"The first big wave came at us like a 10-metre wall of water"
Eye-witness reports from Thailand and Sri Lanka
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A number of holidaymaking Finns phoned in eye-witness accounts from Thailand and Sri Lanka, not least among them the Helsingin Sanomat editor-in-chief Heleena Savela, who arrived in the Krabi resort of Ao Nang shortly after the tidal waves from the earthquake swamped the place. Witnesses spoke of a "wall of water" and widespread destruction and loss of life.
Savela reported seeing outboard motors littering the streets, pieces of smashed boats, uprooted trees, battered cars, motorcycles, and traditional Thai tutktuk taxis all along the beach boulevard of Ao Nang on Sunday afternoon.
Ao Nang is among the most popular Finnish destinations in Southern Thailand after Phuket. Around 200 are believed to be spending Christmas and the New Year in local hotels and bungalow resorts, on trips arranged by Aurinkomatkat and Finnmatkat.
The Ao Nang Villa Hotel, located close to the beach and familiar to many Finns who have visited the area, was among the worst affected as the waves came ashore from the Andaman Sea.
The swimming pools and ground floor areas were swamped. Finnish and other hotel guests were evacuated from the hotel at midday on Sunday.
"The ceiling lights started swinging, and then it felt as though the furniture in the room was shaking. We thought the people upstairs from us were having a morning party", said Tiia and Kari Kangas from Tampere, who were staying at the Krabi Heritage Hotel at the time of the quake.
The tremors lasted a couple of minutes, at around 08:30 local time. The first tsunami hit the beach at Ao Nang just before 11 a.m., sweeping parked cars across the beach boulevard into concrete walls and buildings.
"We'd gone to the beach, when the first tsunami just reared up out of the sea like a wall. It was at least ten metres in height. It was completely incomprehensible, as everything had been calm and tranquil only seconds before it hit", said Tiina and Kari Pirhonen of Helsinki.
Reports suggested that some of those who stayed to take pictures of the smaller first wave were then swept out to sea when an even larger and more violent second tidal wave struck. Others ran for the suurounding hills as fast as they could.
Kari Pirhonen had planned to go on a diving trip to nearby reefs in the morning. He changed his mind at the last minute and slept in. When the party returned in the evening they reported that not everyone had got back alive. A number of the smaller long-tailed boats accompanying the divers had simply vanished.
Ao Nang is also a base for diving trips to the popular tourist islands of Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Phi Phi Leh, located between Krabi and Phuket, to the nearby Rai Leh Beach, and further south to Ko Lanta, a largely unspoilt national park area.
Phi Phi and Lanta are both known to have suffered extensive damage. Thai resort hotels and bungalows are often very close to the waterline, and the bungalows in particular are not built to withstand tons of water crashing through them.
"We were having breakfast at around 10 a.m. when the first wave hit. It came up into the hotel yard and broke all the ground floor windows. Then a second smaller wave came through, and this was followed by a third, even larger than the first, which washed away everything", Marie Jaakkola reported on Sunday from Bentota in the south-west corner of Sri Lanka.
Jaakkola and two friends watched in shock as water flooded through the hotel. "We were wading up to our waists in water that was full of debris and broken glass." Jaakkola and the others were eventually rescued by locals and taken to higher ground. From there she was able to be evacuated out with British and German tourists.
The real suffering has, however, been among the local population rather than the tens of thousands of foreign holidaymakers in Sri Lanka at this time of year.
Thousands have died, in part through ignorance born out of never having experienced anything of this kind before.
Tidal waves are far less common in the Indian Ocean than in the Pacific, and a catastrophe of this magnitude - this was the fourth most powerful earthquake measured this century - was in any event bound to take a massive toll of life and property. It is estimated that as many as 1 million people will have lost their homes on Sri Lanka alone.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 27.12.2004 - TODAY |
 "The first big wave came at us like a 10-metre wall of water" |
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