Vacation turns catastrophic
Jeff Benson
Costa Mesa resident Steve Abrams was hoping to live it up at one of
Thailand’s finest beachfront resorts, the Thara Patong Resort and
Spa.
His agenda included nothing more stressful than jet skiing
excursions and day trips to neighboring islands.
But his vacation ended the same day it started, Dec. 26, when he
found himself dodging debris floating toward him, fighting waterborne
disease and yanking more than a dozen people from chilly floodwaters.
He didn’t even get a day to enjoy himself before the first of
three tsunami waves hit the shores of Phuket, Thailand.
Abrams, who was stranded for nearly a week after surviving the
tsunami destruction, returned to Costa Mesa last Thursday, following
stopovers in Bangkok, Tokyo and San Jose. He traveled with some
friends, but he returned by himself. All of his friends survived, he
said.
The tsunami, which killed almost 160,000 people in Sri Lanka,
Indonesia and India, as well as Thailand, was caused by a
9.0-magnitude earthquake.
“The water’s really blue, and the hotel was really nice,” the
37-year-old Abrams said. “It was a nice resort. But it wasn’t much of
a vacation, in all honesty. It went from paradise to disaster. That’s
about the best way I can sum it up.”
He witnessed the battles at the airports as families waited in
eight-hour lines to find flights. Abrams arrived five hours early at
a Thai airport and still ended up on a flight to Tokyo that took off
two hours after his scheduled departure.
“It was complete chaos,” he said. “In the airport, on the way out,
all people cared about was getting out.”
He nabbed an American Airlines flight Jan. 6 from Tokyo to San
Jose.
Storms back home
After surviving one of the worst natural disasters in recent
times, Abrams got off the plane to experience the worst weather this
region has seen in years.
To make matters worse, Abrams was concerned upon his arrival that
he may have contracted an illness from the filthy water as it pooled
up in Phuket.
But he’d wisely doubled up on numerous medications for hepatitis,
malaria and other maladies even before his planned vacation.
In Phuket and surrounding areas, Abrams was calmed somewhat as he
witnessed the American Red Cross and international groups aiding the
ill and injured.
After receiving the all-clear from his own doctor earlier this
week, Abrams returned to his job Tuesday morning to find a stack of
paperwork awaiting his return.
His boss at Cingular/AT&T; Wireless in Cerritos, district sales
manager Dan Oriza, said his employee kept him notified about
everything he witnessed in Thailand through calls and e-mailed
photos. Abrams, a corporate account manager, communicated with Oriza
using a Blackberry personal data assistant.
Abrams wasn’t scheduled to return to work until this week anyway,
because he’d requested time off for his vacation, and the two went
out to lunch to talk about his experiences.
“He decided he wanted to get involved as quick as possible,
because it was so traumatic,” Oriza said. “You could see in his eyes
and his speech that it was a life-altering event. He’s still dazed,
but you could tell he wants to get back into the business.”
Visions of ruin
won’t go away
Abrams is still shaken somewhat, but he said he’s finding it hard
to look away when he sees the destruction on the news. He can’t stop
looking through a bevy of photos he took two weeks ago, either.
He said he managed to salvage the disc containing his photos, but
the water from the tsunami damaged his digital camera beyond repair.
He grimaced as he looked at photos he took of the devastation.
Piggy-backed cars came to rest vertically against a light pole.
Rescue workers waded waist-deep in water as they searched for signs
of life.
Even his view of the 7-Eleven across the street -- one he’d walked
to a short time before the first wave hit -- was muddled with mud and
disheveled vehicles.
Abrams said he and his friends originally planned to go jet skiing
at 8:30 a.m. but slept in. On the day of the tsunami, he went
downstairs at 9 a.m., got breakfast and returned to his room in time
for the first wave, which hit around 9:30 a.m.
He had been getting dressed, about to go downstairs and walk to
the ocean a block away.
The ocean got tired of waiting.
After the bigger, second wave hit 45 minutes later, he ventured
outside, placing people on top of cars whenever he could while he was
battered by debris.
“I just felt fortunate to be alive and to have survived one of the
greatest natural disasters in recent history,” he said. “I have never
seen such devastation, decay and loss of human life. I tried to help
wherever I could, but it put me at more risk every time.”
Before the third wave hit, Abrams and his friends managed to make
their way up the street to a hotel atop a hill. The third wave hit a
half-hour later.
Aftermath reflections
Abrams didn’t know the extent of the damage until hours later,
when Thai officials’ megaphones signaled that the threat of more
waves had passed.
Hundreds of children were left orphaned. Families had lost
everything. Hospitals were overflowing with patients demanding
emergency medical attention. Bodies washed ashore.
“I will say that thank God I didn’t go jet skiing,” he said.
* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)
966-4617 or by e-mail at jeff.benson@latimes.com.
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