AAP General News (Australia)
12-31-2004
Fed: 12 Australian tales of survival
QUAKE SEARLE
Perth woman Jillian Searle was forced to let go of one of her children to save another
when a wall of water struck their Thai holiday destination.
Mrs Searle, of Perth, was near her Phuket hotel pool with sons Lachie, five, and Blake,
two, when the tsunami hit on Sunday.
She was faced with a terrible choice as she fought to stay alive amid the raging waters.
"I knew I had to let go of one of them and I just thought I'd better let go of the
one that's the oldest," she told Sky News.
"A lady grabbed hold of him for a moment but she had to let him go because she was going under.
"And I was screaming, trying to find him, and we thought he was dead."
Lachie was found safe two hours later after surviving the raging torrent by clinging to a door.
QUAKE SPARROW
Ann Sparrow who was caught up in the Asian tsunami disaster survived but does not know
whether her husband is still alive.
Mrs Sparrow, from Perth, became separated from her husband Jim when the tsunami, caused
by Sunday's devastating earthquake off Sumatra, struck Patong.
The couple had been walking along the beachfront when the tsunami reached the holiday
destination.
"People were yelling `run, run, run' and `the water's coming'. We saw a load of boats
jumping around in the water but we didn't know what it was," Mrs Sparrow said.
"All of a sudden we saw this big wave. I grabbed my husband and then turned to run.
"I thought he was right behind me but he couldn't have been - and then the water got
me and I was under the water."
Mr Sparrow is still missing, feared dead.
QUAKE BOARDMAN
Sydney woman Diane Boardman escaped death after the devastating south Asian tsunami
flung a car on top of her as she walked along a Thai beach.
Mrs Boardman and her husband Les had been taking one of their first strolls along Patong
Beach in the Thai resort of Phuket when the tsunami struck on Sunday.
"Then the wave came down and we were just lifted out," Mr Boardman said as he arrived
at Sydney Airport.
"She (Dianne) went under a car, it just went over the top of her.
"I just got picked up and chucked against a wall.
"I was a lucky one - we cheated death."
Mr Boardman said he had been holding onto a stranger's arm but the man was swept away.
"I lost him, I couldn't hold him, he drowned," he said.
"There were bodies everywhere, you can't describe it."
QUAKE WEAVER
Fore Edward Weaver and his wife Elaine, said the aftermath of the tsunami was both
horrific and surreal.
Most bizarre of all was watching a 90cm shark, trapped in a hotel pool and circling
an up-ended taxi.
Regular visitors to Phuket, the Weavers of Frankston, south east of Melbourne, were
among the first to flee the island.
The Weavers were in their room on the fourth floor of the Busakorn Wing of the Holiday
Inn Resort in Patong, on the island's western side, when the first of two tidal waves
hit.
"I felt the earthquake, then I looked out the balcony about 10 o'clock in the morning
- that was two hours after I felt the shake - and I saw the pool filling up with dirty
water and everyone on the roof of the Holiday Inn so I said, `Come on, we've got to get
out of here, there's something going on'," Mrs Weaver said.
She said Patong's beachfront Thaweewong Road was normally buzzing at 10am, but entire
shops and restaurants had been wiped away, along with parts of hotels.
Mr Weaver said he initially thought a dam had broken and was washing down the hill.
"You could hear them screaming, just hundreds of people running up the street, running
away from it," he said.
QUAKE ALI
Newlyweds Joanne and David Ali were forced to climb through broken glass and sewage
and scramble up a hill to escape a tsunami that hit their Phuket hotel.
The Alis were enjoying the last days of their Thai honeymoon when they heard what sounded
like a jet engine outside.
Their hotel was on a peninsula and was hit from both sides by a massive wall of water.
"Suddenly water was just pouring into our room and a tree had got stuck through our
door so we actually couldn't get out," Ms Ali, 33, said.
Her 42-year-old husband said: "We tried to get up the stairs at one stage but water
was streaming down the stairs, it was like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark."
The pair left their belongings, climbed through a window and dodged debris in search
of higher ground.
"We were about armpit-high in sewer water, sheets of glass everywhere and we had no
shoes because we'd just got out of bed," Mr Ali said.
"There were cars in the foyer, trucks, buses pushed through buildings and Mercedes
just floating past."
QUAKE STEGMAN
Brisbane couple Greg and Deidre Stegman were sucked down 10 metres and then swept another
kilometre out to sea when the tsunami struck as they were diving off the Maldives in the
Indian Ocean.
"It was just a magnificent day but then halfway through the dive we experienced what
is called a down-drawing or a down current," Greg Stegman said from his Brisbane home.
"We were diving at 20 metres depth and all of a sudden we were brought down to 30 metres."
The couple said they were then dragged around a kilometre out to sea, clinging to each
other and being swept backwards and forwards about five times before being rescued.
"We were just so lucky to be alive," Deidre Stegman said.
QUAKE MANNING
Evelyn Manning says a miracle, a simple act of "ingenuity", saved her daughter's life.
Thanks to the quick thinking of a Thai tour boat driver, 26-year-old Lisa Manning narrowly
escaped being caught among the thousands of boats she saw being smashed on the shore in
the wake of Sunday's deadly tidal waves.
On holiday with English boyfriend Matt, Lisa had just arrived on Thailand's now devastated
Phi Phi Island when the tsunami hit.
Her brother Richard said it was only the fact that she was out at sea taking a boat
tour that she managed to survive.
"The boat driver saw the wave coming, this wall of water and he went very, very fast
in the other direction ... it was only thanks to that driver that she's alive today,"
he said.
Her mother Evelyn Manning said her daughter's survival was "an act of God".
"How else can you explain something like that?" she said.
"Lisa saw thousands of other boats get caught up in the wave ... thousands of people
die before her very eyes ... yet through that ingenuity, an act of God she managed to
survive.
"It was a miracle ... among such tragedy there can be such hope."
QUAKE COPELAND
Sydney teenager Alana Copeland had been on her way to the beach at Negumbo, near Colombo
in Sri Lanka, to play volleyball and cricket when the tsunami hit.
"We were heading to the beach and had to change our plans," she said.
"There were locals with me who told us about it and took us back inland ... thank god
I didn't get to the beach."
Alana, from Emu Heights in western Sydney, said there was no warning of the catastrophe.
Her mum, Karen, was relieved to have her daughter home.
"I couldn't have given a damn if (the flight) cost a million dollars, I just wanted
to get her home," she said.
QUAKE PACKIANATHAN
A Canberra woman's family reunion in Sri Lanka was transformed into hell when several
loved ones were killed by the tsunami which lashed the country's coast.
Seeli Packianathan, her husband and their three daughters had made their first visit
to their homeland in a decade for a "joyful reunion".
But at the end of their trip, 10 minutes after the Canberra family had set off for
the airport from their village on the east coast of the northern province, the tsunami
struck.
Their relatives' coastal home was hit by the full force of the tidal wave and several
family members were killed.
"It hit our home full on," she said.
"Dead - they are dead, my cousins, their children, many of my husband's family."
QUAKE RAMETTA
Melbourne brothers Michael and Andrew Rametta spent a day wondering if the other had
survived the massive wave.
Michael Rametta, 25, was asleep in his room when he heard people screaming on Sunday
morning outside the Patong Beach Hotel in Phuket. He looked outside and saw water rushing
toward him.
"It was just coming in faster than you could move," he said.
"The water smashed through the big glass window in my room and shattered it." The room
was quickly submerged in water.
Michael made it out to higher ground and safety, but spent the rest of the day wondering
whether his brother was still alive.
Andrew, 18, was visiting another hotel when the waves hit. He was high enough on the
second floor to be out of reach.
It took them all day to find each other. When they finally did, they simply embraced.
"My emotions are just everywhere," Michael said as he prepared to board his flight
home. "I want to cry. I just want to see my family and know that everything is all right."
QUAKE CAMPBELL
Jarra Campbell, from Bondi, was eating breakfast at a Patong hotel with a girlfriend
when water emptied out of the bay.
"All the local kids ran out to watch, not understanding," the 22-year-old told reporters.
"Then it came like a wall of water that smashed through the beach and hit everyone
and everything.
"Suddenly there was a kid on the floor dying in front of us, another kid was being
resuscitated. We've seen a lot of people die."
The pair ran to higher ground, certain they would die.
"I was on the phone to my dad running up the stairs saying, `Dad, Dad, there's another
one coming!'" she said.
"I thought that was it for us."
QUAKE CARROLL
Gold Coast man Stephen Carroll was with his friends at the Holiday Inn at Patong Beach
on Phuket when the tsunami struck.
He said he was asleep when the deadly waves crashed ashore.
"I got woken up and chased up a mountain," Mr Carroll said.
"I was on the back of a truck and borrowed a phone off another tourist and got hold
of Dad (in Australia).
"Then I jumped off the back of the truck because it wasn't going anywhere and just
ran up the hill.
"There were rumours that a 100 metre wave was coming, so I just kept climbing at least
300 or 400 metres above sea level."
Mr Carroll, 18, said he spent the day the tsunami struck by himself after being separated
from his friends.
He only found out later that they were all safe.
Asked how it felt to be back in Australia, he replied: "brilliant".
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