Christmas Tsunami 2004
Its not one of my Peak Experiences, but my wife’s uncle was incommunicado and presumed missing when the 2004 Tsunami hit southern Thailand, so being a doctor and a loving husband I volunteered to help in the hard-hit Naratiwat & Pukket areas.
The injured were all evacuated, however, when I arrived a few days later, so instead of helping the living I was assigned to help with the dead.
Thousands of them.
Overwhelming ALL facilities for refrigerating or preserving them and overwhelming all the forensic pathologists (I was thanked but told my services were better used elsewhere) including the Australian team who’d flown to clean up after the Bali Bombing. Overwhelming us who worked in the southern Thailand sunshine, 38-degree daytime heat and the unforgettable smell of bodies hurrying to return to Mother Earth, but being kept around because all we knew of them at that time was the hastily-scrawled Thai script on their body-bags: “Child, girl, non-Thai” or “man, European”.
Photo of me… Serving the Dead
Audio of Tsunami Report, Part 1
Right-click and “Save file as…” or click to play
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