Tsunami Wipes Out Thai Village BAN NAMKHEM

[Darknight]

Tsunami wipes out Thai village

31 Dec 2004 10:07:06 GMT

Source: Reuters

BAN NAMKHEM, Thailand, Dec 31 (Reuters) - This village just north of Thailand's Khao Lak beach does not exist any more and Maitri Sayput, 47, thinks she is one of its few survivors after Sunday's tsunami.

The giant waves that wrought destruction around the shores of the Indian Ocean, killing more than 120,000 people, left one concrete building standing in the village, which stood in a shallow depression behind the beach.

The houses that were home to an estimated 1,700 families -- perhaps 5,000 people or more -- are gone. All that remains is a sea of mud. Pigs were rooting through it on Friday.

Maitri said she got on her bicycle, hauled aboard her three daughters, aged 7, 12 and 18, and pedalled away from the shore as fast as she could.

The tsunami overtook her, tore the 7-year-old and the eldest daughter away and finally deposited her and the 12-year-old 1 km (1,000 yards) inland.

Maitri said she had no news of her husband or the two missing daughters and had met only one other survivor from the village in the chaos that followed.

Heavy equipment to dig through the mud to retrieve bodies has only just started work, in contrast to Khao Lak 30 km (20 miles) away where all kinds of mechanical equipment were clearing debris.

More than 3,100 bodies have been retrieved from Khao Lak's beach and its crumpled luxury hotels, nearly 2,000 of them foreigners.

Edited December 31, 2004 by Darknight