- Title: THAILAND: FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS ARRIVE TO BOLSTER TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORTS.
- Date: 3rd January 2005
- Summary: (W3) PHUKET, THAILAND (JANUARY 3, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV: PHUKET AIRPORT WITH PARKED PLANE 0.05 2. GV: VOLUNTEERS DISTRIBUTING FOOD OUTSIDE AIRPORT 0.11 3. MV/MCU: THAI AND FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS WAITING FOR FLIGHTS; MAN LOOKING AT MAP OF PHUKET; PEOPLE REGISTERING AT AIRPORT (7 SHOTS) 0.39 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NORWEGIAN
- Embargoed: 18th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PHUKET, THAILAND
- Country: Thailand
- Reuters ID: LVA1T3U8COSRHSGSNH5L1IY2OA74
- Story Text: Alaskan firefighters arrive in Phuket to reinforce
rescue efforts as volunteers begin to fly out after a week
of cleaning up.
Hundreds of volunteers helping tsunami survivors on
Thailand's ravaged western coast are waiting to be
evacuated at Phuket airport more than a week after tidal
waves killed thousands of people and injured scores more.
Thai and foreign volunteers flocked to the devastated
region to help rescue teams recover drowned bodies and help
local hospitals treat the overwhelming number of wounded
survivors from the 10-meter tidal waves on Sunday (December 26).
They were often in the frontline of disaster efforts,
carrying thousands of severely decaying corpses to storage
facilities at Buddhist temples, and helping search teams
dig through piles of rubble to recover trapped bodies.
Volunteer translators were also desperately needed at hospitals
and emergency centres housing hundreds of
traumatized foreign tourists looking for missing family and friends.
But long hours in the searing heat and horrific scenes
of decomposing bodies have taken an emotional toll on
volunteers, who have often been the only support for
grieving families.
Norwegian volunteer Anna Lillethun, who has been
visiting survivors in hospitals and distributing
much-needed supplies to locals, says despite the massive
scale of the tragedy, she still had hope.
"There's been a lot of loss but, I mean, I'm encouraged
by the way people have come together, you know, to help
each other and work together to pick up the pieces and to
me that's very encouraging. So, I know, you know, we'll
pull out of this," said Norwegian volunteer, Anna Lillethun.
Hundreds of people spontaneously gathered friends and
supplies, and made the 12-hour journey from Bangkok by road
to reinforce local authorities stretched to breaking point
by the unprecedented catastrophe.
Donations of clothes, food and other necessities also
flowed in from people and organisations to ease the strain
on aide organisations struggling to assist thousands of
displaced people who walked away from the disaster with
nothing more than the clothes they were wearing.
Twenty-eight year old Supattha Sukchoo, who works as a
writer for a Bangkok magazine, told her boss she was sick
so she could come with friends to help the Thai Navy
distribute emergency supplies.
While shaken up by the scale of the disaster, Supattha
says she is proud of her country for rallying behind the
survivors.
"Yes, I feel very sad about this news and this event
but in the same time we are happy that Thai people held
together very well," said Thai volunteer Supattha Sukchoo.
But as these volunteers prepare to leave Phuket, more
reinforcements are landing. A team of six firefighters from
Alaska arrived on Monday (January 3) after raising their
own funds back home to help rebuild the devastated
communities.
Over the coming week the firefighters and an officer
from the American air force plan to assist local
authorities recover bodies from remote locations and
construct destroyed houses and buildings along Phuket's
coastline.
"What we hope to accomplish is that, there's a lot of
devastation here. The people of Alaska, the people of the
United States, they care and they want to do whatever they
can to help. We're able to get here a little bit quicker
and do a little bit more in the immediate picking up parts
and pieces. But my guys have got six other firefighters
with me, they're all trained. They understand that it can
be pretty grisly but we're also ready to help out the
people of Thailand," said Mark Hall, Battalion Chief of the
Anchorage, Alaska Fire Department.
Despite horrifying scenes of the disaster aftermath,
Hall says the firefighters are prepared to cope with the
difficult conditions.
Meanwhile, other official volunteers are preparing to
return home with thousands of foreign bodies awaiting DNA
identification in a process which could take months.
"We take all identified bodies now so we finish our
work. During this time our police start the identification
of the rest of the bodies but it's impossible to say how
many people were lying there, how many Asians, how many
European or American. Impossible," said German volunteer,
Chris Kuckelkorn, from private funeral company, Deathcare.
The bodies of identified tourists will also be returned
to their countries where families preparing for funerals.
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