| FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS >>> |
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Emotions ran high at Changi Airport on Tuesday as friends
and families were reunited with their loved ones who
had returned from tsunami strickened areas, while others
waited anxiously for injured family members. Wong Siew
Ying caught up with some of them
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21-year-old undergraduage Goh Poh Eng |
| Goh Poh Eng, 21, arrived at around 12.30 pm with the
help of fellow travellers and airline staff.
Her sister said she had gone to Phuket before Christmas
and called home on Monday about the disaster.
She had cuts on her face and body.
Family members said Ms Goh, a third year marketing
student from the Nanyang Technological University, was
asleep in her hotel room when the tsunami struck.
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Singapore permanent resident, Paul Andriesz |
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Paul Andriesz, a Singapore permanent resident, said,
"The staff came rushing through the hotel saying,
Everybody get out, there's water coming. My wife and
I, we got separated for about nine hours. She was with
two of our children and I was with the nanny and a baby."
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26-year-old Loh Tse Lynn |
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Twenty-six-year-old Loh Tse Lynn and her friend lost
most of their belongings when their seaside resort was
wiped out.
They had stopped by at the Khao Lak beach after a two-week
diving expedition, and taken shelter at a restaurant
that morning.
Ms Loh said, "The shop owners went out to take
a look, then he said, Everyone upstairs, upstairs. So
we went upstairs and we saw the water just came down
the street and covered the whole street; it was very
fast."
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Singaporean tourist Mabel Lee |
| Singaporean tourist Mabel Lee said, "The road leading
to the hotel was all covered. It was muddy, it was swirling;
you had trucks and vans being pulled out from the land
in the direction of the sea." |
Singaporean Thomas Seah |
| Singaporean Thomas Seah said, "The nearby islands
were really flooded, very high; and the dive leaders were
saying this is something very strange, something they
have not seen for the past four years. The water went
up by three to five metres in 20 minutes. So they immediately
stopped all the diving activities." |
Singaporean, Sherwin Chua |
| Another Singaporean, Sherwin Chua, said, "We were
in contact with an official from the consulate and he
said there were six Singaporeans who cannot be accounted
for." |
American tourist Eric Li |
| American tourist Eric Li added, "There are a lot
of people injured at the Phuket Airport right now, trying
to get out. You see them wheeling around in wheelchairs,
and lots of bandages and injuries." |
Siti Adzmah Abdullah & Family |
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One Singaporean family of four back from Sri Lanka
also had a narrow escape when they arrived at the hotel
five minutes before the killer waves came.
They had witnessed the ordeal from the third floor.
Said Siti Adzmah Abdullah, "She was in a shock,
she was crying. She said, Mama, I don't want to die,
I don't want to die, mama. We were really very shaken."
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Survivors emerge as China quake rescue intensifies