Devastation in Thailand after the Tsunami, 12/2004
© MARKKU NISKANEN/SKOY
A black motorcade on Phuket’s waterfront. Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra gets out of the car with his staff and walks to the yard of a building destroyed by the tsunami near Karon Beach. The members of the party tell about what happened and Sinawatra, dressed in a suit, listens seriously. Press present.
In Finland, at the same time, more and more news where a family member or other loved one has died. Dozens of Finns who were vacationing in Thailand were missing, and it would take time to identify those who were found. In the end, there were still members of the Finnish identification team in Phuket several months after the event.
The surviving Finns had been able to be evacuated a few days after the tsunami, but the situation was far from the impression initially created by the media that there were not many Finnish victims in the tsunami.
My time in Thailand left a mark on my memories forever. Events are never forgotten. What I saw would still affect my life years later. I also made a lot of new acquaintances, whom even years later I would say hello to when visiting Thailand.
I also wrote about the event in Hymy 10 years later, when I visited the areas that were the targets of the tsunami nightmare. I also visited Khao Lak and Patong at that time.
– I was on duty when the tsunami hit around ten in the morning. First the wave came from that sea and the water filled the bottom floor of the hotel. After that, after about ten minutes, more and more water came. It destroyed places and took people with it. It was terrible, working as a manager in a hotel in Patong Hean Pongrat said in Hymy.
Even 10 years after the event, a good picture of the power of the Tsunami was given, for example, by the fact that in Khao Lak, a police boat drifted several kilometers away from the harbor inland. It is now a tsunami memorial.
The Boxing Day tsunami 2004 will repeat itself for millions of people around the world again in 2024. It’s good to be reminded of things. Nature is strong, man is quite small in front of nature.
Part 1. Reporter in the story series Jari Kupiainen tells his experiences of the time when the world was hit by a shocking disaster. Tsunami focuses on the events of what Khao Lak and Phuket looked like 20 years ago – right after the tsunami hit the holiday destinations popular with Finns on Boxing Day 2004. At that time, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed about 230,000 people in Southeast Asia. A total of 179 Finns died in Thailand and Sri Lanka.
Read also: “The sight was something you couldn’t imagine in Finland” – 20 years since the Tsunami! Part 2 of 6
Also read: “We knew what to expect!” – Back to Khao Lak – 20 years since the Tsunami! Part 3 of 6
Also read: “Death videos started appearing in Patong Beach stalls” – 20 years since the Tsunami! Part 4 of 6
Tsunami. Khao Lak. Photo: Jari Kupiainen
Jari Kupiainen in Thailand.
Source: hymy.fi
