SURF SHOP
Boxing Day Tsunami-Diary
Christmas Day:
What a wonderful holiday. So care free fancy being hot on Christmas day just pure bliss. I don’t have time to write to much as I may miss out on the fun!
Boxing Day:
Whilst eating breakfast I suddenly see the tide has gone out and people are beginning to run towards me. Then all of a sudden I see a wall of roiling sea. Churning grey mud and froth rushes towards us. Guests and staff are running in all directions now, away from the water. It is too surreal. I shout "To the staircase." We run together. Just by the staircase a hotel worker in blue falls and no one helps him, no one trips over him. The rushing mass of people avoids him and runs past. He picks himself up and I see panic on his face. Just then I see Mum is in front of me, partway up the stairs. The crowd separates us. "Why is she not holding my hand? How did we get separated?" These thoughts occur but the sheer panic blocks me out from the rest of the world.
Mum, I and the crowd reach the top of the stairs, the first landing. I do not turn back to see if everyone behind us has made it. Within seconds the giant wave blows through the terrace where we'd been sitting, crashes against the building and floods the ground floor, reaching the ceiling of the ground floor. Tables and chairs, decorative screens, buffet layout and remaining staff all disappear. We watch in terror.
From the landing I look at the spot where we had been sitting and all I see is a wave of grey mud; the dining room is under water. There is floating debris everywhere and I look to see if I can see my hat in amongst it all. Those who escaped stand around stunned and dazed, a fatal freeze. For what seems like a long time, a shocked, heavy silence hangs in the air. The currents swirl around. And then, as if on cue, everyone starts moving, running, shouting, calling for friends and relatives, crying. It is like a movie that is stopped for a few seconds and started again. There are heartrending cries and screams. Guests and workers run along the corridors and into the rooms of the first and second floors shouting and calling out for family and friends. Some hang over the balconies shouting out names into the churning muddy water.
Devastation. Total devastation.
