On The Beach Of Kho Lak

I stand on the beach. No one is in sight. Crumpled resort hotels and debris surround me.

A surviving palm sways in the gentle breeze. It stands behind the skeleton of a hotel. The scars on the tree indicate the giant walls of water struck higher than a two-story hotel.

Scattered about are demolished vehicles. Up near the main road is a wrecked bus. I speculate the bus was not able to out-run the tsunami.

It is 8 am on day five after the tsunami. I’m at Kho Lak. This is a place that was jam-packed with thousands of foreign tourists a few days before. A smooth sloping beach made it a popular place for families with children.

Thousands of foreign tourists have died. Thousands are injured and thousands are missing.

Lee and I arrived the day before. I drove in with a pickup load of donated supplies. Seven coffins, clothing, food, water and consumer ware.

At night it was difficult to find a place to stay. I thought we would find at least a small percentage of hotels that were not destroyed. I was wrong.

Up on the crest of the hill were a couple of small restaurants that did not get hit by the tsunami. Lee asked the owner if there were any hotels around. He laughed and said, “There are no more hotels.” The 5,000 rooms in the area were reduced to zero. We slept on the floor.

A Full Day’s Work

It is 8:20 am. The area is beginning to come alive. Off in the distance I can see a Thai military paraglider flying around. Thousands of volunteers, military personal and officials are beginning to start their day’s operation. A truck passes by with a “search and rescue” elephant on board.

It was later in the morning that we met up with the medical team of eight people that we would join and work with for the next couple of days. The team was headed by Dr Sirirote Kittisararong of Raksakon Hospital, Sakonnakorn, Northeast, Thailand. We had a couple of doctors and a number of nurses specializing in various medical disciplines. I was their EMT.

Our mission was to be a field mobile unit. We were to treat victims of the disaster who had infected wounds and stress. Many had muscle aches and pains as they had run for their lives getting away from the fast-moving walls of water. Over the next couple of days we traveled to five different sites where the homeless had gathered.

First, the team went to Takua-pa Sienna High School, a place where I was an English teacher for a couple of years. Inside there were the homeless from Nam Khem Island. An island that had a fishing village on it had been wiped off the face of the map.

Next, we went to a park to treat people from Kow Island. I took one woman to the hospital to have minor surgery. The woman had a deeply infected leg wound. No local anesthetic was used. Instead, she squeezed on my arm hard while fighting the pain.

After that, we were on our way to Tak Wep Village. The team’s transport broke down. Everyone then pilled into the back of my pickup truck and we continued on our way. We treated a group of homeless people that were camped out behind a school.

Later that night, we went to the field in front of Takua-pa Municipality and treated scores of people.

In The Hills And The Wats

The next day, we headed out to Kho Lak hills. We went to visit people that fled into the hills and would not come down. They feared another tsunami would come. One 38-year-old man showed classic signs of stress. He told me of the loss of his wife and two children.

Later that day, we heard that in the corpse-cleaning center at Wat Yan Yao a medical unit was needed. We went to treat the volunteers.

These volunteers (both foreigners and Thais) had treated thousands of corpses over the last three days. Some had burns from handling dry ice and from the chemicals used to slow down decomposition. Others had post-traumatic stress.

These volunteers have been handling corpses for three days without much rest and without adequate clean clothing. Some had a hard time to view yet another truckload of bodies being brought in.

In Conclusion

I am proud of the Thai peoples and foreigners’ response in giving of themselves to help people in dire need.

Even though Thailand’s Prime Minister, Thuksin Shinawatra, had indicated his country was ill prepared to face a natural disaster of such a scale, the Thai people have made up for any shortcomings with the showing of such tremendous compassion and kindness in the face of disaster.

This example was evident in Dr Kittisarapong’s humble medical team.

The team set out on their quest to “help” (like thousands of other volunteers). Volunteers who did not know for sure where they would end up, where they would sleep and what they would eat.

The team endured having to sometimes work under the hot tropical sun with high humidity. Some run out of clean clothing. When a passing heavy shower came by they were soaked to the bone. All the hardships that they endured were without a word of complaint or with any sign of personal suffering. They went to help, giving freely of their time, giving freely of themselves. These are heroes in the face of disaster.