From Mona at Deadnet- very compelling:
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Mona Cherashore - 09:23pm Dec 27, 2004 PDT (#2848 of 2850)
Happy Holidaze to All!!!

I received this email from my friend Sheri, who was, indeed, in Phuket with her family for the holidays. Everyone in her party (her family and inlaws) is OK. I'm extremely relieved but feel for her and her family. Her son, Justin, was in Fla. at the end of the summer getting settled in school. He experienced all of the hurricaines.
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Dear wonderful friends and family:

We are overwhelmed by the hundreds of e-mails, text messages and phone calls! Thank you all for your love and concern!!

Thank God we are among the very, very lucky ones here in Phuket. While our resort was extremely badly hit and dozens of people were injured, we didn't suffer any loss of life. (The hotel immediately next to us lost several people - visitors and locals, who were swept out to sea.)

It happened so quickly and without any warning. Justin's tennis was an hour later than usual, so we were having a leisurely late breakfast with my in-laws in the glassed in coffee shop. All at once, a huge crowd of people started running past, shouting and screaming. We thought it was a terrorist attack coming from the beach!

Somebody ran into the coffee shop and shouted something and then the staff started yelling for everyone to get out. We asked what was happening but they just kept shouting: "Get out! Get out!" and pushing us out the door. Only when we were up one level in the lobby area did we hear about the earthquake (which had happened two hours earlier in Sumatra) and the tidal waves that were triggered as a result.

Carly remembered that Justin had gone back to his room to pick up his tennis racquets. There wasn't any way he could know what was happening and the water was already rushing up from the beach so I ran like a maniac, praying all the way.

As I ran across the bridge from the lobby area to the area where the rooms are, I could see the water engulfing all the chairs poolside and rushing right underneath where I was standing and into the lagoon on the other side.

We were very lucky! Fortunately, the hotel is built up a slope and our rooms are on the second floor, facing away from the ocean. Rooms right underneath us had glass windows and sliding doors smashed as the water hit, but we were amazingly untouched. A lot of people who were in those lower rooms at the time were hit by flying glass and some had to actually swim underwater (in their rooms!) to get out. It was unbelievable!

The lobby was like a war zone for most of the day as people tried to figure out what to do. (We didn't have electricity for most of the day and only essential areas were running on generators.) We went to camp out with friends at another hotel further away from the sea. Only when we turned on the TV and watched the BBC and CNN did we realise how VERY lucky we were!

Other areas of Phuket were totally devastated. It was a sunny and peaceful Sunday - the day after Christmas in a major tourist destination - so thousands of people were on boats or on the beach or swimming when this 20 foot wall of water rushing at 400 miles an hour came out of absolutely nowhere!

We took a drive around yesterday and it worse than anything you could ever imagine witnessing. Cars were up in trees, whole villages were completely gone, hotels and restaurants nearest the beach had boats and debris smashed thru all the lower floors (if they were standing at all) and many, many roads had buckled and were impassable.

Thousands of people (local and visitors, alike) are still missing and the hospitals and clinics are overflooring, with wall to wall mattresses covering every square inch of floor space. Even the huge new shopping mall has been turned into a shelter.

Justin can't believe that he has been thru three huge hurricanes and a tidal wave in such a short space of time. We all can't believe how very, very fortunate we are to have been unharmed in the midst of all this destruction and devastation. We are truly blessed!

Thank you, once again, for the outpouring of love and concern. We feel doubly blessed to have you all in our lives.

Wishing you all a safe, healthy and happy New Year!!!

Much love,
Sheri, Rob, Carly and Justin