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The
tsunami which struck Thailand on Boxing Day, 2004 caused an
enormous amount of death and destruction all around the
Andaman Sea and far beyond. Hundreds of thousands of people
were killed in the South Asian region, with roughly 10,000
people killed in Thailand, mainly in
Khao Lak and on
Phi Phi Island.
That nobody died on Koh Jum was nothing short of a
miracle, but 10 or 11
young Koh Jumbians who worked on Phi Phi Island were
killed by the waves. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the
families who lost loved ones on that terrible day.
Although no one was killed on KJum many people were injured,
some seriously. Many of the local residents lost their homes,
their boats, and much of their possessions. It will take a
long time for the native people of KJum to recover.
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Ban Koh Jum |
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You can help. Jan from
Woodland Lodge
has set up a relief site called
SOS Koh Jum
for you to donate cash and all money raised will go
directly to helping the locals get back on their feet. So far
they've raised over $25,000 USD for the reconstruction of
homes and boats. Go give. You can afford a few hundred baht
for a worthwhile cause.
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How can you
not want to help these guys?
Makut is the farang in the front row. |
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The
resorts owners of KJum also took a swift kick in the teeth
December 26th. Some bungalow operations were almost completely
destroyed, all suffered damage to varying degrees. I was not
in Thailand for the tsunami so I didn't see it, but when I
arrived at KJum on January 7th the shock of that day was still
apparent in the faces of the folks who were there to
witness it. I spent two whole days walking the length of the
island taking pictures of the damage and you can see what I
saw at my
KoPu2005 site. Click on "Tsunami".
Speaking of helping out a friend in need,
Billee was one of the big losers at
KPu on Boxing Day. Lee lost his
beachfront bar and his restaurant, but his three
bungalows were undamaged. He was over in
Railay on
Ton Sai Beach getting together a camping trip to Ko Pu
when the tsunami hit. The first wave put his longtail up on
the beach, the second wave lifted his boat off the beach and
deposited it into a restaurant (or a palm tree,
depending on who is telling the story and how late at night it
is). The details of what really happened are unimportant
because the undeniable fact is that his boat ended up
splintered on Ton Sai.
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A good man |
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Boat.
Bar. Restaurant. All trashed. And if that's not enough the
beach in front of Billee took a real licking too.
Coral, trash, coral, and more trash. What a
mess. He's basically starting over. He's one of the
hardest working people I know and he's sunk his heart and soul
into his bungalow operation and deserves better than he got.
Help the guy out with some cash, won't you? The Railay Tsunami
Fund has set up a
Billee page for your generous donation. It's a good
cause that will make you feel really good when you meet Billee
this winter when you come to Koh Pu.
This
is an amazing picture of the tsunami as it hit Season
Bungalows:
Simon and Andie have more pictures of what happened next door
at Green Bungalows at their website,
Sidewards.
Emma,
Elias, Eskild, Gustav, Martin and Sanne from Denmark were
staying in a beachfront hut at Season when the tsunami hit.
Really, they were inside the bungalow when the waves crashed
in. They survived, narrowly. The bungalow didn't:
Sanne
emailed me when she saw my tsunami site at
Pensfans and told me her story, which I put up on it's
own
page. She and her family were very lucky to live thru
that one.
Makut was staying at New Bungalows when the waves came
sweeping in. He was kind enough to put the photos he took of
the tsunami on CD and snail-mailed them to me from Germany:
The
rest of his pictures can be found
here. Thanks, Makut.
Here's
the best overall
Indian Ocean
tsunami information site I've seen.
This
is not KJum related, but check
this out.
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