Tsunami survivors sobbed and broke down when they met their families at Johannesburg International airport on Wednesday after arriving on a mercy flight from Phuket, Thailand — and praised two young South Africans who coordinated the rescue effort.
The confirmed number of people killed in Sunday’s earthquake and tsunamis neared 81 000 on Wednesday, amid warnings the true toll could be far higher.
The bodies of the four dead South Africans were aboard the flight, arranged by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), Discovery Health and Netcare in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs.
According to the SAJBD, they were identified as Morris Isaacson, Roy Fitzsimmons, Daphne Coetzee and Dolores Ribeira.
Looking tired and drained, 14-year-old David Bernstein told reporters at the airport: ”All I can think about is the people back there. I would go back there in a moment to help them.”
Bernstein and his mother, father and sister all survived the tsunami while on holiday in Phuket.
The men coordinating the rescue effort, Daniel Treisman (23) and Gavin Pearl (25), are both members of the SAJBD who were holidaying on Phi Phi island when disaster struck.
They went to every hospital bed and every morgue on Krabi and Phuket islands to trace South Africans.
They also set up an SMS campaign to ensure South Africans went to the airport in Phuket for the rescue flight.
The two, looking shell-shocked and exhausted, were modest about their efforts.
”We were asked to do a job and we just went ahead and did it,” said Pearl.
The aircraft landed in Johannesburg shortly before 3pm on Wednesday.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters that more flights could be sent to Thailand if the disaster management committee deems it necessary.
He said an estimated 24 South Africans are still missing in Thailand.
Six severely injured South Africans are still in a Bangkok private hospital, it was confirmed on Wednesday.
Among them is Gaby Baron, girlfriend of Paul Sender, one of the South African tourists still missing in Thailand.
Initially feared dead, Baron is actually ”alive and well” in Bangkok, said SAJBD Gauteng chairperson Zev Krengel. Also safe in Bangkok are Gary and Ilana Sweidan, he said.
They were among three South African men and three women airlifted out of Thailand by an International SOS air ambulance on Monday, said its regional general manager, Dr Ian Cornish.
Teams on the ground in Phuket are continuing their search for the rest of the missing South Africans — thought to include Avadya Berman and Nicki Liebovitz.
However, time is against them, with a mass cremation of the dead scheduled for Saturday amid fears of the increasing threat of disease with no space left for bodies in mortuaries.
Victims break down
Many of those on the rescue flight broke down crying when they were reunited with their families in Johannesburg.
Among the injured on the plane were seven members of the Panaino family. Worst injured among them was seven-year-old Chane, who was released from intensive care in Phuket on Tuesday after sustaining head injuries.
Her father and grandfather had been missing, feared dead, but ”popped up” at the Krabi relief centre on Tuesday, dazed and bewildered after being airlifted from Phi Phi island, said Krengel.
A Pretoria man with serious chest injuries was in a stable condition, but would be evacuated to Unitas hospital in Centurion on arrival in the country, said Netcare 911 CEO Dr Ryan Noach.
Piet Britz spent most of Wednesday waiting at Johannesburg International airport for his brother-in-law, Paul Bester (74), sister Bessie (74) and their five-year-old granddaughter Junke, who spent three hours waiting for medical help in a mountain refuge on Phuket after the tsunami hit on Sunday.
Paul was knocked down by a tree and Junke injured a leg, he said.
Paradise turned into hell
”It’s a miracle that we survived and I survived by one second,” said 14-year-old David Bernstein.
Bernstein, his mother, father and sister, all survived the tsunami while on holiday in Phuket.
Explaining how close he was to death, Bernstein said when he was escaping the floods, his shoe was sucked away by the rising water.
”This was paradise turned into in hell,” he added.
Bernstein heaped praise on the Thai people for their generosity and love.
”They sheltered us, gave us food when their country was facing a disaster,” he said.
His mother, Mandelle, said she had woken at 4am on the morning of the disaster and had a feeling that something was wrong.
”I lay in bed feeling ice cold and I said to myself, ‘I can’t die yet, my children still need me.”’
Like most survivors, the Bernsteins sought refuge in the mountains.
Bernstein said: ”Although we were higher, and able to watch the waves as they came, we still felt unsafe.”
Mandelle shared the same sentiments, saying she felt sad that the Thai people had to stay there after a disaster while the South Africans were able to go home.
While talking to Mandelle, another survivor in her twenties passed in a wheelchair. Mandelle said she and another South African had taken care of the woman, who had bruises on her face and legs.
Christine Malan (46), a neighbour of tsunami victim Daphney Coetzee, who was from Witpoortjie on Johannesburg’s West Rand, said she was happy that Daphney’s husband and two sons had survived but sad about her death.
Ian Coetzee and his sons, Dean (12) and Michael (9), arrived in South Africa with the body of their mother on Wedneday.
”It’s just unbelievable. We are still in disbelief,” Malan said as she and her two sons waited for three hours to meet the Coetzee family at the airport.
Her son, 16-year-old Nicholas Malan, said: ”It’s unreal. We can’t believe that Daphney is gone forever. It’s sad to think that the boys will now grow [up] without their mother at this age.”
Cobus Malan (14) said: ”We never though it could happen to someone we know and we have been watching Sky News until late at night.”
‘Run, water come’
Certain phrases — ”up mountain” and ”run, water come” — will forever stay with a South African man who survived the tsunami in Thailand.
”I can recount the experience second by second because it will always be in my mind,” said Les Venter on Wednesday.
But he added: ”I don’t think I would like to have shared a disaster with anyone but the Thais.”
Speaking to reporters at the airport after being rescued from Phuket, Venter said: ”The first thing I want to do when I get home is hug my family.”
Venter was on holiday with his family in Phatang on Phuket when the massive tsunami hit the Indian Ocean coastlines in south-east Asia.
The Venter family, including wife Elbie, daughter Nicole (14) and a friend, had earlier felt the earthquake.
”Have I lost my mind or is the bed moving?” Elbie asked, before tragedy struck.
The family were able to run from the massive waves up a nearby mountain, although they were separated from their daughter during the flight.
”She was taken in by a Thai family and then an English family,” Venter said, adding that they were eventually reunited.
The family, along with thousands of other refugees, spent the night on a mountain.
”People were running all night,” Venter said, explaining that false rumours of more killer waves created havoc.
Venter said his family is in shock and they will have to undergo trauma counselling. He was, however, full of praise for the Thai people.
”I don’t think I would like to have shared a disaster with anyone but the Thais.”
He said the Thais had opened up their homes to the stranded holidaymakers.
”They were facing devastation, yet they were prepared to care for you,” he said, adding that he would like to go back to Thailand.
”Not soon, but yes, I’d go back. Right now I’m not even going to go to Durban in a hurry,” he said.
Death toll still rises
In Indonesia, a Health Ministry spokesperson said the country’s toll is more than 45 000 after it took the full force of Sunday’s huge earthquake and tidal waves.
In Sri Lanka, at least 22 493, including at least 100 foreigners, were killed by the tidal waves, the president’s office said. The death toll in India hit 10 850 with many thousands still missing, officials said.
More than 1 800 people, among them more than 700 foreign tourists, were killed in southern Thailand, officials said. They fear that many of about 5 000 people still missing are foreign tourists.
In Myanmar, at least 90 people were killed, according to the United Nations, while 65 people were dead in Malaysia, officials said. At least 67 people, including 10 foreigners, were killed in the tourist paradise of the Maldives while another 69 are missing, officials said.
In Bangladesh, a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized in large waves, officials said. Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 114 fishermen were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.
The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9,0 on the Richter scale — making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.
Aid agencies need cash
Governments worldwide have pledged tens of millions of dollars to help victims of the disaster, which struck on Sunday. Tens of thousands were killed and millions left homeless in almost 11 countries from south-east Asia to Africa.
Millions of individuals have responded to the tsunami disaster, making donations of cash and other items.
”The response has been overwhelming,” said Avinash Singh Gill, first secretary at the Indian High Commission in Singapore. The high commission has been accepting cheques and bank drafts to fund India’s aid and reconstruction effort.
Aid agencies stressed that cash is the most appropriate gift, because it affords the most flexibility to meet changing needs on the ground.
Governments have pledged almost $100-million to the relief effort, with Japan, the European Union and the US leading the way. Tons of food and medical supplies are also being shipped by UN agencies, the Red Cross and non-governmental agencies.
The British government pledged £15-million to the international aid effort, and the secretary of state for international development, Hilary Benn, said the money is ”the first phase” of the United Kingdom’s commitment to helping the afflicted countries.
Where to contribute in SA
The South African Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday made a public appeal for relief organisations and private individuals who wish to make contributions to the aid effort to contact the Foreign Affairs Relief Coordinating Centre at 012 351 1520/1560/1466. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa
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