Phang Nga Community Bounces Back From Tsunami

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5TH ANNIVERSARY OF TSUNAMI

Phang Nga community bounces back from tsunami

By Charoon Thongnual

The Nation

Published on December 26, 2009

Five years after the deadly tsunami, the seaside village of Ban Bang Niang has sprung back to a vibrant, joyful mood.

Locals now adorn their restaurants with glittering, decorative lights in the hope of impressing tourists from faraway lands.

With smiling visitors strolling around during this festive season, the scene is a sharp contrast to the events of December 26, 2004.

When The tsunami hit this town in Phang Nga's Takua Pa district on that fateful day, hundreds of bodies lay scattered around.

I remember vividly how body after body was collected and placed in a yard in front of the local market.

As a photojournalist, I was assigned to cover the tsunami's aftermath in Takua Pa and saw its devastating effects with my own eyes.

In addition to the lives lost, houses, cars, motorcycles, items of all kinds were strewn around in disarray.

Survivors were visibly shaken. Among them were two elderly Germans who rented a seaside house on an annual lease. They emerged with only minor injuries.

Speaking with them via an interpreter, I learned they had not run away upon seeing the giant waves coming. Instead, they shut all of the doors and windows before quickly climbing on top of a wardrobe inside their house.

They saw the water rising fast, but it started subsiding just before their heads would have been submerged.

I believe their survival was a miracle.

Five years on, I stopped by their place again to see if they were still there, only to be told they had returned to their home country.

Today, visitors to Ban Bang Niang would never know the town had once experienced such a heavy death toll, and the residents are clearly getting over what was their worst nightmare.

Seeing little children playing, I realised a new generation was here now and that the residents would stand together and face whatever came as best as they could.

-- The Nation 2009/12/26

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