Incredible First-Hand Tsunami Story

This story was forwarded to me by friends of mine (Barbara & Darin). It was sent out by Dave Lowe who was working in a Maldivian Hotel when the Tsunami struck. My wife & I spent our honeymoon there a couple of years ag0 (though not on the same Island). It's an incredibly beautiful place but each island is tiny. Ours was about 500 feet long and about 100 feet wide. When we there, it struck us that the island would be very vulnerable if a huge wave hit it. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Read on...it's an incredible story. The fear and horror are palpable.

hello everyone,

ive been getting literally hundreds of emails from people asking aboutmy experience in the Indian Ocean tsunami. to cut a long story short,im lucky to be alive... here is my account of what happened:it was just after 11.00 am, a perfect maldives day, 90 degrees, sunny,and no clouds. im was in my office working, at the northern end of theisland, which was 20 meters across, fighting a hangover from a hardnight in the bar that had stretched to 4 am. i was woken up thatmorning at 7 am by an earthquake, but being from california, it seemedlike nothing, and i did not even think of a tsunami. i was halflistening to a colleague whine about a missing pen, then i heard astrange bump against the door, and people outside were screaming, 'thechildren! the children!!... i lept to the door to find seawaterseeping under it, and it took all my strength to push it open. when ilooked outside, I could see that the ocean was now level with ourisland, and to my horror, a wall of water, boiling, frothing, angry ashell, was bearing straight down at us...there was a strange smell inthe air, like death, and a wierd mist that looked like thick fog.....istopped breathing, and ran. but where do you run when you are 1 meterabove sea level, and theres deep water on all sides?? i ran towardsreception, where guests and staff were screaming and rooted to thespot as the first waves began to hit the island. the furniture wasalready being swept away, and the guest shop window exploded,showering glass into the water where guests without shoes were tryingto stand up.....within seconds the water was up to my waist, and as Ibraced myself for what seemed like certain death, the tsunami waveslammed into the resort, crushing me against the walls of theexecutive offices...my cell phone, keys, resort ID, watch andsunglasses were ripped off, as I desperately inched my way toreception, with water roiling and boiling so violently I could hardlystand up. it was like a vortex, and I grabbed hold of children whowere being washed out to sea and whos parents were missing, and threwthem up onto the reception counter, as I looked back to see if I couldhelp anyone else, the full force of the tsunami hit, crushing palmtrees and instantly destroying the executive offices whose windowssmashed, and then the walls collapsed, sending staff trapped inside(including my assistants) computers, TV's, filing cabinets, desks andbroken glass and shattered wood straight out to sea. I grabbed hold ofa pillar as the wave struck, and the water was now up to my chest...most guests were clinging to anything they could find, and some hadhorrible injuries from the smashed glass that was everywhere (i wasbarefoot and so were most of the guests) i saved an 80 year old womanwho washed by in front of me, just before she went out to sea, and asI could no longer hang on, I hauled myself up to the receptioncounter, where a security guard handed me his walkie talkie and fledto the roof.... a guest with a cut so deep on his leg, his bone wassticking out, was pointed out to me, and I quickly grabbed a towel andbandaged it and elevated his leg as there was no doctor....we werecovered in blood as we tried to stop the bleeding, which nearly killedhim, but luckily it stopped in time, his wife grabbed my neck so tighti could hardly breathe, screaming at me in french, and the man wentinto shock and passed out. as wave after wave smashed against theresort, we watched, helpless, as, in the distance, we could see manyof the 50 water bungalows that faced the reef disintegrating,instantly turing to matchwood as the waves pounded them, dumpingguests, four poster beds, tvs and airconditioners into the water sorough it was like a washing machine gone mad. the debris, also fromthe collapsed restaurant over the water, and planking from theboardwalk, began to surge through reception, and my fear was sointense that I wasnt thinking even if I was going to die, i knew I wasgoing to die. i just didnt know when. all i could think was how muchhigher did the water have to go before we were all swept away? wecouldnt tell if the island was sinking or the sea rising.... areceptionist colleague screamed at me WHAT IS HAPPENING??? WHAT ISHAPPENING??? as we desperately tried to pull ourselves together, weheard two gas cannisters explode from the restaurant, blowiong offpart of the roof, and then the water sports center and doctors clinicwere crushed by another wave, where staff were clinging to the roof asthe palm thatch disintegrated. we were lucky that not all the waterbungalows collapsed, because the debris would have crushed us todeath. as the only staff member there with a uniform and nametag atthat end of the island, I was thrown in charge, and now with thewalkie talkie I desperately tried to contact the other end of theisland. there was no answer. then, as quickly as the water came up, itwas gone, leaving fish flopping on the floor of the lobby and seaweeddraped everywhere. I shouted at staff to get a guest list for a headcount, and screamed at guests STAY OFF THE BEACH!! GET AWAY FROM THEJETTY!!! DO NOT MOVE!!!! as guests regrouped, I looked out to sea inthe opposite direction, where my eyes popped out of their head: therewas another wave coming right back at us, even bigger than the first,and even worse, full of airconditioners, refrigerators, water heaters,mattresses deck chairs, and even people... GET BACK!!! THE WATERSCOMING BACK!!! i screamed as guests ran for things to grab hold of.when the 2nd wave hit, it was like titanic, and we desperately triedto hang on as the dangerous debris smashed its way through the lobbyagain. this was followed by two more waves, which were slightlysmaller, and then silence. as I assembled guests together for a headcount, a staff from the other end of the island ran in and said thatthere was a 50 foot wave coming, and we needed to get to the spa,where there was more shelter. this set off the guests who wailed andscreamed as they ran towards the new shelter, as I took up the rear, Iheard a seaplane land, probably unaware of the danger. I ran like hellto the jetty, waving my arms to the pilots to tell them to go away....they did not see me, and landed.... as they tied up to the pontoon, Inoticed an ominous wave heading straight for the plane, and like ahorror movie, I actually saw the seaplane getting sucked under by thevortexes and eddies that were 20 feet across.... i screamed at thecabin crew who was on the dock, frantically trying to untie the rope,as the engines screaming, got closer and closer to the water... i gotdown on my hands and knees, covering my head with my hand to preventinjury, screaming into the walkie talkie to see if anyone couldcontact the pilots....i was just waiting for the engines to smash intothe water and see the plane flip over, when the crew cut the rope,jumped on board, and the plane bobbed up and took off...as i watchedit take off, they dipped their wings to show us help was on theway....i looked behind me to see a 5th wave bearing straight down, andas I ran back to reception, I was too late, and I was lifted off myfeet and carried by it straight into the lobby again. when the wavesubsided, I ran to the spa, passing the GM's house, where his son'snanny was nearly being washed away, I rescued her and his son, carriedthem to safety, where 60 terrified French, Italian and UK guests werehuddled in total shock. quickly I set up a triage unit to treat thebroken bones and horrible cuts. half the guests there were missingfamily, and were threatening me with death if i didnt let them get tosee where they were, but the island had been cut in half, a river ofwater was now bisecting it, both ends of the island had lost 50 metersof land (and had come within 10 meters of washing away reception) andcoconut trees were being washed out to sea. for the next 6 hours, werode out wave after wave as the sea gradually calmed down, but atleast 5 warnings came to us via radio that a huge wave was stillcoming, 100 feet, 200 feet high... guests suffered in the strong sun,and we found a tarp to create a shelter for the 15 children withoutparents. that evening, when we had got all guests together, wesandbagged the restaurant and set up all night patrols to watch thesea. no one slept that night, we were terrified of a wave hitting indarkness, and all night we just huddled in corners waiting forsunrise. someone produced a flashlight, and with the guests secure, wechecked out our rooms, which has been totally demolished, everythingwashed out to sea....when the sun came up, there were champagnebottles, passports, candy bars, dinner plates, business cards andhundreds of branches and tree trunks washed up on the beach. within 4hours we had evacuated the guests on two huge speedboats and as soonas the last guest left, the staff took off our nametags, and justburst into tears. we didnt get off the island until 2 days later, andwe salvaged what we could of our belongings, somethings washed up onthe beach, somethings wrapped around trees, and somethings covered inmud. we showered in the sea and rationed the bottled water we hadleft. when we boarded the seaplanes to get back to male, and we flewover the destroyed island, the full devastation was clear over 100rooms demolished, no restaurants intact, and debris and trash waseverywhere. it wasnt until that evening that we heard the deathtolland the devastation elsewhere.