Survivors await word on relatives

By Rafael D. Frankel

PHUKET, Thailand—In scenes eerily reminiscent of New York after the Sep. 11th attacks, survivors from the tidal waves which struck here the day after Christmas posted pictures of loved ones along with their contact information in hospitals and shelters all over town, and at the disaster relief center here.

At Phuket Town Hall, site of the relief center, Luke Simon, 30, of England, posted pictures of his brother, Peirs, 33. The two were separated when the waves struck and devastated Koh Phi Phi.

Luke was hopeful that his brother was still alive after he found a very similar name attached to the description of a man closely resembling his brother who had checked out of a hospital two days ago in neighboring Krabi province.

“I don’t know what state he’s in,” Simon said. “He could be shocked, or could have relapsed. I don’t think the name is a coincidence but I’m surprised because he’s a very conscientious guy and I haven’t heard from him at all.”

As the death toll climbed above 1,600 in Thailand, with over 8,000 injured, efforts turned to attempting to reunite separated families and identifying the thousands of rapidly decomposing bodies across the region. But officials cautioned that for most of the survivors who are searching for those they were with when the waves hit, the news will not be good.

Nevertheless, survivors with missing family and no tangible leads to follow in tracking them down were relying on faith and good will to guide them through the difficult days.

Liz Dinesen Johansson, 43, from Sweden, was playing on Khao Lak beach, the worst hit area of Thailand, with her husband, son, and daughter when the first wave hit. Though she was rescued from the rising waters by a local man who pulled her onto a bungalow roof, she has not seen or heard from any of her family since.

“We just wait and see, wait and see—and hope,” she said, as friend from home Lena Fallgren, who’s daughter is missing, put a comforting arm around her.

Sweden, a country of just 9 million, appears to have been dealt a particularly cruel hand among Western nations in this Asian tragedy. The have filled hospitals in Phuket and Khao Lak over the last few days with possibly over 1,000 injured and still 1,500 missing, consular officials said. Though the death toll is likely to be high, no estimate has yet been given.

“There are not too many success stories here,” said Katie Day, an American and the librarian at the Dulwich College boarding school here which is providing free housing for survivors.

Swedes, Johansson among them, make up a large percentage of foreigners staying in local shelters here who have lost all their possessions. Though their government had told them to go home, many had family members missing or already known to be dead, and were not prepared to leave without ascertaining their fate, or at least bringing their bodies back to Sweden with them.

“Several parents have missing children and several children have missing parents,” Swedish Church volunteer Jill Friberg, who came here from her home in Singapore, said.

German officials were also reporting a high number of their nationals missing. A consular officer in Phuket put the number between 1,000 and 1,500

Hospitals around Phuket were still overflowing with injured Wednesday. As some patients were being discharged, others in serious condition were being transferred from Khao Lak hospitals to better facilities.

At Bangkok International Hospital in Phuket, the intensive care unit was at double capacity as 350 foreigners made up 70 percent of the hospitals in-patients, Piyanooch Ananpakdee, the hospital’s senior marketing manager said.

So far over 2,000 foreigners had been treated at BIH since Dec. 26 at a cost of over $25,000 to the hospital. “We can’t ask people for money when they don’t even have any clothes,” Ananpakdee said.

On one of the walls at BIH where people were posting pictures of missing loved ones, a photo and description of Ben Ables of Evanston hung next to two dozen others.

The relief effort here was given a boost yesterday with the arrival of specially trained search and rescue teams from Taiwan and Germany. Anti-biotics and body bags were being sent from Israel while C-105 reconnaissance air craft would likely come from the United States, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said.

Another boon to the relief efforts has been a surge in the already high numbers of volunteers from around the world. Already, Thais and foreigners who lived in Phuket and Khao Lak were turning out in mass numbers to assist the government and army in their relief efforts, and today a group of over a dozen back packers who had been at a full moon party on Koh Phangang—an island in the Gulf of Thailand that was not affected by the tsunami—arrived ready to “do whatever they need us to do,” said Maryland native Alysa Spery, 20, who had been studying for three months in Vietnam.

Meanwhile foreign officials from their respective countries heaped praise on Thailand for its efforts in the aftermath of the unprecedented destruction.

“So far they have coped amicably. The forensics work on the deceased has been meticulous,” British Embassy Assistant Defense Attaché Richard Griffin said. “In very difficult circumstances they have performed very professionally.”

To a person, foreign survivors heaped praise on the Thai people in general for the generosity and warmth they were shown in what Swede Lena Fallgren called “dark times.”

“Wherever we go they always smile and ask how we are. They look in our eyes. It makes the heart warm to feel that,” she said.

© 2004 Rafael D. Frankel and The Chicago Tribune