear
that it was a never ending wave breaking. Only then did we realize
what
was about to come our way. Most of us started running along the
beach to get
the many guests, children and staff spectators of the
beach and to the
little hill on the other side of the resort.
Although we knew that it was
going to be big, we never thought it to
be a "Tsunami". Guest and staff were
slow to move, after all with the
spectacle at the horizon coming to us at a
fast rate and getting
bigger and bigger, who would want to miss that scene.
Our screaming
and shouting made some impact and only when it got close, they
started to run.
A few of us were on the north side of our peninsular
and ran for the
hill on that side, but by then two of us realized that we
were to
late and would never make it in time. I took shelter behind a
massive
casuarina tree and another guest took the smaller tree besides
me.
Next, an enormous wave rolled over the dunes and split on either side
of me. The tree grunted like if it was going to snap and when I
looked
to the right of me the guest was gone, I did not have time to
count my lucky
stars, because the sand was being washed from under my
feet and slowly I
sagged down the sand.
The next wave was a few seconds later and as I
looked up, it split
way above me at least 10 meters. I did not have to worry
about the
tree snapping, as I was taken like tissue paper in the wind. I had
the presence of mind to take as much air as my lungs would hold and
disappeared under water. I was tossed, turned and rolled under water
and
had no idea what was up or down, but could feel that I was going
at a
massive speed. My lungs were about to bursts and I knew that
time was
running out for me. I opened my eyes briefly to see where
the light and
surface would be and without thinking I put my hand
together and stretched
my arms, using my hands like a rudder pointed
up. I shot up and briefly got
my head out of the water, enough time
to suck in fresh air and again down I
went.
I have still no idea how many times I went up and down, but finally
I
stayed up. When I looked around me I was close to the little Island
about 700 meters away from us in the bay. The sea around me was like
a
carpet of debris and realized that being hit by any of if could
injure me
badly, but still grabbed what ever was floating as to at
least give me time
to get my breath back.
Right besides me was a long tail boat on its side
and yet no matter
how hard I tried, the debris in between us prevented me
from getting
even close to it. However the boat's seat cushion came close
enough
to grab and I pushed it under my chest, to help me to float. The
little Island was very close and I tried desperately to swim for it,
but
at an instant I was dragged away from it and swirled in a big
circle towards
the land beside our peninsula.
Next I was dragged back to our beach and
was happy to see the hill
coming towards me at a fast rate, but realized
that water that goes
up must go down again. Before I knew what happened I
was taken like a
speed boat back to the point where I had left our Island in
the first
place and shot over the 200 meters peninsula in to the "Andaman
Ocean".
I desperately grabbed for palm leaves and tree branches, but
they
ripped straight through my hands with the force of the speed. All the
debris from the bay joined me and as far as I could see our resort
floating around me. I heard some cries for help in the distance and
could see two of my staff members.
As my cushion life saver (so far)
kept me afloat. I tried to swim to
them to help them, but the massive amount
of debris prevented me from
doing so and I was steadily dragged towards the
horizon where we had
seen the first wave come from. I then realized that
obviously the sea
was settling down again.
The big problem now was to
get myself back to shore, blocked by the
carpet of anything that floats.
Considering that the whole resort was
build out of wood, thatch and natural
materials it took me for ever
to claw my way back through the debris and to
shore. I dragged my
self on the beach and checked for injuries, being
totally amazed that
I only had a few scratches and a sore left leg that must
have been
hit by something.
How I could have gone at high speed under
water one way and on my
return above water without being smashed into the
many trees and
debris will remain a puzzle to me for ever. My watch was
still
happily ticking away and checking the time, could not believe that I
would have struggling for live for about 3.5 hours.
When I got over
the dunes there were a few member houses still
standing, others half
demolished or gone and looking back to the main
resort, there was nothing
but emptiness, some bend over palm trees
and concrete slabs.
The only
building left on the grounds was the two story reception
building in a big
pile. But not a single person to be seen anywhere
and thus feared the very
worst. I walked straight away to the bay
side to see if there was any one
there and found no one. Walking
along the beach was like being ship wrecked
on a deserted Island.
And then I saw two house owners coming from the
hill where I was
supposed to be in the first place.
They told me that
most of our 170 guests and staff were on the hill
behind the resort and that
we had some badly and many with small
injuries. Most were not willing to
come down the hills in fear of an
aftershock, some came down and collected
whatever food and liquid
scattered around and buried in the sand, to take up
the hill as we
felt that we would be there for while.
All
communication devices were gone and calling the outside world was
not
possible. After making a quick survey of the damage and finding
only one
body jammed under the rubble we went up the hill to prepare
for maybe the
longest night we could imagine. There I found the
Journalist for South East
Asia of the "Australian" newspaper who had
a house and was staying with us
for Xmas. She had a mobile that
worked, as she managed to get up the hill in
time. She was contacted
by Barry (Ex Australian Army Officer) who takes care
of my business
in Bangkok, to let us know that he already had contacted the
Australian Embassy and his Thai army contacts. As it was now late
afternoon, rescue would come early next morning.
We spend the night
on the hill trying to sleep care for the wounded
and reflect on the past
day. We now knew that 13 people were not
accounted for and missing. The
first helicopter circled over us at
about 6.20 am and shortly after, three
more arrived and landed on the
beach, all wounded and families were taken
off. We found one more
body and by early afternoon all of us were evacuated
by boat, leaving
behind the devastation of a nature resort that once
was.
Most of the guest and staff who did not miss anyone traveled onwards
to go to there respective homes or onward destinations. We went to
the
main temple in the close by village of Kuraburi, which was set up
as the
main rescue and command centre. Whole communities spend their
time there as
there was no where for them to go after their villages
were wiped of the
face of the earth. Thais are an amazing people, as
within one day cloth and
other house hold articles came in from all
over the local area from people
who could least afford it.
I spend the next 5 days from early morning to
late evening viewing
every corpse that came in from our Island to identify
and process the
deceased guest and staff from our resort. It seemed to be a
never
ending process and it became more difficult as days went on, because
of the further de-composing of bodies. I could and would not describe
the state and smell of the corpses after 5 days in the water, where
the
only possible identification could be done by jewelry or other
identifiable
items with the corpses. We have found 12 of our people
and only one baby is
still missing, most likely never to be found
anymore.
Now I am back
in Bangkok having lost absolutely everything on the
Island besides my life,
but when I think and see what others went
through, I count my lucky stars
once more. The owner of the resort is
at present at a loss of what to do
next and I may go back next week
to access and consult him on the next step
to be taken.
Bert Gerbrands