Holiday Brits left with nothing

By Jeremy Bowen
BBC News, Phuket

Trevor Fisher [left] shows Jeremy Bowen the wreckage of Phuket

Thousands of Britons are among the millions caught up in the Asian tsunami disaster. A BBC One documentary tells the story of some of the victims and their families and the volunteers helping them rebuild their lives.

Trevor Fisher is a big roly-poly man who loves life, a drink and a smoke.

Since the earthquake and the tsunami it created tore into countries from Indonesia to Somalia, he has also become a hero.

Trevor has run a variety of businesses since he moved to the Thai island of Phuket seven years ago, but back home in Britain he was an NHS nurse. When he realised that so many people had died, he went to his local hospital and volunteered his services.

Phuket is a rich island....but think for a moment too about poor people, in places tourists never visit Jeremy Bowen

The tsunami killed more than 5,000 people in Thailand. Half of them were foreign tourists, most of whom were on Phuket.

Trevor Fisher became the indispensable guide for the frantically worried who came to Phuket International Hospital to try to find people who had been on the beach on the morning of Boxing Day.

As a nurse, he had cared for people with terminal illnesses, so he knows about death and bereavement.

His skills were vital for survivors who had children ripped out of their arms by the force of the water and for relatives who came hoping to find their missing person, but soon realized the best they could hope for was to find a body to bury.

Services have been held in Phuket to honour the dead

In the Real Story Special: The Killer Waves, (BBC ONE, 2100 GMT) we follow Trevor, other volunteers, victims of the tsunami and their families as they are dragged into the catastrophe that is unfolding around the coast of the Indian Ocean.

It was filmed on the devastated coastline of Phuket while the bodies were still being collected and while friends and relatives were going through mortuaries to try to find the people they love.

BBC NEWS: VIDEO AND AUDIO Watch the wave hit

Phuket is a rich island. They will clean up, rebuild and start to pull in tourists again. But think for a moment too about poor people, in places tourists never visit, who barely scraped a living before the tsunami came.

Appeal for help

They have to rebuild villages that will be smaller and emptier, and pay interest on loans for boats and buildings and businesses that have been smashed.

According to Unicef, 50,000 children were killed. 1.5 m child survivors now need help to stay alive. Unicef warns that they will also need to be protected from criminals who may want to exploit them.

An appeal for more money for relief and reconstruction will be broadcast at the end of tonight's programme.

The Killer Waves: A Real Story Special can be seen via the video link at the top of this page