The sounds of metal crashing. How could anybody survive Something Like this . I had no way to escape, and i knew i was facing death. This is not how you die, youre going to survive this. I survived. I survived. I survived. I survived the 2004 tsunami in thailand. It has changed my life forever. Reporter it rose from the depths of the sea, that monstrous tsunami that literally tore around the globe erasing cities and swallowing coastlines. Im josh elliott and welcome to this dateline special. The images from that hellish day are seared in our collective memory. The 2004 indian ocean tsunami was one of the worst natural disasters in modern history, killing an estimated 230,000 people in 14 countries. Youre about to hear from those trapped, as that tsunami struck the beaches of thailand. How they survived, its impact and then its aftermath, how they escaped. It was the day after christmas. The day that disaster struck paradise. Back in 2004, married happily with my wife, vivienne and my two children, caitlyn and michaela and we wanted to go away for the holidays. And we said why not spend Christmas Eve and christmas on a Beautiful Island in thailand . I was 10 yearsold, and my sister was 7 yearsold. I was excited to travel, excited to see a part of the world i hadnt really seen before. If you took a picture and you said, this is what tropical paradise looks like, you would take it of ko phi phi island. Its stunning really. The islands kind of hourglass shaped, in a sense. And so all the shops are in the middle and then theres a hill on each end. Caitlyn was ten and she was smart enough to know that we were abandoning our christmas tree. But we assured them that we were bringing our stockings. My mom sort of, like, hid presents for us and would like, when we woke up in the morning, they were like, oh santa did come, he did make it to our, you know, bungalow in thailand. 2004 was the year when my career were was at its peak. It was one year after i was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and everything was booming. Simon, his full name was simon atlee, and he was a fashion photographer. And we connected in a very beautiful way, romantic way. I was really excited of taking simon to thailand and showing him a place which was so close to my heart. When we got to khao lak, we checked in into khao lak orchid beach resort. It was by the seaside, beautiful, a long beach with very few people. And it was exactly what we needed, little heaven. December 2004, life was amazing. I had just signed a deal for to go and play professional golf for three years. I mean had just been married. I feel that amanda found the best in me. She loved to travel, she loved to do spontaneous things. So for our honeymoon, our game plan was get on a plane, land in thailand and well figure out what we do when we get there. No hotel reservations, no nothing for two weeks. So we arrived at koh phi phi. It was just amazing. We were in our second year of Business School at stanford. And planning to go on a study trip over the christmas holiday. To go to singapore and thailand and added another trip at the end of that to enjoy the thai beaches and diving. One of our good friends had been to ko phi phi a number of times and we had a couple of days booked in a bungalow on that beach. So stephan, myself and one other friend stayed in a bungalow on the beach at pp. Charlie and our two other friends stayed across the island at a different hotel. One of the interesting moments that happened on that trip was laura asking questions to our professor, what her chances would be to die in a tsunami. And most of us thought that was a crazy thing to ask. I dont remember when i got this fear of tsunamis. But s 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 that i would die in a tsunami . He just looked at me and laughed and said, laura, you have less than 0 chance of dying in a tsunami. My dad only got every other christmas off work, since he was an emergency physician. So every other year, wed go somewhere different. December of 2004, i went to thailand with my brother, who was 16, my sister, who was 15, and my dad and his girlfriend, sally. And i was 18 at the time. Shonti is the oldest, jairam and kali the youngest. Jai on a sunday afternoon, middle of october was a passenger in a rollover accident and they found that he had broken four bones in his neck. And very, very bad fractures. So they had to stabilize the lower part of his spine. And they did that by using titanium plates and cadaver bone and screws. And we chose to continue with our plans to go to thailand. Jai had been having these dreams before we got to thailand. He did not wanna come to thailand at all. One of his dreams was getting stuck on an island. I think one of them was drowning. And when we first got there, he couldnt sleep at all. These dreams kept wakin him up. And he was just terrified. We were in bangkok at this point. He was crying and hyperventilating and, you know, we cant do this. Somethings gonna bads gonna happen, dad. We cant do this. Please let dont take us there, to the beach. Jai was afraid of his dreams because he dreamed his car accident. It was pretty much spot on, exactly what happened. And even though my dad knew that that first dream had come into fruition, he thats kind of a tough call. Do you cancel a vacation just over a dream . So we decided to head south and see how it went. When we would go out to dive, jai would stay at the hotel, watch movies. The water is really incredible there. Its this turquoise blue that you only see in the caribbean. I dived in some of the most beautiful places in the world. And ive never seen anything like this. There were so many fish, you had to almost push them out of the way to swim. I would just twirl around amongst these beautiful fish and around the coral and it was the physical sensation of being in this beauty and being able to just let go and relax. Reporter disaster rose early that morning. Near the indonensian island of sumatra, where a massive earthquake struck deep beneath the ocean floor, magnitude 9. 1, so powerful it actually altered the rotation of the earth. That quake then spawned a series of tsunami waves, and witnesses would see three of those waves strike the coast of thailand. There among the first to sense the danger were the divers a few miles off shore, the breisch family of salt lake city, and california grad student stephan zech. So on the morning of the 26th, i wake up. And and i had timed it just so that, on the last day, if i do two dives, i could i could leave with with a certification. So 8 15, i leave the bungalow. I grab a tshirt and start running along the beach to get to the get to the dive boat, which ended up leaving shortly thereafter. We went to a dive site called bida nak, which is a very nice coral site thats about six miles south of south of ko phi phi, probably took us took us an hour and a half, maybe two hours to get there. We ended up getting into the water probably around 10 15. I saw the fish moving in awkward directions. They didnt seem to be swimming naturally and there was a lot of just dust kicked up in this current. And in my amateur mind, i thought thats the current on the other side of the island. I didnt really realize that something was off until i saw the dive instructor and and i could tell, by the look on his face, that hes just not hes not seen that before. And he collected us and we slowly ascended to get back up to the surface. Just nobody could explain it. This day, we were going to dive the north end of the similan islands. My sister decided that she didnt want to dive with us that day. She was gonna hang out with my brother. The currents were just absolutely crazy. The water was full of bubbles. And there was no fish. And we were against this rock cliff island. They just kept pushing you into the rocks. And my dad and sally got swept away, i think, a mile or more away from us. I was actually in a vortex, and i went down about s 45, 50 feet, and it was just stronger and stronger. It was like just being gripped by a fist. I got caught by this rip current. And and then i surfaced again. And i saw these big waves, you know, seven to ten foot waves. And whats generating a wave in deep water . I figured it was a very good possibility that i wasnt gonna make it out of this alive. Reporter coming up water was breaking the windows, filling to the bungalow. Reporter a tsunami roars ashore. It was like a bomb went off. Oh, my god, its a tsunami, were about to be submerged. I looked at my dad and i said take your kids and run. Te. And a free month of service after completing two months on select plans. That way you can turn your tax refund into a mefund and treat yourself to something nice like every flavor. And every topping. [ man ] i remember when i wouldnt give a little cut a second thought. When i didnt worry about the hepatitis c in my blood. When i didnt think twice about where i left my razor. [ male announcer ] hep c is a serious disease. Take action now. Go to hepc. Com or call 1844444hepc to find out how you and your doctor can take the next step towards a cure. Because the answers you need may be closer than they appear. Why do i cook . Because i make the best chicken noodle soup. Because i make the best chicken noodle soup. 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See you at breakfast. Im yelling for sally and im on the surface. And i didnt hear her, but that boat apparently saw her, and they hand signaled to me where she was. Trying to get back onto this boat with all of these big waves that were coming through, this choppy water that wed never seen before. And i think the weirdest part is thats the kind of water you see when theres, like, a storm coming, but it was sunny and clear, blue sky and no clouds anywhere. Everybody came up and was on the boat and talking about what was goin you know, what is going on . Reporter its sunday morning. And that massive surge that had swept past divers and fishermen off the coast of thailand was now roaring towards shore. And making it all worse the tsunami would take most along the coast completely by surprise, for there was no official Warning System in place. The waves were coming and time had run out. We woke up on 26th of december about 7 30 a. M. We got dressed. We took a stroll on the beach. We were supposed to leave two hours later to another part of thailand, so once we got to the bungalow we started to pack. The plan was to spend the last day there, just to hang out hang out by the beach. And we sat down on a little bench in the lobby and we just started to talk about, look, we can go to the pool right here which is amazing. You know, we can rent a speed boat and go and spend the day having someone drive us from island to island and go and check out the places we havent seen yet. Stefan left to go do his dive, and my friend came over. And he was gonna help me finish packing and then we were gonna go to the beach for a couple of hours before we checked out. We sort of set out for the day, just to hang out on the beach. It was supposed to be high tide. But it was what appeared to be low tide. And all of the boats were all stuck in the sand. We wanted to find a hair braider somewhere on the beach, just to hang out for a couple hours to pass the time before we left. We went to the ladies to get the girls hair braided. They were speaking to themselves very sort of animatedly. And vivian and i couldnt get their attention. I remember michaela walking down about ten feet in front of us and sit down and start writing in her journal. And we turn to talk to the lady about getting their hair braided. And within that quick amount of time, we look and the waters gone outta the bay completely. We were looking at coral or rocks that we had never seen before. On the horizon, there seemed to be sort of a white line. And at that point things happened really quickly. This woman looked at my dad, and pointed at my little sister michaela, and said, take your kids and run. And from that point on, we knew that this was no longer, you know, an average day. I just remember hearing people screaming. And it sounded like they were running towards us. And i i initially thought, oh, wow, these people are really happy, cause thats where the boats were landing. But within three seconds i knew it wasnt that, you know, cause you could hear the screams. It was completely different from joy. I instantly clicked into sort of a survival mode. 9 11 was fresh in our minds. And im thinking terrorism. So my mindset was, you know, k hide. And i grabbed amanda and we threw her over the counter, ran into an office, the wall was right here against us and mandy was looking right into my eyes. I started very quickly running back towards the buildings. And back to more, like, inland. I remember turning and running and noticing other foreigners walking towards the beach taking pictures. I noticed that caitlyn was running really fast. Jamies holding michaelas hand and she has these little highheeled little flipflops on that shes running in. And then michaela dropped her journal. And when i turned around to pick it up thats when i saw a wall of muddy, brown, white water. Its was at least two stories high. Ive grown up, you know, being in the ocean, next to the ocean. You know, ive seen thousands of waves, but id never seen water behave like this. I thought, thats it. Were not gonna make it. As i was packing i looked up. And thats when i saw people frantically running around the pool. The next second, water was crashing into the the windows and breaking the windows, filling the bungalow, and it was so fast. And i was screaming to simon, whats happening . Everything happened in split of seconds. And then the current took myself 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. And i saw water just exploding through the bungalow ahead of us. I sort of said, oh my god, its a tsunami. And i jumped up on the bed and and grabbed my friends hand and pulled him up as well just thinking if we were a little bit higher, that would that would be better. I knew we were about to be submerged. I just didnt know how deep it was going to be or how bad it was going to be or how long it was gonna last. So right before it hit, i took a deep breath. So we got down on our hands and knees and there we were with our hands together and we were about to pray and then we just never had time to because at that moment, right then and there, it was like a bomb went off. Just the loudest noise you could imagine. And it just kept on getting louder and louder and louder to the point where amanda and i were two inches away from each others faces, shouting that we love each other, i love you, i love you. And by that time the room was now shaking violently up and down, up and down, up and down. And amanda looked at me and said, this is it, isnt it . And i looked back and for some reason i said no. And the second i said that, i looked to my right and the wall just went straight through us. Reporter coming up submerged. I really didnt know which way was up, which way was down. Reporter trapped. My legs were clearly pinned. Reporter defiant. At that exact second my response was, no, im going to die fighting. And you can use up to 4x less. Are you good to go hun . Cleaner than ever. Rotorooter approved. Charmin is clogfree or its free. Life lessons with ziploc. Tomorrows science project requires 150 cats eye marbles. If this bag breaks emmas chance of impressing the teacher could slip away. Life needs ziploc. Sc johnson. [epic music] introducing aleve pm. The pm pain reliever. That dares to work all the way until. [birds chirping] the am. New aleve pm. Its the first to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. For pain relief that can last all the way until morning. New aleve pm, for a better am. Mt. Hood was left off the list. So was the oregon coast, the Columbia River gorge and the painted hills. Smith rock and the wallowas are all missing. Whoever named the seven wonders never set foot in oregon because even crater lake was left off their list. So we see your wonders world and raise you seven of our own. The seven wonders of oregon. See one, or better yet see them all. Oh my god, look at the waves coming. Clear out people ahh clear out it really hit with a lot of force. And it was very dark because it had picked up all this debris and sand. So all of a sudden it was just being hit with this dark wall of water and thrown around. As soon as the water hit, i lost contact with with my friend. For a few minutes i just tumbled in the water. I really didnt know which way was up, which way was down. Is this my dream . Because i have the tsunami dream a lot, but in this dream im never actually in the tsunami. So this cant be the dream. I came to rest under what i assume was the bungalow, was rebar and wood and the bureau and the furniture and all of this was piled on top of me and then a lotta water. I tried to move, and my legs were clearly pinned. I thought that my chest was pinned because my chest hurt so much. But i dont think that there was necessarily much on my chest so much as running out of oxygen was incredibly painful and my lungs started to hurt. I was under for about three minutes i couldnt hold my breath anymore. At first, i was very scared. But i really didnt want to die in a state of panic. And so i really did try to relax 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 im gonna be the one to die in this tsunami when ive been saying this for years and years, like, this is just its ridiculously ironic. And i remember a little boy crying looking at me as im running past him. And im thinking, i cant save him. I cant do anything about this. And i remember with my relief a father coming by, scooping him 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 everywhere. We kept running. Now i feel like the ocean is some huge monster and its coming for us. And i just t