Realisation hits for UK survivors

By Tim Fawcett
BBC News, Phuket

As the sheer scale of the destruction and devastation becomes more apparent, British survivors in Phuket and surrounding islands are realising how close they came to death.

Survivors staying on the islands of Phi Phi even more so.

Many cars were damaged on Phuket (picture: Maurice de Jong)

Early reports implied Phi Phi, with its low-lying, fragile accommodation and exposure to open sea, would have little protection from the tsunami.

In larger neighbour Phuket, there were fears that everyone in Phi Phi would be killed.

Clive, on a £2,500 package deal from England to Phi Phi and Koh Samui, had an experience which sounded more like something out of a disaster movie than a holiday.

He was staying in a beach bungalow in Phi Phi, constructed from bamboo and other local materials.

The worst thing was seeing people smashed against rocks and obstructions British tourist Clive In quotes: Witness accounts

Down on the beach at the time of the approaching wave he ran for his life.

"It was a huge wall of water," he said.

The bungalow he was staying in had a second level from which he was forced to watch the deathly scene unfold below.

"The worst thing was seeing people smashed against rocks and obstructions," he said.

"Many were dragged out to sea - shattered glass was cutting people to shreds as they tried in vain to grab just anything that floated."

'Half-trashed'

Clive, like many others, clambered desperately up a mountain to safety. More than a thousand people slept the night in the open on a steep slope of jungle.

Tourists helped to clear up Phuket after the devastating tsunamis

"We were bitten by mosquitoes all night," he said.

The next morning, as light returned, those that survived could see the Phi Phi islands were half-trashed.

It was not a total wipe-out so there was hope of more survivors.

Clive spent the whole day pulling bodies from the sea.

More sickening were the desperate groans and spluttering from people trapped under wrecked buildings. Many perished.

Clasping debris

The region is popular with yachtsmen and women, many from Europe.

If boats had been some way out to sea at the time of the giant wave, they might have been lucky and able to ride it out, Clive says.

"Otherwise you were thrown at the coastline like a small toy," he said.

Later he managed to save some young children clasping onto debris. They were in total shock.

Less lucky was a British family in Phuket island itself.

They live as expats and their house was in Patong.

Their six-year-old child was washed away in the torrents right in front of their eyes.

Refugee camp

A refugee camp was set up in Phuket Town and that's where many of the Phi Phi island survivors ended up.

They said ferries had got them off the island. Many had to wait while the worst injured were picked up first, some by helicopter.

I was in disbelief - not fear - not knowing what had caused this huge torrent carrying with it cars and people British survivor David East

Another British survivor, David East, an expatriate who lives in Singapore was staying in Kamala, the next resort north from Patong.

"I've never seen so much water.

"It had travelled over a quarter of a mile overland before it reached the street where I was staying - a room on the first floor of a concrete constructed house," he said.

"I was in disbelief - not fear - not knowing what had caused this huge torrent carrying with it cars and people.

"I survived because I was up there," he said pointing.

"Not down there."

'Lovely Christmas'

In the room below, David showed me the remains of a wardrobe smashed to pieces and glass from the front window shattered everywhere .

Restaurants lining Phuket's Bang Tao beach were swept away (picture: Maurice de Jong)

"A Russian was in there but I think he escaped having got up early to go out.

"He would have been killed if, like me, he had been in bed sleeping off what was a lovely Christmas night on the beach."

That same beach where the sound of the gentle waves had been complementing a delightful seasonal atmosphere has disappeared, leaving no sign of the bars and restaurants that once stood there.

How many were taking an early swim or sun bathing on that fateful morning in Kamala is anyone's guess. But at the same time the previous day David saw at least a few hundred people on the beach.

'So confusing'

David continued his tale as we trod carefully over the rubble-strewn street.

I can't believe how lucky we were, considering most mornings I was on that beach David East

"It was all so confusing.

"We just wanted to get away and had to wait for the worst of the water to recede which took over an hour.

"I can't believe how lucky we were, considering most mornings I was on that beach.

"There was so much disinformation, thinking another onslaught was coming when it wasn't and the panic."

David feels deep sorrow for the Thai people he had befriended from previous visits to Kamala.

"They have nothing left - their livelihoods, some their families.

"It's alright for me, I can just walk away and get on a plane."

Remarkable escape

Like so many survivors here David is leaving Phuket.

Many are flying to Bangkok. Some, like Clive, are continuing their holiday in the unaffected area of the Gulf of Thailand.

Further up the coast in Surin, one of Phuket's developed areas, the beach and its infrastructure made a remarkable escape.

Perhaps the topography had steered the wave out of the way.

Unbearable scale

One British couple, with their baby, were having a quiet meal last night trying their best to forget the whole thing.

They had not been hurt but many of their friends from England who live here have not been seen since the disaster struck.

"We don't know if they are alive or not," said the husband, who did not want to be named.

The sense of the unbearable scale of the tragedy is beginning to sink in here.

After more than three days of shock, and people's attempts to save their own lives and those of others, the full horror is unfolding.