Life After Death: Math Prof Recalls Tsunami Experience

Math professor Dan Ralescu is now safe at home from his trip to Thailand during the tsunami. He is "very much touched" by his co-workers' concern and details his experience in the following paragraphs. Dan's experience was also highlighted in the

Cincinnati Enquirer

, available

online

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We arrived on the beach (Nai Harn Beach, in Phuket Island,on the south-west side of the island-close to Cape Promthep-the southernmost point),around 9:00 am. on Dec.26 (Eastern US time was 9:00 p.m. Dec.25-thus the day before). My wife, Anca, went inside the hotel (Le Royal Meridien Phuket Yacht Club-please see http://www.yacht-club.phuket.com/ for photos of the beach and the area). She went to the gym-where she usually would spend 1 hour (she didn't go there every day: the day before, Dec.25, she didn't go to the gym:she was also on the beach!).

The day was beautiful: blue skies, calm water, no wind. A perfect day! Later, we were supposed to go on a boat trip, to nearby islands, together with our friend Ole (director of beach activities at the Yacht Club) and his 7-years old daughter, Katai. Actually, he was bringing his daughter, and another little girl (they had both spent 1/2 a day with us, on the beach, a week before) to play again, on the beach.

I walked to the end of the beach, where there is a lagoon, like a little river, connecting the sea with a big lake, farther away. This walk takes about 20 minutes, roundtrip. I didn't notice anything unusual. I returned to my lounge chair on the beach, and was debating whether to move into the sun (I was in the shade, under the umbrellas). That would have put my chair parallel to the water's edge (the sun was on the left, as I was looking at the water). But, I was kind of lazy... I wasn't doing anything in particular (like reading, or listening to music through headphones - which I sometimes did). With the corner of my eye, I noticed Ole and his little daughter had arrived. They were at the top of the stairs, to my right (about 20 yards, in the direction of the hotel) leading down to the beach. They didn't see me (in retrospect: thanks God the little girls did not come to the beach. Had they come, there would have been no way for me to save them). Around 9:40 a.m., I noticed that the tide was very , very low: the Andaman Sea has retreated by at least 100 yards. This was very unusual. I've never seen the tide so low there. Never before. I have seen it like this in Bali, and other places but never in Phuket (and, they say now, such a retreat of the waters is very unusual in the Indian Ocean). The wavy sand sea floor was exposed. And fish, gasping for air (I didn't see the fish, myself, but others told me afterwards). Now, they said the sudden retreat of the Ocean is a clear sign of tsunami! But I had no idea then!! I was not concerned, or scared. The night before, it had been Full Moon. So, I thought that maybe it was some kind of a strange tide?? I blamed it on the Moon !! Some moments later, I saw that the sea came back. The tide was back. Very strange: tides don't change so fast! But,I still was not concerned. "It's the Moon". I looked to my right at the beach boys from the hotel: they were standing, looking in the direction of the sea. But, part of their duties is to watch over people swimming, or riding on boats (there was a large number of yachts harbored in the bay, this time of the year - the King's Cup Regatta - biggest such event in South East Asia- just ended about 2 weeks ago).

Moments later, I noticed that the water was higher. At that moment, rather calmly, I moved my shoes from the sand, to the beach lounge next to me (I was lying down on a beach lounge all that time:on the beach of the Phuket Yacht Club). Finally,I noticed the water coming closer to me. To understand this better: his was not a big wave that you can see from afar. No. This was more like overflowing. Like when you boil milk and it overflows. Or like bread dough rising! As if some giant faucets were turned on, and the sea was growing....At that moment, I grabbed my bag (inside, I had all my video, photo cameras, CD player, and 2 mobile phones), I held it above the water (which wasn't deep,anyway) and I started to walk/run, away from the sea, in a direction perpendicular to a stone wall, where the beach ended (after this wall, higher up, was the car road). When I reached this wall, water was probably half-way up the wall. Or else, I could not have climbed it: it is at least 5 - 6 feet high. A young Thai woman, on top of the wall offered to help (I've never seen her before-and I knew many of the people around there- nor have I seen her since then!). I gave her the bag and I climbed. Then, I was on the road. Water was coming fast from behind. The water now covered my bag. I crossed the road (not very wide: about 6 yards??). At that time, water was on the road. To my right: cars, motorcycles, people, in disarray.

I was pushed by the water and forced, still in a perpendicular direction, to enter a small shop (a mini mart-part of a row of shops, over about 100 yards, between the Phuket Yacht Club and the next-and only other-hotel, the Sabana Resort). As I stumbled inside, I was already hitting stone tables, and other structures, now under water. As I entered that little shop, glass windows were breaking all around me. The water was carrying many pieces of debris, the beach lounge chairs were floating, hitting, umbrellas too. People were screaming. Inside, part of the ceiling collapsed on me. Something hit me on the head. I stumbled, and got hurt - probably by metal frames, and stone columns. Water came above my head, and I swallowed water for a few seconds. At that moment, precisely, I said; "that's my end". But, my big luck, unbelievable luck - God wanted it this way - the water suddenly retreated!! Had it not retreated, there would have been no way for me to escape, probably, as I was stuck in that small shop.

I came out, I climbed on a small stone table. At that time, I must have been in shock. I touched my face... and I noticed blood. I had a small cut on my head (very minor,it turned out), but there was a lot of blood. I had blood on my chest also. All those shops were still standing, but they were very bare: no windows, no tables/chairs in the restaurants, etc. A 10 years old (I think) Thai girl, outside, saw me (where had she been all this time??), asked me if I was OK. Then, she noticed the blood and became very scared. At that moment, I saw Anca - she was coming from the Hotel road-she was about 10 yards to my right side (later, she told me that at first, she thought there were some shadows over me, as the sun was on the left side. Coming closer, she realized it was blood)I. We both went in the direction of the Yacht Club (higher ground). There, some staff told me to go inside. "I don't want to go in like this" I said. They brought some towels. A hotel guest gave me first aid (later, it turned out that she had been a flight attendant for British Airways-and she had been trained in first aid). The Yacht Club has a clinic inside and the Hotel nurse came out. She started to bandage me. I had many wounds, but three of them looked more serious: they were 1-2 inches long and 1/2-inch deep. About 20 minutes after this first wave (which I estimate at 12-15 feet high, from sea level), a second wave came. People started screaming: "run, run"... We entered the hotel. With the corner of my eye I saw the water. And I heard it. I also heard a big explosion behind us, the hotel's power generator exploded.

Every one of us were now inside, climbing to higher floors. This second wave was higher. It almost came to the main entrance of the hotel. We went to the clinic - the nurse continued cleaning my injuries. They brought in another man, in a much worse shape than me. He had wounds on his head. They started an IV on him. After about 10-15 minutes, at the recommendation of the hotel management, we went to the highest floor, and then to a lookout , on the hill/mountain behind the hotel. We were about 30 people there. There were official announcements of an aftershock, and other tsunamis. We anxiously watched part of the beach, from that high point. I was really scared then. Also, that's when we found out that there had been a huge earthquake near Sumatra. We stayed there for 6 hours. At around 5:30 p.m., we came down the hill and went outside on the road, near the hotel. EVERY one of those small shops and restaurants, (including the one I was in during the first wave-and where I escaped), was TOTALLY demolished. Destroyed. A pile of rubble. Just stones, and metal. Nothing left. A horrible tragedy.

I am very lucky to be alive. Other than that, I had three bad cuts, which needed stitches. In particular, on my left hand, below the index finger, I have a two inch cut, and very deep, which needed five stitches. On that evening, at around 9:00PM, of Dec.26, I went to the hospital (the Bangkok Phuket Hospital-a private hospital, it turned out later. And considered among the best ). There, it looked like what I imagine to be a war zone !! Hundreds of injured. Many of them, in bad shape. The Thais, doctors, nurses, they were all extremely nice and efficient. They started helping me (and everybody else) immediately. I was there for at least one hour. And as an aside, and perhaps interesting thing, the bill (doctor, nurses, emergency room, tetanus shot, anesthetics shots, medicine-antibiotics, pain killer) came to about $15. Different medical costs in different countries, I guess!!!

Then I went there every day, for seven days, to have the dressings from my wounds changed. These visits were increasingly sad: there was a wall dedicated to missing persons. The wall was full of photocopies of photographs of the missing: families, children, from Sweden,Germany,Japan,Russia,UK. Unbelievable. I used to cry and look at those pictures. Every day the wall became larger... And the stories:......... Horrible stories of horror. One day, in the same room where nurses were treating me there was a young girl from Mexico City and her mother. The girl had wounds. She had come there on her honeymoon. Her husband was missing. The vast majority of the missing were dead.

Then, at Phuket Airport, in the lounge, before departure I noticed a Chinese looking man who behaved a little strange, just a little, withy some brusque movements. He asked me what happened to my hand. He then told us his story: he was Singaporean, living in Bangkok. He had come to Phuket to pick up his six years old niece. The girl's parents (the father was that man's brother) and two older brothers, were all dead! He had come already four times to Phuket in that week. He wasn't able to identify the bodies. Mutilated, horrible, impossible to identify, he said.

That is a version of the things, as they happened to me. One of the toughest things to understand and cope with, is the fact that it all came (literally) out of the blue - the most beautiful blue skies that one can imagine, AND that the skies stayed that way during that whole day, and many of the days following this disaster, that there was no inkling from anywhere, anything that something like this would and could happen. Yet, in what seems not to have lasted more than 30 minutes, so many people lost their lives and many, I should say, most, of the local people lost their livelihoods.