SRI LANKA and PHUKET (28 Dec 2004) -- A BRITISH family escaped the terrifying wave of death in Sri Lanka by clinging to refrigerators floating in the torrent - then came face to face with circling crocodiles. At one point, dad Duncan Ridgley made this desperate plea for help: "We are stuck here, water all around us, with crocodiles and the like surrounding us. We can't get out. No one knows we are here." The tale of the Ridgleys - a day into a new life abroad - was one of many astonishing survival stories told yesterday by Brits. Jan Gaynor - in hospital on the Thai island of Phuket - told how she was dragged into the ocean from her beachside hut. John Regan recalled how a walk across the sand with his girlfriend ended when a "huge wall of water" swept them away. Fellow Brits Andrew and Louise Oliver, aged 38 and 37, had three brushes with death after deciding to go boating off Phuket. There was also praise for a British fireman and nurse who forgot their own injuries from the maelstrom and went to help others. For the Ridgleys, of St Albans, Herts, it was not just a holiday ruined...but a new life destroyed almost before it had started. Father Duncan, 40, a former advertising executive, and his wife Penelope had quit their jobs in August and taken their three children out of school for two years. They drove a camper-van through Europe and on to Bosnia, Croatia, Turkey and Egypt before heading for the Indian Ocean. They had planned to set up a beach hotel on a strip of land they had purchased in the Sri Lankan surfing village of Arugam Bay. "It has always been a daydream for me and is now becoming reality," Mr Ridgley had written on his travel firm's website. They arrived on Christmas Day in "somewhere peaceful" - and on Boxing Day found themselves in a watery hell. Duncan said: "The waves came from nowhere and swept away every hotel by the beach." He clung to his son Angus. He was pulled underwater, fought for breath, swam back to the surface - and with his boy grabbed one of the fridges plucked from houses and cafes. Daughter Sasha, 12, also held on to a fridge. She said: "It was horrible. The waves were around me and I got pulled under the water." The family and up to 30 other tourists were then confronted by crocodiles in the swirling torrent. Somehow all reached the safety of high ground, from where Duncan made his plea for help. Last night a message on his firm's website read: "We are all alive and heading for Colombo to get home." Jan Gaynor, 35, from Croydon, South London, was asleep in her beach hut in Phuket when she heard a rumble. "I threw some clothes on before moving towards the door," she said. "At that second, a wall of water smashed through and blew me across the room and into the wall behind me. "Next I was sucked back out of the door as the wave went back the other way. "I was dragged back into the sea and tossed around for what seemed like for ever. "Eventually I managed to grab a piece of wood and heard everybody screaming around me. I was naked and everyone had their clothes ripped off by the waves." She managed to stumble to the beach and climb a cliff - despite a broken ankle. She was later taken to the isle's Vachira hospital. Also recovering there was John Regan, in his 40s, from Chelmsford, Essex. He and girlfriend Rita Medve had been strolling on the beach when the tsunami (Japanese for a wave caused by an underwater earthquake) struck. Mr Regan, being treated for a broken leg and severe cuts, said: "I noticed that the tide had gone out dramatically and there was this eerie silence. "I looked up and saw a huge wall of water coming in. I screamed at my girlfriend that it wasn't going to stop and grabbed her hand and ran up the beach to a bungalow. "I opened the door, saw the owner for one second, slammed the door and suddenly a blast of water smashed me from behind and sent me through the building into the shower room, where tiles were pinging off the wall and cutting into me. Then the water pushed me out of the shower room on to the veranda. "Suddenly it started to go the other way and I was dragged out of the building, before I grabbed a tree and climbed up. "I saw another wave but not as high. When things calmed down, I got on to a road where I was given a lift to hospital." Mr Regan, a company director, was separated from his girlfriend, who is thought to be safe. | | SURVIVIOR: John Regan lies in hospital in Phuket. The Olivers, from Bournemouth, told relatives of their triple escape in Phuket. They had planned to go diving, but the boat was full. It is now unaccounted for and its 100 occupants feared dead. Instead the couple went on a sightseeing trip and were heading to Phi Phi island when their craft was swamped. It rode out the torrent and returned to Phuket, where another huge wave hit - forcing them to run for their lives. Andrew's sister Ruth said: "They are still very shocked." Firefighter Roy Phillips, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, was sunbathing when the tsunami hit Phuket and was smashed against a building. But he went back in the water when he realised others were in trouble. Roy, 33, had been holidaying with fiancee Debbie Watkins and was due to fly home this week. His father David Phillips, 63, said: "He was in an apartment on the beach. The water just hit him and washed him against a building. "He was badly cut and bruised, but he went back into the water four or five times to drag people from the sea." Brave Roy then trudged through raw sewage to higher ground and spent last night with a Thai family in the hills above Phuket. Nurse Karen Goh, 38, from Wolverhampton, was in Phuket with her Malaysian doctor husband Cheh Goh. She said: "We walked down to the beach, and had a coffee in Starbucks. "When we looked out to sea, we noticed all the yachts were coming in simultaneously. "Then we saw large boats being lifted high in the water. I grabbed my husband and we ran. But there was nowhere to go. "It was like I was in a washing machine holding my husband. All around stuff was hitting us and we, I guess, were hitting buildings, but I did not feel a thing. "I lost hold of my husband. Dragged around underwater, I had an acceptance that I was drowning. Then the water spat me out on the surface, and dragged me under again. "It seemed to recede and was dragging me out to sea. I got hold of a branch of a tree and hung on. Then a man grabbed my arm and dragged me on to a raised platform. I saw people with stomachs broken open, limbs broken open and muscles hanging out. "I got some sheeting and set about trying my best to staunch people's wounds." Karen, talking in hospital, added: " I remember calling out for my husband many times. I thought I'd lost him. "A German man told me we should seek higher ground. That's when I realised I could not walk. My foot had been cut open to the bone. "He put me on his back and took me up the stairs in a higher building and there, to my delight, was Cheh. "I cannot describe how bad it was. The rushing water, breaking timber, walls crashing down." Scuba diver Amy Harding, 24, of Neston, Cheshire, spent a night on a hotel roof in Phuket after being flung from the sea. She texted relatives on Sunday, but it wasn't until 10.30am yesterday that they knew she was safe. An Australian family were not so lucky. Relatives of six-month Melina Heppell said a wave took her from her father on a beach in Phuket. Her uncle Simon Illingworth said: "He thought he had the baby in his arms, but all he had was clothes." SOURCE - Mirror |
