My Short Story of the Tsunami in Thailand

I remember the Dec. 26th 2004 tsunami in Thailand like it was yesterday. It was my first year living in Thailand, all was well, a massive Thailand tsunami was nowhere near my mind.

The previous night I went out with friends and my new girlfriend, who would later be my wife, for a Christmas party.

I drank a little too much at this x-mas party and thought I would sleep in pretty late. I was actually awakened around 10 am (can't remember the exact time) to the sway of my 24 story Bangkok apartment building, of which I lived on the 22nd floor.

I remember thinking oh boy I drank too much and now the apartment feels like its moving. I got up on my wobbly legs and slowly moved to the bathroom. I washed my face off in the sink and looked in the mirror... The swaying did not stop. I started to panic a little.

I moved back over to the bed and decided that maybe I would try and sleep it off. However, once in bed I still felt completely off balance. I started thinking something is definitely wrong and noticed things were really moving. I woke up my girlfriend and asked her if she could feel the apartment moving and she said she could.

I didn't want to believe it was an earthquake as I knew Bangkok was nowhere near a fault line.

I grew up in Alaska and knew plenty about earthquakes, although it had been awhile since feeling one. I decided that it must have been an earthquake and turn on the news. I waited about 5 minutes before wham! the first reports of the Thailand tsunami came in. I couldn't believe it. I never thought something like that would ever happen in my lifetime.

YouTube Thailand Tsunami Video

My girlfriend and most Thais for that matter had never felt an earthquake and they were amazed. I was surprised at how long my building swayed from the force of the earthquake.

Later that evening my Israeli friend who worked as security at the old Bangkok Airport called me to let me know that he would be needed by the Israeli Embassy to help in relief efforts in Phuket.

A few days after my friend was in Phuket he called me up and told me about the devastation he witnessed and the stories he heard from the survivors of the tsunami in Phuket. We knew mutual friends who were going down to Patong Beach for a short Christmas vacation. Some came back and others didn't.

The line between life and death was incredible. I decided not to go to the Southern Islands for a vacation during Christmas and I was alive. Some friends decided to go to Patong Beach early in the morning of Dec. 26th and others decide to sleep in, the ones who slept in where alive. Some decide to get closer to the ocean and see what's going on during the tsunami, others decide they had seen enough and go further back in town for safety and breakfast, the ones who left for breakfast lived. Sometimes you never know.

Another YouTube Tsunami Video.

There are a couple of informative movies on the 2004 Thailand tsunami, one of them being, Tsunami: The Aftermath.

A Few Facts,

The Dec. 2004 tsunami in Thailand was actually the result of a deadly type of subduction earthquake where one tectonic plate (the India plate) moved under another (the Burma plate).

The earthquake hit at 9.1 to 9.3 and was the second largest recorded earthquake in world history on the Richter Scale. The energy released during this seismographic event was equal to 22,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. The ocean waves spread across the ocean faster than a jet aircraft.

This fault zone was 600 miles long and moved the undersea crust plate 10 yards horizontally (sideways) and several yards vertically (up). The force in this area had been building up for hundreds of years. This earthquake which caused the Thailand tsunami caused the entire planet to shake and triggered minor earthquakes in as far away as Alaska.

More than 150,000 people were missing or dead. The scientific community called this event the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake.

Wikipedia on Tsunami in Thailand

A Few Tips,