PHUKET, Thailand (28 Dec 2004) -- An American woman who was scuba diving with her husband in Thailand as one of Sunday's tsunamis roared overhead said she was oblivious to the disaster until after they surfaced. In an e-mail to her mother, Faye Wachs said she "had no idea what was going on" while she was underwater. The enormity of what was happening while they were scuba diving was not immediately apparent after they surfaced, Helen Wachs said her daughter told her. "She said she saw a lot of trash in the water. The dive master said it was really rude for people to throw trash. Then they saw large bits of debris and thought there might have been a boat crash," Helen Wachs said. She said her daughter didn't know what had happened until the dive master got a text message from his wife. Soon they saw bodies floating past them, Wachs' mother said in an interview from Oakland, California, where she lives. Once they returned to shore, the couple did what they could to help, Helen Wachs said. "I can't describe carrying a moaning person who just saw his girlfriend killed down a hill in the middle of the night," the e-mail said. "I saw more bodies than I care to report. The hotel where we were staying is mostly gone. We lost everything, but our lives." Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her mother said. At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she said. | | Tidal waves destroyed tourist resorts on Phi Phi island off Phuket That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge. Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued. But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said. The couple had managed to hold on to their ATM card, so they paid for the photos and helped other Americans who did not have any money get their pictures taken and buy food, Helen Wachs said. "She was really very surprised" that the government did so little to ease their ordeal, she said. Helen said her daughter told her they would need "some serious counseling" upon their return to Los Angeles. SOURCE - CNN |
