August 28, 2008 - 8:50 am

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first hand account of tsunami from South African Jewish woman
April 15, 2005 - 6:00 pm

Related Thumbshot this text reads best with the accent/voice of the person in mind. I dont know this woman personally, but i can imagine her voice.
a friend of my uncles sent it to him, on Jan 6. Thought people on wj would be interested.
i found it strange, and sad...and bizzare in its timing with the parsha...

My dear family and friends
When I was at school, my teachers taught me that a story should have a good beginning, exciting middle and good ending.
Can there be a better beginning than "we are alive". Can there be a better ending than "we are alive." And as for the middle, I don't think that I will ever get one more exciting, more terrifying or more horrific.
I know that each and every one of you have worried, have cared and have shown endless caring and compassion for our family, and together with Stephen, Jodi, Lisa and David I thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We want you to know how much we love you and how grateful we are that Hashem has given us a second chance in life so that we can strengthen or bonds and relationships with all of you.
We returned from Thailand on Wednesday the 29th December 2004 and since then have been inundated with messages, phone calls, visits from friends and families and of course the press, who have pestered us for our story but at the end of the day are only doing their job. So if you have seen us on TV or in the newspaper it was certainly not out of choice (I guess if it was I would have made sure to put my Mac make up on and certainly have had my hair done)
Let me take you through our story of our holiday to phuket.
We arrived in Phuket on the 23rd December having spent three great days in Bangkok, obviously doing a fair amount of shopping. We were due to be at the Merlin beach resort situated just about a 10minute drive from the main centre of Patong Beach.
I am not going to enlarge on the feelings of anxiety that I had for the duration of my stay, but let it be known that my body was not feeling right and that something in my inner self was telling me to try and get out of Thailand before my stay was over.
We arrived at our hotel the evening of the 23rd at around 10.30pm. On route to our beautiful, deluxe pool facing ground floor room we were enthralled at the beauty of the hotel. Let me just point out here at this point that Jodi was not with us. She was going to join us with her boyfriend Greg around the 28th December... Lisa and David we ooing and aawing at the beauty of the hotel the room etc and of course the fact that they could dive off the patio of the room into the swimming pool. That night at around 11 we all went for a swim in the hotel pool and were getting ready to enjoy a wonderful family holiday.
Day two (24 December). Having spent two weeks in Phuket the year before, we had no doubt where we would spend out first day in Phuket. We took our tuk tuk and made our way to Kata Noi beach. Endless miles of beach with blue azure waters, gentle swells and as close to paradise as we would get. We had bought our lilows from SA and lay and drifted (now my English teacher would say I am beginning to waffle) but who cares you have to hear it all. We spent at least two hours in the water chatting to another South African couple who were living in Singapore and vacationing in Thailand with there kids. I never got their names so do not not if they are safe.
That night we went to the main Patong strip to enjoy some further shopping. My feelings of anxiety had grown beyond me. My sweating attacks were hard to control (thought I may be sickening for something). Managed to buy Lisa and David one pair of shoes each. I apologised to the family and asked that we please return back to the hotel as I was just to weak.
Day three 25 December- I awoke that morning feeling to weak to go down for breakfast. Stephen and the kids went for breakfast while I remained trying to figure out why I was feeling so lousy . On there return Stephen said that we would spend the day at the pool because of the fact that mom wasn't feeling right. Let me explain the hotel has got three magnificent pools all intertwining with each other. It has its own private beach which was not great for swimming but Stephen and David did do some snorkelling there. The beach was lined with about 6 or 7 lovely Thai ladies all offering massages. (They unfortunately were all killed when tsunami hit).
While we were at the pool a friend from SA arrived, they had just come for Kosa mui and were raving about their vacation so far. For those interested in who these girls were, they were Jill Selikow, Norma Robinson, Hazel Glasjen and Anette Frieldlein from San Diego.
That night again we went down to the Patong strip. Once again sweat attacks. Had supper at a fish market. It started to rain but nothing to hectic. Again I had these anxiety attacks to get back home but made sure that I bought a sim card and some airtime because dear old MTN was just not working. Pay for international roaming and no luck. Come on guys I have been a loyal supporter of MTN since inception but do rather go for vodacom.
Again I apologised to my kids who were absolutely fantastic and did not complain that their dear mother was spoiling there holiday. Once again we made tracks back to the hotel and into good old bed. I will not enlarge on any further premonition attacks. Those of you interested who can offer any help to me can call me and I will discuss it with you privately.
Day 4 TSUNAMI
Once again I did not go down to breakfast. Stephen and the kids left the room at around 9.10 for breakfast. Three times during the night I felt some shaking but just thought it was my krunkte body doing funny things. At around 9.30, David (first) Stephen and lisa came flying in to the room with these words "come quickly there is a big wave coming into the hotel" Let me deviate from here and tell you what they had seen prior to getting to our room. They were settling down for a good breakfast when all of a sudden people started to scream and point to the ocean. Stephen saw this torrent of water approaching and thought that he was in a movie. People started to run, just dropping their plates and screaming. It was just brown muddy water coming at one hell of a speed.
Anyway back to our room - I grabbed my costume ( I did not think I was going swimming) I managed to put on some clothing, no shoes. I think I may have grabbed my camera at this point thinking that I was going to see something amazing and that I should be able to record the action. Never once did I think it was something remotely like what it turned out to be As we opened the door of the room I saw this torrent of water come around the corner and clearly remember Stephen shouting " Oh my G-d its coming here as well, Lets run". We had a choice do we run away from the water (impossible) or do we run into the water and make or ways to the stairs. Having no shoes on I started to slip all over but thank G-d managed to keep myself upright. We got to the next level which was the reception and it was here that we were met with the most terrifying sights. The screaming, hysteria and injuries were something you see in horror movies. I remember clearly grabbing on to a young Thai cleaning lady and asking if this had ever happened before. All she shouted back was "never never". It was then that I knew WE WERE IN KUK.
Jill Selikow was handed a little four year old Russian girl by one of the staff. The child was vomiting and shaking beyond control. Jill was amazing and remained as reasonably calm as she could. Everyone then started screaming that another wave was coming and that we must make our way to the top floor (4 floors) and preferably the roof. Jill gave David the kid as she said that he was possibly stronger to carry the kid.
>From the fourth floor we could see more of what had happened and no one can describe it. What you people saw on TV was what it was. Upstairs the resort clinic tried to clean up people's wounds. A woman was running with her finger hanging by a thread screaming for a doctor. A man was left with his bone jutting out his leg. Another was screaming, "You son of a bitch we are all going to die".
What were my feelings at this point in time, I thought I was never going to get out of this, what a way to die, let me just recite the Shema as many times as I can. I instructed the kids to do the same. Zillah Rakusin was up on the roof with us. Her daughter's boyfriend had managed to grab his tefillin and siddur. I gave David the siddur and told him to pray. He asked me what to do and I clearly remember replying "anything" I think Hashem will listen to anything.
Let me mention here as any Jewish mother would, that my children were amazing. When I should have been comforting them, they were comforting me. They tried to help others amidst there own trauma and never once complained. They never once asked questions like "are we going to die" because they knew that I could not give answers.
We remained on the roof for about 4 hours with the constant threat of the next wave coming in. I think that had this fear not been there, a lot more lives could possibly have been saved. Once things simmered down slightly and we were beginning to doubt the second wave, Stephen went down to the room to try and see if our passports had been saved. Our room was totally flooded, the bed was in the pool. The clothing was floating everywhere but thank G-d the passports were still in the safe. I do not remember how I got my phone, but I do remember making a call to my mom (and I will bet that this was the first call that went through to SA) It was 5.30am SA time. I woke my mom up with the following words " Ma , we are all fine, there has been an earthquake and a tidal wave, we are sitting on the roof of the hotel, but we are together and are fine." She of course responded "WHAT". I told her not to worry but just to remember that we are fine and I will call her when I can. I told her to call my mom in law and to put the TV on. She was now going to become my link with the outside world. MTN WE NEEDED YOU WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU.
Stephen once again went down to our room to see if he could get some water etc. He came up with a red beach bag filled with all the stuff from the hotel fridge (the stuff you don't touch because they rip you for it). He also managed to find my purse floating six rooms down. At this point we still only had the clothes on our backs.
Looking over the balcony we could see cars and buses piled one on top of each other. Trees that had been uprooted like paper. It looked like a game called scary lego.
We then all went down again to the reception area which seemed untouched. The manager was now there and he confirmed that it was an earthquake, which started in Indonesia, and a Tsunami had been created. My dear friends have you ever heard of a Tsunami? I had never.The closest I had ever been to a tsunami was a cold meat sarmi. Also Indonesia, Where the hell was Indonesia? I was In phuket, what did Indonesia have to do with this? To put it mildy my head was f#@%$d.
Stephen then once again decided that he was going to go down to the room and try and salvage some luggage. What possessed me as a mother to allow the kids to go with him, I do not know. They had been gone 2 minutes when the manager of the hotel started to scream that everyone must get to higher ground because another wave was coming and we must go. Everyone started to run outside to get to the road that led to the mountain. I now had lost my family. Even though I knew that they had gone to the room I had no clue how to get to our room. I knew that I had to go down some stairs but when I got to those stairs it was blocked by 6 cars on top of each other. The sweat started to pour off and I was faced with the most terrible decisions. Do I wait for them and die with them, or do I get out for Jodi's sake that she will still have her mother. I went forward and backwards not knowing what to do. I asked in broken English for someone to go and get them out the room. To cut a long story short, I saw them coming, screamed to them that we had to run. They had one suitcase and I landed up leaving the red beach bag with the purse.
We started to shlep up this hill through all the mud and gore. People were warning us to look out for electrical wires and not to step on them. We looked like the Jews leaving Egypt. I looked around for Moses. I felt that moses was with us.
We trekked for what seemed like ages Until someone said we were much higher and that no water could reach us. Now I started to think, how the hell were we ever going to get home? I visualised myself spending months in Phuket. We were told the airports had been closed, the bridge to the airport had been broken down and there was no way out.
Before leaving our hotel the manager had informed us that they were going to try and get us into Phuket town where they had a sister hotel and we would be taken care of from there. But now they were telling us that there was no access. I saw a man in a car and stopped and asked if he could give us a lift to town. He said that he could only take us to higher ground. We climbed in and he dropped us a little further up at a viewpoint overlooking Patong beach. Some people who had homes on this viewpoint assured us that we were very high up and no amount of water could reach and above all WE WOULD HAVE A WONDERFUL VIEW OF THE NEXT WAVE WHEN IT GOT IN. We remained on this viewpoint till about 8pm and were then told to trek a little higher because there were army trucks that were collecting people. Now it was dark, there was no electricity and we not about to loose each other after everything we had already gone through.
Eventfully an army truck came by. We clambered on like cattle. They would not let us take our bag that we had salvaged. The screaming and shouting from the soldiers was something I just could not understand. Scarier now was that we had to make our way right down to sea level in order to get to the road that would take us to town. What kind of heartache did we see? The most beautiful strip just lay in ruins. Warner bros little bunny still stood erect even looked sad. Molly Malones and Irish pub where we had spent some wonderful evenings was ripped apart. Boats, Catamarans and motorbikes were mangled wrecks. Thank G-d we did not see any corpses which we do believe there were lots. We were now 40metres from the sea with the threat still of another wave hanging over us when the driver of the truck decided to stop and get out. We were left sitting duck. What he stopped for G-d only knows. I guess to clear the road. We eventually took off again and thanked G-d when the driver finally took a right turn which was now going to take us to an upper level. Many occasions we stopped so that people could vomit over the sides of the truck. Finally we made it to the phuket merlin hotel in town. Now there were 800 people all trying to locate other family members. The hotel had set up a meal for us (amazing, didn't eat but amazing) Oh by the way my feelings of anxiety had left immediately after the wave had hit. The new feelings of anxiety I could deal with because I knew what they were. They also set up in their ballrooms, dormitories where people could sleep. We were one of the lucky ones because we got to get a room. It was a two sleeper which we had to share with 6 people. Our room buddies were two Italians.
The next day they allowed one family member to go by bus to the hotel to see if they could retrieve anything. Thank G-d I am married to an accountant. Had I gone, I would have taken one look and said, "To hell with this, I am leaving it all". Stephen started to shlepp the stuff out of the water and mud and pack it up. Let me just tell you that while we were on the roof of the building on the day of the tsunami, Stephen looked down and saw the bag that I had packed with all the purchases I had made in Bangkok. It was floating somewhere in the water, far from our room. He went down and we watched from above how he battled and battled to pull the bag back. Even though it was filled with water he put it in the room and left it there should we ever be able to go back and get it. Now that he was back to retrieve what he could, he did an admirable job. He returned to the town hotel with with four suitcases filled with muddy, smelly clothes, even our Italian friends vacated the room when they smelt what we had brought back When I asked where the Bangkok bag was he replied " Oh my G-d I new I left something behind" Shame. Well my accountant decided to take the two-hour trip back to go and get it, but when they reached Patong someone warned them not to go down, as there was more water. The driver panicked and turned around and to this day the Bangkok purchases remain in Phuket. I pray that maybe one desperate Thai person will find it and use it for himself.
Now we had to start making plans on how to get home. I called Jodi in Bangkok and asked her to go to the South African Embassy. Can you believe that she called me back to say that the embassy closes at three thirty and that no one was there. People were now trying to locate the SA ambassadors in Phuket. Let me now remind you that I had absolutely no dealing with the ambassadors or the South African government personally so everything I mention from now on is hearsay, even though it comes from very reliable sources.
The assistant ambassador complained that her holiday had been cut short and she was very tired. They were never around when people needed them. At the city hall where people were coming to organise his or her passports etc, SA was so badly represented and half the time there was no one there. Three young and very brave SA girls Lauren Isaacs, Sandra Loeb and Joanne Kramer were rescued from Phi Phi Island. They were badly injured, very traumatised and had lost absolutely everything. They managed to get to the city hall and only through sheer pressure on the ambassador, where they put up in a hotel. Let me explain here without being racialist, because it is the only way I can differentiate them. There was a black Lady whom I presume is the ambassador and then there was an Indian lady whom I presume was the assistant ambassador and then was a secretary who was Thai lady. With apologies from now on I will refer to them as the black and the Indian so that you can understand which one I am talking about. The Indian seemed to play the larger role even though she was absolutely useless. No one could get hold of them. They diverted their phones to a room at some hotel and these three young SA girls, who I mentioned before, were in this room having to take all these calls.
>From ground level two young Jewish boys Daniel Treisman and Gavin Pearl were handling ALL South Africans. My praise and gratitude goes out to these young boys who amidst dealing with there own traumas got down to doing one of the hardest jobs ever and that was to locate dead and injured South Africans. They spent the entire two days running from hospital to hospital and mortuary-to-mortuary trying to locate any South African. Above all they were answering all our smses immediately and keeping us well informed as to what was happening and going on. Danielle and Gavin, it is an honour and a privilege that we, the Bernstein family were able to meet two such wonderful angels. A couple from South Africa Bernice and Ivan Karon who have been cruising the world for the past three years had arrived in Phuket and became our guardian angels. They were in touch with South Africa. We were unaware of what was going on in South Africa at that point but Bernice was liasing with them. It was here that I learnt that the South African government was doing nothing and that the Jewish board of Deputies together with Discovery and Netcare 911 were sending a plane out for us. How could I ever have doubted the Jewish people. If our government were not going to get us out, I new that the Jewish community would never leave us there. I have never been more proud to say that I am a Jewish but never more embarrassed to say that I am a SA citizen. Do you know that our own airline carrier SAA refused to put up a plane for us. Do you know that they said it was too expensive (money against lives). I know for sure that I will NEVER fly SAA again and I hope that more people will feel this way. They were disgusting. We were told that a Nationwide Plane was arriving (and let me tell you that this was the best and most comfortable flight I have ever had) and that we should be at the airport early. We arrived at 10am and found the three young injured SA girls there. We started to make banners to show other SA where to come to. There was no sign of any other ambassadors. Perhaps they were busy elsewhere organising other thing. The black lady arrived at around 2pm (not sure exactly of times) She arrived like the royal queen greeting everyone. When we told her that the plane was only due to arrive at around 2am and asked if she could possibly organise a hotel or some place for us to stay in she replied that she did not think there was a budget. HAVE YOU EVER. She said she would go and check it out and come back and tell us. We next saw her when the plane arrived from South Africa and the TV cameras were there, so that all South Africa could see was this "wonderful" ambassador -DISGRACEFUL.
Our Indian Ambassador was reported to have told one non- Jewish SA that the only people complaining were the Jews. How disgusting was this. Who are the people that organised this? The Jewish Board of Deputies, Discovery, Netcare 911 and nationwide. Yes, thank you foreign affairs for organising us flying rights over Indonesia and India.
I am not going to harp on anymore about the government as I feel I am in no position to, but it is strange that every newspaper article I gave and every TV interview I gave, I specifically asked that my thanks to the Jewish community NOT be edited. Unfortunately The Star, CNN, Sunday Times have all edited anything that had to be done with regards to Jewish people.
There are people that I need to offer condolences to. Dee Fitzgerald a young South African lady who found her husbands body in Krabi. Dee travelled with her dead husband in the back of a bakkie for three hours so that she could try and get his body embalmed to return on our plane to SA. Dee you were an extremely brave lady. On the flight home, I spoke to you and although I knew your heart was breaking, you remained so strong. To Mr Coetzee and his two little boys, our deepest sympathy to you on the loss of your dear wife and mother. Daphne's body was also on our plane. To Morris Isaacson and his family we wish you all a long life. To my dear little friend Sarah who sat at the airport with us constantly asking if we think her mom would be found. Sarah, we know that your dad is still out there looking for your mom and we are still praying with you and hope that your mommy will be found. To Paul Senders family, may G-d bless you all. Avadja Berman and Nikki Leibowitz we still are all praying for your safe return. Gary and Illana Sweiden, I did your wedding pics and am so grateful that you have been returned to us. I wish you both a speedy recovery. We are all now united as one. To all other people both from South Africa and other Nationalities, we wish you all G-ds Strength
May G-d bless each and every person that has gone through this tragedy. May G-d give you the strength to carry on and live life once again.
To my family and friends out there I once again thank you and look forward to many years of health, happiness and brocha
Mandelle, Stephen, Jodi, Lisa and David Bernstein
Please forward this letter to anyone else that you would think would like to read it.

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