FIRST HAND STORY: Evelyn Rodriquez
Read Evelyn Rodriquez story of being on a boat near Phuket when the wave hit.EVELYN RODRIGUEZ SITE "Crossroads"
Her first weblog on Dec 26:
Slammed by Tidal Wave, But I'm OK
A lot of people heard about the devastation caused by the earthquake in Indonesia. I was on Phi Phi Don island off the Andaman coast of Thailand when the tidal wave hit. Not really up to posting the full story as yet, but here's some info I emailed to family members.
We were on a boat tour when the captain dramatically veered off course (we were headed to remote Bamboo Island) and was frantically talking on his cell phone. Their English was very poor so it was not clear what was going on. Long story short, we got on the beach but were too low when the tidal wave struck. It created a flash flood effect and I was in the middle of rapids containing debris, wood and all matter of building material. Ton Sai, the main village and also the pier, are completely leveled is the rumor.
I cut my knee up pretty bad and have trouble walking but nothing broken. I am fine considering the state of most of Phi Phi and the rest of the folks here in Phuket hospital.
Unfortunately, all of our stuff was on a bungalow hotel called Maprao about 40 minutes from where the boat landed so we were not able to go back and get any of our things.
Thus, currently nearly penniless, passport-less, travel insurance-less etc. at the moment. But at the hospital everything is free including email access. Unfortunately, the US embassy has not been very helpful in contrast to other embassies and we don't know much logistically in terms of loans, passports, retreiving our stuff, etc. The ambassador to Sweden personally visited all the Swedes (several were on our boat trip).
I appreciate all the concerned emails from readers but I will not be able to respond individually to emails for some time as free access (no money) may be difficult to obtain for a bit. But please be assured I am fine.
Posted by Evelyn Rodriguez on Dec 26, 2004 at 10:03
posted by Rick Von Feldt @ 8:00 AM
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