Hi Strike,

Yes, the island seems to be pulling itself up really quickly, no doubt
because it was "only" the beach front that took the hit. Your friend's
report is very similar to that on John's and Bent's website that Mika gave
the link to yesterday.

I'm glad to hear that the Similans survived relatively unscathed, and even
happier that the divers there did. So far, the only diver fatalities I've
heard of were in Emerald Cave down south. If the Similans had been
destroyed, the dive industry on Phuket would have been more or less wiped
out altogether.

Bjorn

> -----Original Message-----
> From: SCUBA or ELSE! Diver's forum
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Strike
> Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 03:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] Phuket
>
>
> On  Wednesday, December 29, 2004 9:07 PM, Bjorn wrote:
>
> > We were on holiday in Bintan for a few days, having been unable to
> > secure tickets to Phuket...
> >
> > Mika will no doubt be happy to hear that both Bent and John
> from Siam
> > Dive N' Sail are okay, and so are their families.
> >
> > All of our friends in Phuket are alive and accounted for,
> except for
> > the owners of Hi-Class Divers, Wolfgang and Evi. They are still
> > missing, and
> the
> > fact that they were in Khao Lak, the hardest hit area, does
> not bode
> > well.
>
>
> G'Day, Mate!  Most of the folks that I know in Phuket are now
> accounted for. One of them sent me an e-mail last night to
> say that she was OK - part of which I've appended below:
>
> "Somewhat fortunately I was "out to sea" when it hit although
> we had our fair share of "fun" with its arrival. We had 14
> divers in the water when it hit Similan Islands.  My group
> was first in, had been diving in lovelly conditions for about
> 18 minutes when the water started moving very fast, creating
> a sand storm under water. It did not look or feel like
> anything I had seen or experienced before so I aborted the
> dive. We were carried along under water for some time but
> were able to get to the surface unharmed and to get on board
> the dinghy as it worsened . The dinghy started to nose dive
> into the swirling muddy waters but we all flung ourselves
> towards the back which righted it and we were then able to
> get to "blue waters" away from the main problem. The last
> group in had 16 minutes of roller coaster underwater ride.
> They were hurled from 5 metres to 30 metres in 20 seconds,
> twice, and eventually the sea spat them out and they surfaced
> in the dirty white water rapids where they were picked up by
> helping boats and returned to us safely but shaken. On board
> we had a scary time searching for the five divers, 3 surfaced
> initially and finally the other 2...this was a long wait. The
> force of the water was so strong that the 220 ton boat I was
> on lost almost all control and with its engines revving at
> 2,000rpms was able to finally move at 1 knot to get out of
> the swirling mess to come and pick us up. I thought we were
> going to lose it as did many other boats watching unable to
> assist in any way or else they would have faced a similar
> fate. All boats finally moved together to the safety of the
> west coast of Island no. 8 where we waited to see if anything
> else was going to happen. By this point we started to hear
> what was going on...We stayed out at the Similans as the
> waters calmed and it seemed the best place to be while things
> started to sort themselves out in Phuket. The news we were
> getting was too much and wanting to see if I could help
> friends and colleagues when I heard there was another boat
> returning I jumped on and came back yesterday evening. Up
> till then I had not been able to contact any of my Phuket
> friends and was feeling very bad about this and also about
> not being able to contact those overseas who might be worried
> about me.
>
> As always some of the news is fiction and sadly much of it is
> fact. Phi Phi was devastated as was Khao Lak. At Khao Lak
> heaps of new hotels and bungalows had been built in the past
> 2 years along the shore and now all are literally gone except
> 1. The main road was far enough back to be okay which is
> where most of the dive shops are located. Taplamu, the port
> from which many boats leave for the Similans was wiped out
> and boats there did not survive. A friend works at IQ dive
> which lost all its boats and a few of its offices. Another
> friend lost 1 speed boat but luckily their other boats were
> also at the Sims and are ok. All their staff and friends and
> okay although there are estimated to be some 2,000 deaths
> there which are not being reported as yet - fact or fiction -
> not sure which yet on these numbers as friends are in shock
> as there are quote "dead bodies everywhere".
>
> In Phuket things are returning to as normal as possible. Some
> beaches were hit badly and some were hit by the wave but were
> relatively unscathed.  My home is near the hills in Patong so
> is okay. From the beach to 2 blocks back have been badly
> damaged and are closed off except to pedestrian traffic and
> vehicles truly having to go inside.
>
> However, life continues on. Kata Beach looks okay, Karon
> Beach survived well. Things are being cleared up quickly so
> life can continue on. The dayboats started again today
> although with new schedules without Phi Phi... There are
> water damaged goods sales all along the okay roads with
> locals and tourists alike grabbing a bargain or 2. When we
> were safely on board the Thai crew jumped into the dinghy and
> collected many coral trout that had been thrown to the
> surface and the bbq was yummy...
>
> Some people are reporting that all the reefs at the Similans
> have been wiped out but this is simply not true. We dived a
> couple on the 27th and although some are no longer the same
> they are still great dive spots and some were completely
> untouched and as beautiful as ever. Please help our diving
> comunity and the hundreds and thousands of Thai people who
> depend on the income from tourism in the Similans by sharing
> this news.
>
>  I am not sure what comes next. The diving market continues
> and whether there will be enough work will depend on how
> quickly things can return to normal. For now I will stay here
> and see what can be done to assist. ...."
>
> Strike
>