An Irishman and his girlfriend who were caught in the tsunami when it hit their beach bungalow on Ko Phi Phi island off Thailand have told of their lucky escape.
Mr Michael Foott (26), from Monkstown in Cork and his girlfriend, Ms Sarah O'Leary (25), from Model Farm Road, were just a month into a year-long round-the-world trip.
They were welcomed at Cork Airport yesterday morning by relieved family members.
"We had just arrived on the island on December 23rd and were staying at the Andaman Resort in a bungalow. We had just got up on Sunday morning ... when a trickle of water started to come under the door at around 10.30 a.m.," Mr Foott said.
At first, Mr Foott thought it was a burst sewer but water continued to flow in. "We didn't know where it was coming from and then suddenly the door just burst in half and all this water started pouring in, flooding the room.
"We climbed up on the bed but it continued to rise so we got the wardrobe and put it on top of the bed and climbed up on that, but the water just continued to rise and we started to get bounced around on the wardrobe so we decided it was safer to get out."
They waded through the neck- high water to the window which Mr Foott smashed with his foot and they made their way out, climbing up on the fence surrounding the decking outside their bungalow.
"We met a Thai man who was looking for his daughter ... but we couldn't find her, and then another Thai man came and told us that we should hurry up to higher ground. So we climbed up this hill behind the resort.
"A Thai woman gave me a sheet to wrap around myself and she made some balm from leaves for my cuts ... Compared to the Thai people we saw, we had very little to complain about.
"We were on the hill from about 11 a.m. until 6.30 a.m. the next morning. There were hundreds of people looking for loved ones and you could hear the screams coming up from below from the beach area when people found the body of someone they had lost - it was terrible."
Afterwards, they travelled to the northern side of the island - which received the brunt of the tsunami - to help people there.
"The Thai people were marvellous to us - they really were so kind ... We saw hundreds of bodies and for so many Thai people, their lives have been destroyed," Mr Foott said.
Mr Danny McAuliffe (25) from Ballyclough in north Cork and his girlfriend, Ms Aideen McDonnell (24), from Tallow, Co Waterford, were scuba-diving and snorkelling off Ko Phi Phi when the tsunami hit, and it was only when they returned to the island that they discovered the scale of the devastation.
"I can't explain it - I was diving down 15 to 20 metres and Aideen was snorkelling on the surface and we never realised that a tsunami had passed us - the only thing was that the currents were weird - not following their usual pattern," he said.
"As we started to approach the island, we realised something was wrong because there were roofs and fridges and other debris floating out to meet us - our room was on a second storey and thankfully all our stuff was okay."
Mr McAuliffe, a physiotherapist, began helping the local medical teams preparing the injured for evacuation by helicopter from the island.
Harriet and Kevin Donlon from Co Clare, along with their two young children, had a miraculous escape when the tsunami hit their house in Galle, Sri Lanka.
"We took nothing with us except the kids. As we looked back to see how fast the water was coming in, we could see a river of bodies and children and houses, just total destruction and devastation within seconds," Ms Donlon told RTÉ news.
"We walked through Galle afterwards and there were numerous bodies lying around in a rigor mortis state," Mr Donlon added.
An Irish newly-wed couple are also lucky to be alive after their honeymoon in Sri Lanka almost ended in disaster.
John and Deirdre Clarke were staying in a third-floor apartment in south-east Sri Lanka beside the beach when the powerful tsunami struck on St Stephen's Day.
The waves devastated the hotel, stripping away its first two floors with the upper tiers supported by what seemed to be a series of bare poles.
The couple usually went for an early-morning walk on the beach but luckily, they had been out the night before and had slept in. Mr Clarke, who is from Co Monaghan, was on his way towards the beach when he heard shouting. He was told about the giant wave and warned to run back. He just made it back to the apartment when the wave struck.
"After that they had to endure a 12-hour wait in the apartment before being rescued, but it really is a miracle that they have survived this without a scratch," said Ms Breege Duffy, Ms Clarke's mother, from her home in Turloughmore, north Galway. "We just have been unbelievably lucky and we thank God for that."
