i came to a clearing pretty high on top of the hill. so we just got up there and you saw little areas of people. and we saw a little flat area, and we sat down. i think that was the first, maybe 10 minutes or so after we got, that was the first time i was able to sort of relax. then it hit me what had just happened. there were screams of people that were injured, there were people panicking and crying, there were people sitting in silence. i was worried about my dad and my sister. i couldn t help but think there s a million different reasons why they wouldn t be okay. the tsunami s assault had finally ended, but survivors faced a new challenge. divers came to shore, but
like kaitlin is freaked out, she s clutching. michaela is kind of stunned but not upset. vivian and i are looking at each other like holy [ bleep ], what was that? what is going on? we re trying to make sense of it. the colossal wave had struck with unimaginable force leaving death and debris in its wake, but not all was lost. many people, whether by luck or quick thinking, had survived the tsunami s wrath once. but now there was a second wave heading straight toward them. we heard the rumble of another wave coming. and hearing that sound and looking out and knowing that, you know, another one could possibly come and then hearing people scream another one, another one, i immediately sort of like kicked back into fight or flight.
and i remember feeling incredibly sad for my parents and how they would feel. there definitely was a moment when i thought the fact that i m going to be the one to die in a tsunami when i ve been saying this for years and years, it s ridiculously ironic. i remember a little boy crying, looking at me as i m running past him and i m thinking i can t save him, i can t do anything about this. and i remember with my relief a father coming by, scooping up and running into a house. we start to serpentine a little bit through the village and then i hear water hitting cement. i remember turning around and seeing water hit the building and then water coming out
be to die in a tsunami. and most of us thought that was a crazy thing to ask. i don t remember when i got this fear of tsunamis, but definitely from sort of junior high school on, it was always my most common, reoccurring nightmare. so when i asked him what are the chances i would die in a sue m tsunami, he looked at me and laughed and said, laura, you have less than a zero percent chance. dying in a tsunami. my dad, every year we d go somewhere different. december of 2004, we went to thailand with my brother who was 16, my sister who was 15, my dad and his girl friend, sally, and i was 18 at the time. shonti is the oldest, jay-ron
and simon out of the bungalow. i already have cuts around my body. then a debris of wood and metal and trees and glass started to press on my pelvis, and i had no way to escape. i felt i will die. i saw water just exploding through the bungalow ahead of us. i sort of said, oh, my god, it s a tsunami. and i jumped up on the bed and grabbed my friend s hand and pulled him up as well just thinking if we were a little bit higher, that would be better. i knew we were about to be submerged. i just didn t know how deep it was going to be or how bad it was going to be or how long it was going to last. so right before it hit, i took a deep breath. we got on our hand and knees