Khao Lak

[dawsey]

Sky News are now reporting that over 700 bodies have been recovered in Khao Lak and the figure could be over 2000 deaths.As time goes on the news gets worse.A total of 45,000+ and rising by the hour.This is going to take a long time to recover from.

[butterflyblonde]

Originally Posted by dawsey

Sky News are now reporting that over 700 bodies have been recovered in Khao Lak and the figure could be over 2000 deaths.As time goes on the news gets worse.A total of 45,000+ and rising by the hour.This is going to take a long time to recover from.

They have just announced the total amount could be as high as 55,000.

To be honest i am still in shock and deeply saddened each time i look at the news. I really don't feel my next trip in may is going to be the same knowing what happened previously.

[sting]

Hi
pictures from khao lak (warning strong pictures)
http://www.vg.no/bilderigg/index.hbs?rigg_id=2601

[dawsey]

Originally Posted by sting

Hi
pictures from khao lak (warning strong pictures)
http://www.vg.no/bilderigg/index.hbs?rigg_id=2601

Thanks Sting,
Truly dreadful scene.

[smirni]

I can't watch News anymore. It's very hard...

[glassmanengland]

Thats a shocking picture and its getting worse accordin to sky,ive missed it by 5 days suppose it makes me lucky.

[LivinLOS]

The Thai government seem intent on minimizing the death toll as I guess they are afraid of cuasing tourism problems.. fact is this AM they were still saying 800 - 900 dead while it was known that 500 or so were dead from one hotel alone in Khao Lak.. add in a few hundred in the close local and its making a mockery of thier reporting..

I would say locally we will see 3k or more dead (thats Phuket / Phi Phi / Khao Lak)... Storied I we are starting to get first hand.. One of my mates is the head chef at Molly Malones.. He had just got to work when it hit.. they got out the back and then 'floated' up the drainpipe and clung on during the surge.. Thankfully all his staff survived...

[Whazzzup]

Wednesday 29.12.2004, CET 17:18

December 28, 2004 6:15 AM

Thai beach could yield hundreds of dead

By Darren Schuettler

KHAO LAK, Thailand (Reuters) - Miles of tsunami shattered beach hotels north of Phuket island are expected to give up hundreds of bodies
in what may end up being the worst hit place in Thailand, rescue workers say.

Deputy Interior Minister Sutham Saengpratoom said on Tuesday he reckoned there were 1,000 bodies on the 10-km (six-mile) long Khao
Lak beach on the mainland opposite the Similan Islands when he flew over it on Monday.

There could be even more than that. Many bodies were still buried in the rubble and the mud which is all that remains after a three-storey
high tsunami crashed into Thailand's southern holiday playground at the peak of the tourist season.

By Tuesday morning, troops had trucked about 100 bloated bodies to a Buddhist temple at the southern end of the beach. At least six of
them were foreigners.

None of the bodies could be cremated until identified. Few were identifiable.

Local people said there were at least as many bodies at another temple in the area.

Many more were expected to be dug out of the mud-filled ruins of what investors had hoped would turn Khao Lak into a competitor to
Phuket, the island some 50 km (30 miles) to the south which is one of Asia's premier beach resorts.

The commander of the troops told a Bangkok television station 20 bodies had been dug out of the Sofitel, a cottage style hotel owned by
the French hotel group Accor, which said around 500 guests and staff were missing.

His men had many more cottages to search and they expected to find many more bodies because people appeared to have taken refuge
from the wall of water in them and drowned.

"I THINK THAT'S HER HAND"

Bejkhajorn Saithong, 39, searching for the body of his wife at the nearby Ban Khao Lak Hotel, said the tsunami swept 500 metres (yards)
inland and struck the second floor of a row of shops.

The hotel itself had been knocked off its foundations, a few body parts jutting out of the wreckage.

"My son is crying for his mother. I think this is her. I recognise her hand, but I'm not sure," he said.

Chantima Saengli, the owner of the equally devastated Blue Village Pagarang hotel, told a Bangkok radio station she knew about 60 of her
Scandinavian guests were safe.

She feared the other 340 were dead, their bodies swept into the lush rain forest covering the hills behind the beach.

Confirmation of the scale of the disaster at Khao Lak would push Thailand's death toll beyond 2,000.

"On Khao Lak alone, there are more than 1,000 bodies still unretrieved," Sutham told reporters. "Altogether from our visual estimate the
death toll could rise beyond 2,000."

He said Thailand's official death toll was 990 -- 200 of them Thais and the rest foreigners.

Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra estimated the cost of the damage at 20 billion baht and the government would seek additional funds
from parliament.

Rescue workers had started using heavy equipment to retrieve bodies from the affected areas, many of which were hidden under building
debris.

Britons, Danes, Swedes, Swiss, Australians, Italians and at least one New Zealander, a Norwegian, a Belgian and an American were
among the known dead on Phuket, where 123 people are known to have died.

Diplomats from 28 countries arrived on the resort island to help the survivors and a major airlift is under way to get surviving tourists home,
many of them with nothing but what they were wearing when the tsunami struck.

The government sent five air force C-130 transport planes to reinforce private domestic carriers airlift injured people and dead bodies to
Bangkok from Phuket and the mainland town of Krabi.


Reuters

[Allybabba22]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

The Thai government seem intent on minimizing the death toll as I guess they are afraid of cuasing tourism problems.. fact is this AM they were still saying 800 - 900 dead while it was known that 500 or so were dead from one hotel alone in Khao Lak.. add in a few hundred in the close local and its making a mockery of thier reporting..

I would say locally we will see 3k or more dead (thats Phuket / Phi Phi / Khao Lak)... Storied I we are starting to get first hand.. One of my mates is the head chef at Molly Malones.. He had just got to work when it hit.. they got out the back and then 'floated' up the drainpipe and clung on during the surge.. Thankfully all his staff survived...

I think they have confirmed that 1500 people have lost there lives in thailand and it could easily double over the next few days

I have also just read that the total count so far is in excess of 75,000 and its likely that will rise to over 100,000 deaths

[anubis]

Originally Posted by sting

Hi
pictures from khao lak (warning strong pictures)
http://www.vg.no/bilderigg/index.hbs?rigg_id=2601

Horrofying pictures especially all those people swollen up from laying in water

[beuk]

Originally Posted by allybabba22

I think they have confirmed that 1500 people have lost there lives in thailand and it could easily double over the next few days

I have also just read that the total count so far is in excess of 75,000 and its likely that will rise to over 100,000 deaths

An hour or two ago I was watching CNN with an update about the tsunami. At one point I couldn`t believe it anymore they came with figures about Thailand. They said that in Thailand alone were more then 18000 confirmed dead. I don`t know how they get that kind of number so quickly rising, personally I think they made a typefault.

[Whazzzup]

Link to 18 pictures of the situation in Khao Lak right now. I was there two weeks ago, but I can hardly recognize anything now. The place is totally flat

www.similantour.nu/