I Was Actually There on ABC and ABC iview S1E2 – A massive earthquake below the Indian Ocean unleashed the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, killing 230,000 people across 14 countries.
But those who were swept up in the wave had no idea of its scale, only of the devastation that unfolded before their eyes.
At the beachside districts of Phi Phi Islands and Phuket in Thailand, a handful of Australians found themselves facing a ten-metre-high wall of water travelling 800 kilometres an hour. Joe Giardina, his wife, and their teenage son, Paul, had just sat down for breakfast when the tsunami hit, and were initially worried about getting wet feet.
“When it hit us, I put Paul up against a concrete pillar to hold him in there, and it picked us both up and threw us over a wall,”
– he says.
“Everything happened in a millisecond. Something hit me on the back of the head and that’s when I went under and that’s when I lost Paul. I wasn’t able to hold onto him”.
Heart wrenching accounts of loss, miraculous tales of survival, and the reactions of ordinary people to extraordinary circumstances dominate this second episode.
“I’m not brave. I have great respect for paramedics, police, fire fighters. These are people who run towards danger. I don’t know how they do it. I know that I’m not one of them,”
says survivor Alexa Moses.
Despite losing his girlfriend to the tsunami, Gold Coast surfer Damian Kloot put aside his suffering to link up with other Australians in the search for survivors.
“It gave me purpose, not only to save myself or save my partner, but to try to help others as well,”
– he says.
For many, surviving the tsunami was far from the end of the ordeal and each needed to work out how to live with it. Some have never been back in the ocean. Others believe they have a spiritual connection to Thailand.
For Thai restaurateur Pym Boonyarattana, the emotional scars of the disaster are as present as ever.
“I still think the wave will come any day, any time, any minute in my life. I’m living with fear.”
Production credit:
A Docker Media Production for ABC. Created by Kirk Docker, Jon Casimir, Aaron Smith. Director, Kirk Docker. Co-Series Producers, Loni Smith and Josh Schmidt. Line Producer, Megan Nass. ABC Commissioning Editor, Julie Hanna. ABC Head of Factual, Susie Jones.
I Was Actually There on ABC and ABC iview – Tuesday 16 July at 8:00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
Listen to TV Central podcast with creator Kirk Docker HERE
