A Cork family have told of their narrow escape after the tsunami hit the resort in Sri Lanka where they were on holiday.
Retired builder Mr Frank Corkery (60), his wife Esther (61), their daughter, Majella Tarbatt (36), her husband Mark (37) and their children, Luke (5) and Matthew (2), were staying at Unawatuna on the south coast of Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck.
"We're alive today because of a loaf of bread," said Mr Corkery. "There was no bread for our breakfast at our small hotel and that delayed us, otherwise we would have been down by the sea waiting ... We were due to get the boat at 9.30 a.m. and the wave hit around 9.20 a.m. but we were still at the hotel having breakfast because they had to send into Galle to get some bread for us.
"Only for that, I've no doubt but we wouldn't be here today."
Mr Corkery said there was a splatter of water over the metre-high wall separating them from the beach before a wave suddenly started flowing over the wall and surrounding them. "We ran up the stairs - it was a miracle all six of us were together because normally, the kids would have been off somewhere with one of us.
"I actually said as soon as we got to the top of the stairs that we would have to say goodbye because I thought we were gone. It came up so suddenly and we just didn't know what height the water was going to rise to."
The hotel remained standing to provide a refuge for the Corkerys and the Tarbatts.
"The wave came back in and then it sucked everything back out with it," Mr Tarbatt said. "It was like someone had just vacuumed the bay; the reef which was normally under eight feet of water was exposed and all along the sea-bed you could see fridges and furniture.
"I remember seeing two girls hanging on to a gate who were sucked out - they managed to survive but there were many who didn't. Afterwards I saw a jeep caught up in a tree and when they took it down, they found the occupants dead inside."
The family waited on the first floor of the hotel until the water receded. They took the advice of locals and waded out to higher ground, where they spent two days and nights without food.
