PERSONAL: Twenty years on, Thai tsunami survivor keeps his village safe from the next big wave

Record ID: 1891372

  • Title: PERSONAL: Twenty years on, Thai tsunami survivor keeps his village safe from the next big wave
  • Date: 19th December 2024
  • Summary: PHANG NGA, THAILAND (DECEMBER 2, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) 2004 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI SURVIVOR TURNED WAVE WATCHER, BANLUE CHOOSIN, SAYING: "I didn't know what was happening. While I was floating in the water, all I thought about was, 'Everybody in the village is going to die'. That's all I could think of. But I survived, I also don't know what happened to me thoug
  • Embargoed: 2nd January 2025 01:15
  • Keywords: 2004 BAN NAM KHEM Banlue Choosin Indian Ocean Phang Nga Thailand Tsunami anniversary grab bag wave watcher
  • Location: PHANG NGA, PHUKET, THAILAND
  • City: PHANG NGA, PHUKET, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
  • Reuters ID: LVA007405602122024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: For nearly every day over the past 17 years, 59-year-old Banlue Choosin has been keeping watch and monitoring the sea for any warning signs of a tsunami near the shoreline of Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village in Thailand's southern Phang Nga province.
    Two decades ago, disaster struck on Boxing Day in 2004 when a deadly tsunami, triggered by a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province, crashed into Ban Nam Khem, destroying everything in its path.
    Over 1,500 people were killed, roughly a quarter of Ban Nam Khem's population at the time, making it the worst-hit location in Thailand.
    "It was like a very, very tall wall of mist, like dust covering the whole area. It filled up the sky as I watched," Banlue, who survived the massive waves, vividly recalls the day the tsunami hit.
    More than a dozen other countries across the Indian Ocean, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, were left devastated by the deadly tsunami which killed over 230,000 people and left nearly two million homeless.
    Phang Nga was one of Thailand's hardest-hit provinces where the natural disaster killed 5,400 people, including foreign tourists, with hundreds still unidentified to this day.
    "I didn't know what was happening. While I was floating in the water, all I thought about was, 'Everybody in the village is going to die'... But I survived," said Banlue.
    His family members, including his wife at the time and two of his young sons, were scattered all over after the tsunami. Remarkably, everyone survived, save for his mother-in-law whose body was found months later.
    In the aftermath of the disaster, Ban Nam Khem's villagers entrusted the task of wave watching to Banlue, a former fisherman familiar with the sea's tidal patterns.
    As a volunteer tsunami watcher, Banlue keeps a sharp lookout after any regional earthquake and reports back to a provincial government office.
    The village, located on the coast of the Andaman Sea, has also designed and implemented its own local risk mitigation system to prepare for any future tsunami. It includes a concrete shelter, clear evacuation routes, and two alarm systems that play the national anthem every Wednesday morning to test that everything is in order.
    Ban Nam Khem's 2,000 residents have also been encouraged to prepare a "grab bag" containing essential documents for quick evacuation, said Banlue.
    Approaching his 60th birthday this Christmas, Banlue is confident in his community's preparedness for a potential tsunami as he continues to safeguard his village against the next big wave.
    "I've been teaching my kids, my grandkids, and my neighbours that we should not be doing whatever we did in the past. First of all, don't just stand and watch it," he said, "Leave in a calm manner."
    (Production: Artorn Pookasook, Juarawee Kittisilpa)
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