Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[Slide : Text] [Images of Sumatra, Raji and family]
University lecturer Raji [Basalen] starts the day with great hope. He and his wife Sawati
and their two children are planning a move to Melbourne where Raji will continue his
academic studies. [Raji]
Me and my wife, we have a long chat about our future, talking about our plan when arrive
in Australia. [Slide : Pictures of tsunami in action in
Sumatra] At two minutes to eight, Raji's family home
in shaken by a massive earthquake. My whole family come to the front door and
we're sitting in the footstep. We are praying that the earthquake will stop soon. But it
lasts two or three minutes longer and it's a big shake. We start to see people running
in front of [1:13] my house and shouting that water coming, water coming. We can't imagine
how can the water come. It's sunny day, no rain, no cloud. I try to look outside my home
to see the water coming. [Raji]
And what I see I couldn't believe at the time. Is a very huge wave.
[Image of Raji's family] Raji's wife Sawati and daughter Filsa run
inside their home. [Raji]
I can't see them anymore. And then the only left is Anas, my son in my arm and my younger
sister. And we take… [Slide : Pictures of streets, inundated]
…the decision to run outside the home. But too, water getting closer and closer, not
far from my home, the water smash me and directly fall down to my knee with Anas in my arm.
Raji and his two year old son Anas are now clinging to a coconut tree.
After hit very strong water, we got stuck there and suddenly many other wood and tree
coming from my back, and Anas's under the tree and many woods. And I couldn't [2:38]
keep my hand on his body anymore. So then he-, Anas was lost from my arm.
[Slide : Text] [Slide : Girl speaking]
When I woke up, I just said it's going to be another beautiful day.
[Images of Van Ooden family] The Van Ooden family from Perth are in their
hotel room on Phuket in Thailand. [Mr. Phuket]
The bed was moving away from the wall probably about a good foot. And the pictures on the
wall were shaking. The curtain was moving, and that's when I realized it was an earthquake,
and my first instinct was to get out and get the kids out, get everybody out.
[Simon Lee] It was so low that we saw fish flicking on
the sand. So people went down to the sea bed to collect fish.
[Slide : Images of beach] Simon Lee, a policeman from New South Wales,
he's taking photos on Patong Beach with his family when it dawns on him that this is more
than just a low tide. [Simon Lee]
My heart was pounding because I remember incident at Papua New Guinea a few years ago where
a similar thing happened. And I thought, must be an earthquake out there in the ocean. And
we had to get out of there. [Slide : Pictures of running from ocean]
So we ran. If we had been any slower, we would have certainly died. It's a matter of life
and death. [Simon Lee]
And those people behind you? Yes. Same fate. I fear the worst for them.
They would have drowned. [Mr. Phucket]
Yeah, the water gone, it was, there was nothing in the bay. It was just the sand and coral
sticking out. [Slide : Pictures of coast, wall of water]
I looked out further. I could see a white line. You could see a white wall of water.
I raced down the stairs. By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs…
[Slide : Pictures of water in building] …the water was already gone past the building.
And all I knew was that the girls were by the pool.
[Girl speaking] We were just like having a good time at the
pool., and then people running back and they're screaming, “The sea's coming, the sea's
coming.” [Other girl speaking, Sarah]
And so we run back to the hotel and I Sarah, grab your clothes and just run.
[Slide : Pictures of waves inundating coast] The Van Ooden family flees back up to their
sixth floor hotel room as the second wave approaches Patong.
Simon Lee and his family seek refuge on a first floor balcony. He's hoping it doesn't
collapse in the flood. [Simon Lee]
What are the children doing? They were asking me what's going to happen
Papa? What's going to happen. And I said to them, I said to [Madina ?], I said I'm sorry
I take you here. We might not survive this. Please stay together, hold hands, stay together.
And if we have to go, we go to together. [Slide : Text]
[Slide : Pictures of Sri Lankan children] [Ajith and Gamini] DaSilva's father disappears
in Hikkaduwa while he's searching for the rest of their family.
[Slide : Child speaking, not English, voice over translation]
I asked my father not to leave us, but he did. We didn't expect that there would be
a second wave. [Slide : Pictures of children walking through
aftermath] The boys' father, their mother and nine year
old sister all die. [Slide : Child speaking, translated]
I thought I'd be swept away. When I saw the people getting washed away, I started crying.
I saw an old man killed. I saw a boy dying, houses being smashed. I saw my own house coming
down. [Slide : Pictures of Tasha and then sea]
Tasha Basel from West Australia is holidaying at Weligama Beach with a friend.
[Tasha] He heard the surf really loud out in front
of our room. He was like, the surf's really good today. And he opened the front door,
and the sea just started rushing in the front door of the room. And I was still in bed asleep.
And he just yelled out to me like, “Tash, get out of bed now. You got to get up.”
And I opened my eyes and I just saw like brown muddy water sort of through the doorway coming
into the room, and I just jumped out of bed. [Slide : Image of destroyed hotel]
Tasha later returns to collect her belongings from her hotel to find it's been destroyed.
[Tasha] And I couldn't believe that the wave I was
running from had just done that because when I had run, it wasn't that high, the wave wasn't
that big. So I'm just glad I got out of there when I did.
[Slide : Text]