We received this email about a Tsunami survivors experience

Dear All

firstly, I should say thank you for your kind words. This whole experience hasbeen shocking but if anything good has come out of it, is the knowledge that Ihave some of the best friends and colleagues anyone could have. I trulyappreciate all of the calls and the messages - it does help.I am ok, my injuries are nothing, just some cuts and bruises. Ironically, Ireceived nearly all of these after the event, walking or rather stumblingaround the island. Unfortunately, many people have not been so lucky. Thepictures on TV give a clear picture of the death and destruction, but Ihaven't seen anything that comes close to depicting the horror of theinjuries.A number of people have suggested that I write down my experience - I thinkthis in part will help me, but also saves me repeating the story too manytimes. I do not feel uncomfortable with sharing this story, and in somerespects I think it probably helps recounting what happened. Please do notfeel awkward if you want to talk to me about this. Below, I will try torecount exactly what happened to me, before during and after. At times, itwill be graphic so please be warned.I arrived in Thailand on the 20th and spent 3 days in Phuket on Kata Beachwith a Swedish girlfriend and her family. They had planned their trip formonths. I decided very last minute to join them before going onto meet Danishfriends in Koh Phi Phi, and finally onto Bangkok with friends from Hong Kongfor New Year. I moved onto Phi Phi on the 24th and celebrated Christmas with 3of my Danish friends - Lars and his girlfriend Rine , and Jesper. On theevening of the 25th , I was exhausted so didn't join them for dinner and wentto bed at around 9pm. This is important as anyone who knows me , will knowthat I tend to sleep late ! But given a long nights rest , I was up early andhad breakfast with Lars & Rine.At about 10:30 we went to the beach. Lars and I planned to go sailing , butthere was no wind so we opted for water skiing. We waited for the boat andnoted the wind was picking up so we would sail afterwards. First Lars skiedand then it was my turn. At the moment i got into the water the lagoon startedto drain out - in particular on the far right hand side of the bay ( as youlook out to sea). Within seconds it was too shallow to ski, so i climbed backinto the boat. Lars, I and the driver sat there just watching the water drainaway without any comprehension of what was to happen next. At first we saw acouple on a Kayak struggling in the current - they were being sucked out tosea. But then almost immediately they were on the top of a small wave kayakinginto the beach at some speed. We were excited by the site and just imaginedthey were having some fun. Of course we could not know of the huge volume ofwater that was underneath them , that once it reached the shallow water would simply rise up into a huge wave. That is basically what happened next.We were in the ski boat facing towards the shore, when the water passingunderneath us began to pull the boat around and towards the shore.
Almost outof nowhere there was a huge wall of water, behind us at the beach. We were atthe bottom of a 10 meter wave that stretched the entire length of the beach,maybe 1km. I said to Lars that we were in trouble - at this moment it didn'teven dawn on me that the wave would pass through the island causing thedestruction that it did. I screamed at the driver to get us out to sea, buteven at full power , the boat just got sucked to the bottom of the wave. Thewave collapsed on the top of the boat. I remember covering my head and rollinginto a ball. Underwater I just kept on thinking " please don't get hit bysomething ". I came to the surface , breathed, and then was pulled underagain. I like to think that all of the diving I have done helped me - I knewnot to fight the current and to wait as long as I could before reacting. Thetruth is , I was just lucky. I came to the surface , grabbed some more air, and then sawa huge wave coming at me. I could see that it wasn't about to break where Iwas so i took a breath and dived through it, coming up the other side. Igrabbed some wood to hang onto, but then saw a life jacket ( presumably fromour boat ) floating 10 meters away. I swam like crazy for it - in my head Iknew it was the best thing to do. I got it on and instantly felt safe - i wasafloat in the sea and things didn't look that bad for me. I knew I was safefrom drowning I just had to wait for help. I looked for Lars, saw our driverfirst, and then Lars about 150 meters away, he looked unhurt, but even fromthat distance I could see his face had taken on a different aspect. I havethought about this since and have decided that it was survival.We were all then pushed inland , over what I now know was the Cabana Hotelpool where so many people had been when the wave struck. I saw the waterflooding into open spaces and it was here that I got very frightened. Waterwas rushing into fill any empty voids and I could see that I was likely to gowherever the water went. I smashed into the first floor balcony of the hoteland was hanging on with my body being pulled under. It was too strong. I tooka breath and then was pulled under the hotel through the ground floor poolside balconies. I am sure i survived due to the life jacket , as it was alwaystrying to get me to the surface. I think I came up around the corner of thehotel and drifted a little way to the back of the Hotel before swimming to atree and climbing up.About 3 or 4 minutes later the water subsided. I climbed down and almostimmediately saw Lars and the driver , they were both fine.
Then the screamingstarted. People calling for their loved ones. At first a guy looking for hisdaughters , Fredericke and Isabella. I asked him where they had been ( in thepool ) and then I explained how far I had travelled and that we needed tospread out and walk away from the Hotel. Everywhere was devastation. The smallwooden bungalows were ripped open. We called their names, we never found them.Then 2 French girls stuck up a tree asked me to help them down. I now knowfrom Lars that he had a similar experience. Whilst looking for Fredericke andIsabella he found 2 Thai girls stuck in a basement room, filling up withwater. He helped them out as the water was rushing in to fill the space theyoccupied. On a lighter side, I understand one of the girls didn't want to comeout as all of her clothes had been pulled from her body - Lars didn't give her a choice !At the Cabana Hotel we started to make a hospital area. Some people came ontheir own, others we heard screaming and we went to them. Another English guy,called CC ( spelling ? ) was a psychiatrist, and so we kind of appointed himin charge. The first girl we collected from the rubble was an English girlcalled Sally. She was covered in the most severe cuts i have ever seen.Imagine those documentaries about liposuction, etc..... it was like that.Gaping holes with grotesque cuts in the flesh, to the bone. She had at least 7lacerations over her legs and tummy. We saw wounds like this throughout theday caused by the debris in the water. The bungalows often had their roofsmade of corrugated iron, which travelling through the water at 40 KPH clearlyjust tore through bodies. We kicked down a door to use as a stretcher andcarried her to the first floor. She was the first , and then they just keptcoming. A Japanese husband and wife. The wife had lost half of her throat. Wesimply held her neck together. A Swedish women whose head was cleaved open - we tiedher head together. A Japanese girl whose leg was so badly broken , we decidedthat we had to put it straight. I held her hand, and kissed her, whilst cryingwith her, as 3 guys pulled her leg straight. It took 3 or 4 minutes of themost unbelievable pain for this girl. She was amazing. I am still trying tofind her. I know it was the stress of the situation but somehow there was avery special connection between us.
Afterwards we all prayed for the rest ofher group. She was missing 16 people ! I have since contacted some Japanesenewspapers as I feel that I will find it hard to put this behind me until Iknow what happened to her. I would get on a flight to Japan in an instant if Iknew that I could see her again. Then there was an Israeli boy , travelling onhis own, I think called Tommy. He had a major cut by his armpit and waspetrified that he would lose his arm. I cleaned out his wound whilst trying to give reassurance. I'm pretty sure he would be OK as he was able to moveeverything - It just looked so horrible. Whilst we were helping someone ,often you would hear , " Doctor , please come and help my friend." I didn'tknow whether to explain that I wasn't a Doctor or not. 9 times out of 10 , Isaid I wasn't, but still people were desperate for help.I think it was about 12:30 now and around this time the first reports of morewaves came. They never did, but the effect was to cause even more panic.Around this time I met another amazing person. Michelle walked over and askedif she could help. You need to understand we had very little. We were sendingpeople off to the rooms ( if they were prepared to leave the relative shelterof high ground ) to get water from the mini bars, cleans sheets , and thesewing kits ( we thought we might have to sew up some of the wounds...fortunately we did not ). I looked at Michelle and could tell she was holdingback. I said we needed help , but how was she and who was she with ? Herhusband was missing , he'd been swimming. We cried , but then she just said, "right, lets help these people".... unbelievable ! An hour later, her husbandMarvin walked in , unhurt !!!! I cannot describe to you that moment , it waspure joy.