Rescue Arrives (Full Episode) ｜ Tsunami： Race Against Time ｜ National Geographic)

I'm on the floor, coughing up most of the sea. But I look around and there's total devastation. I mean, every single one of the shacks had gone. The world has been wiped clean. It's like you're the last man on earth. My first thought is, where could she be? So I look around for Rachel, and at this point in time, I'm holding out hope against hope that she's made it, because I know full well that she's a very strong swimmer. But deep, deep, deep down in my heart, I think she's dead. When the wave hit, we were walking through the marketplace. As the water started to go above my chest, I looked for Rachel and I reached out and I grabbed the straps of her bikini top. The straps broke and she went sailing past me. After the water subsided, I just headed back to the hotel, screaming for Rachel. Knowing in my heart of hearts she's not there, then I saw survivors. But I realised when I saw some of the severity of the wounds coming in, that some people may not make it unless we did something really, really fast. The wave cut off, we'd been in the nowhere. No idea when help was going to come. This is Armageddon. My life before the day is totally different. I was a very cheerful girl. I liked to talk a lot with people and I was teasing people and make people laugh. When I see the wave come towards me, I make a decision to run up to the high place. But I'm still afraid that the wave will come back and kill me and kill everyone. Most people say you better go up to the homes. I see a lot of dead bodies laying on the beach. I saw this girl at the ground. She's about to die. And she said, please, if you see my family, tell them that I'm dying. I said, clapped my hands. Then, can you tell my parents that I'm Anna? I'm from La Chanse and I love this PPR. And she died on my hands. And then I hear the scream of people. Please help me. Get me out of this place. I could not say no to everyone calling for help. And I feel like I have to help them. I could not run to just save myself. And I forgot about my fear. I make decision to go back. I have to help them. I was battered. I was broken. And my right shoulder was dislocated. But I was lucky because I was able to walk. I was in reasonably good shape compared to everybody else who wasn't in good shape. If you are caught in any of the buildings, that wall of water smashes through that window and everything in that room becomes a weapon. Not just a weapon, a weapon that is desperately trying to kill you. There's a poor guy that was literally skewered on some metal in the reception. Hundreds of people had died and many hundreds of people were injured. So I just said, you know, is there anybody with medical experience? And they said, no. I said, well, what do you do? I said, well, I work in psychiatry. And they said, well, you can use a psychiatrist later on, but right now we need someone with some medical training. I thought, well, I've got some medical training, yeah. They said, well, you're it. This is way beyond anybody's capacity to deal with. You've got no supplies. I'm telling people to use bits of wooden slats as splints of people with broken legs. And then Sally came in and it was difficult for me to process how I was going to manage that. Sally and I were by the pool when the wave came and I said, go, just go and get somewhere high. And then I ran down the beach to try and help some people. And then we were separated soon after. When I found Sally, she obviously didn't think she was that badly hurt. But then when I checked under the sheet, she had a deep gash right into her stomach and that was all open. Torn to shreds, like you'd see in a shark attack. And then her foot, her ankle was all up and her heel was sort of all hanging off. She was severe. And I, to be honest with you, I said, this is a toughie. She needs proper surgery. But I don't get her off this island today and get proper medical treatment. She's not going to last the night. But the only way people can get to us was by boat or by air. I heard the news in the morning, but not very much detail. This is unprecedented. We never encountered tsunami before, but at the meeting, they reported that there were at least 100 dead and it would increase hour by hour. They said that some people stranded in many islands. So I contact the army, the navy. I said, go there and help the people. Every minute matters. We have to get them out. I was stuck. I could not move, up on something, high up. Something was wrapped around my body. A big twirl. I couldn't hold it. up on something high up. it hurt a lot. I just turned 25 and I was living with my boyfriend, so yeah, engaged and ready to move on in life. So I'm just laying there on my stomach and then I heard people scream for help around me. I heard a guy below me, felt like a couple of meters down. He was breathing really bad and he was moaning like, I'm about to die, I'm going to die, I can't make it. I'm like, just take it calm, you just relax, you just breathe, I will scream for the both of us. So I'm screaming, I'm resting a couple of seconds, I talk to him. I don't know how long time passed but he stopped breathing and stopped making sound. And then I start screaming for help again. Sally was getting weaker and weaker. The cuts were deep, she'd lost a lot of blood, the wounds are going to become infected. So she was my priority number one to get her off. She was just quiet, not moving, not speaking, her breath was wheezing. It was just the sense of guilt and self-loathing that you get from helping strangers when you didn't help somebody that you cared about. All kicks in and then you just, you know, she isn't going to get through this. She's going to die anyway. Nobody's coming in to just pluck us from disaster. But then somebody said there's a ferry and it looks like it's heading in towards the pier. Everybody's eyes are fixed on the horizon. And it was at that point I'm like, that's coming, that bird's coming in, that is coming in. Somebody said to me some boats had come back to help. So I thought, great, I can get some of these people off here as fast as possible. So I said, anybody who's walking wounded, get on the boat. But Sally, she was in the seriously injured category. I didn't want her to go on a boat because I felt that it would be better for her if she was flown out straight to a hospital. But it's a tough call. If the helicopter doesn't come, she's going to die. In my head, there was no way that boat was leaving without myself and Sally on it. Not a flipping chance am I missing that boat. We got as close to the edge as we could, over the edge of the boat and on. The boat was pretty busy. There was other people dotted around, various states of immersion. Some people just absolutely collapsed, sobbing. Some people just gone like, just completely vacant. I just remember thinking she needed to be on this boat. She's on the boat, right, what is next? And then you get that sort of flood of, what if where we're going has been hit? And I'm just thinking, just hold on. At this time, the people screaming for help, they became fewer and fewer. And it was not because someone helped them. I was thinking about everything. The funeral was kind of planned in my head. Like a movie situation, you imagine it was like me, my boyfriend, my boyfriend's little brother, a friend, all our friends in the same funeral. It was the whole thing, like worst case scenario thinking at the same time. We were 25, we were young. And I start to scream for help in English. It's like, help, can anyone hear me? And then I hear people far away. And they say, yeah, we can hear you. I'm like, someone found me. Finally, it felt like, I don't have the time of it, but it felt like hours. And then I hear them switch to Swedish between each other. And I hear them talk about the risks. We can't go in. The building can fall down. And so I just switched to Swedish and like, I'm also Swedish. You can't leave me here. Like, I'm calling the newspaper. Like, I'm calling your parents if you leave me. I was like, if I get out, I will hunt you down. And then they reply in Swedish like, yeah, but we don't even have shoes on. And we need to be more people. We can't go in just the two of us. We promise we will get back to get you. We will come back to get you. We promise you. And then they leave. Then I was like, oh my God, they had just talked about all the risks. They're not coming back. There are people being brought in all the time. I thought, well, at least we got people out on the boats. But I still had some serious injuries that still needed to get off the island and the sun was starting to set. And the devastation around me, I knew there'll be people there that are trapped. And you don't know when help is going to arrive. Deep down, you're thinking, why is it taking so long? It was a difficult thing to feel that helpless. And then somebody says to you, I can see a helicopter coming. And the sense of relief over my body, it was just palpable. You know, it's just like, oh, thank God. I remember Rachel, who I thought I'd lost. She just appeared behind me. I remember seeing you as I picked my way across the rubble. Standing in front of the hotel, with a group of people, shouting orders. And you didn't see me. I came up behind you. And they just tapped you on the shoulder. And I said, honey, I'm here. And you just turned around. And it was like that moment in a movie where we were just reunited. And we just hugged each other really tight. And you said, I thought I'd lost you. And I said, I thought I'd lost you too. And it was that incredible moment of realizing that we both survived. I was very, very emotional at the time. Very emotional. But I just felt, right, I can start getting these people off the island now. I've run down to meet the helicopter pilot. His English wasn't particularly good. But thankfully, I had a lovely woman call, hear me. You can help yourself, but they will help as well. Helped me to translate as best as possible. So I said, I've got injured. I need to prioritize who I need to get off the island first. At that time, I just feel that power, that energy come to me. I have more power than strength that I not even feel hungry. I not even feel like want to drink something. People do not realize actually I'm one of the survivors as well. They thought I worked as someone to help evacuate people. I didn't save lives on my own. There were a team of wonderful people who stood up and were counted, who took it upon themselves to go out and search for survivors. Yeah, you don't cry. You're a good girl. You're a strong girl. You're a strong girl. A young girl got pulled out and brought back onto the helicopter. It was wonderful. To watch somebody put a sheet over somebody so when the helicopter lands, the sand doesn't get in their wounds, pick them up and then take them to a helicopter when they've got cuts and bruises themselves. That for me was a joyous thing. I'm proud of them. I'm very proud of them. So I want to say thank you. This is me just saying thank you to you guys. They kept their promise. The Swedish guys turned up again and they have more people with them. I think there are four maybe arriving. They got me out of that hole and we are hugging and I'm like, thank you for my life. And he was like, yeah, take care. Good luck. And then the chopper leaves. The chopper only can take up to eight people. Everyone wants to survive, but it's not possible. One of the big things was the planning lady. She was sitting there waiting to go on the helicopter, but she never cried out because she didn't have a wound or injury, but she had damaged her inside with bruises. But the other guy is more severe and I made the wrong decision. I put her on the chopper after one of the captains come back and tell me that that planning lady, she could not make it and she died halfway with her baby inside. And that girl is living with me for a long time. That I made a mistake. I should have saved her. Then I can save the baby's life and her. I feel bad for a long time. I was just so happy to be out of PPE. We were four people going to Thailand for holidays. After the tsunami, we were three coming home. I survived with some injuries. My boyfriend, Magnus, survived with some injuries, but Magnus' little brother, Fredrik, did not make it home. So he was identified April 2005. At that point, Sally's condition was still the same. She still wasn't speaking. She was lying there and people are dying. I think the lady next to her, who was alive when she got on the boat, I remember she had like a terrible injury to her neck. I know the sheet was pulled over her head. There were still pangs of, for me, that Sally wasn't going to survive. And then when we arrived in Phuket, there was a bit of elation because as the boat was coming in, there was like rows of ambulances and there was tonnes of people who actually looked clean and neat. You're thinking, oh my God, these guys haven't just been washed away. There's actually something functional here. And as soon as that boat came in and that gangplank hit, they flooded the boat and they were straight on. I felt relief. And it was the point when I thought, we might just get out of this. She's going to be going to hospital. She's going to be okay. I just felt all these thuds of people jumping onto the boats. And then they just passed me. They thought I was dead. And Paul's like, no, no, no, she's alive. She's alive. And they grabbed me. And I just remember just the relief that Paul was there. He was just so calm. And he was smiling and kept reassuring me, kept telling me I was going to be fine. The one thing that stood out was that people were just selfless, especially the local people, the Thai people. There was a lot of loss, but we were lucky. We were the lucky ones that day. Good evening. The largest earthquake in 40 years has devastated large parts of Southern Asia. Emergency services have been overwhelmed. Communications by road, by telephone have been cut off. Only now that the waters have subsided can the authorities begin the grim task of establishing exactly how many people have died here. The latest estimates, they've put the death toll from this earthquake, as well as the tsunamis, at 7,000. The death toll is rising. More than 12,000 people are dead across Asia. There's now more than 23,000. And that number's likely to rise still further. We were surprised and shocked just how truly unprecedented the scale of this story was. And in the midst of all this, as the reports are coming in first from Sri Lanka, and then from India, and then from Thailand, and we're still not hearing anything from Indonesia. And what's known about the areas closest to the epicenter? Well, most disturbingly, not a single report has come out from that area. My colleague at CNN had been trying to confirm with officials what was going on, but the communication systems were wiped out, and she hadn't been able to get through to anyone anywhere close to where the earthquake happened. And I'll never forget when she called me and she said, Eli, I have a terrible feeling about why we're not getting any information from Aceh. I said, I think it's gone. I think they're all gone. When we flew in to Bandar Aceh, you just couldn't believe it. Just houses flattened as far as the eye could see. Thousands of people had died, who had been washed away. Everybody that you met had a story to tell. Three weeks later, you could not imagine that there were any survivors. Everybody who would be alive would be accounted for. We couldn't actually drive all the way down to the coast. The road had been washed away. So we left the car a few hundred yards. And whilst they were doing that, I just thought I would get some other shots. And I saw this child walking towards me along the beach. And he's just been through hell. He's lost his family. He's lost everything. And he didn't know where he was. He'd spent the last two weeks wandering up and down the beach. He'd been sleeping next to dead bodies in the water. The only thing he'd been eating was packets of dried noodles that he'd managed to scavenge. We were just heartbroken because he had no one. When they gave him food, I was very happy. They were very kind to me. I immediately thought of my family. I hugged my mother, brother and sister. Suddenly, everybody was gone. I was in a hospital. I felt very sad and scared. And I was very happy that God had given me a gift. It turned out that I wasn't alone. I still had my father. And he's the only one I have now. I love my father very much. The tsunami wave itself took about 12 hours. And it killed more people than have ever been killed in any previous tsunami in known history. We know with absolute certainty that at some point there will be another event as bad or worse than the Sumatra event, as horrible as it was. And we have to be prepared. I began dedicating, I guess, the rest of my career to helping other places form their warning systems and be part of the process of researching and bringing in the new methods to save lives in the future. What took many hours to do back then, the warning centers now do in minutes. If the same thing were to happen today that happened then, I think there's hope that we will be prepared. Nearly a quarter of a million people left this planet in one day. To see one soul lost is traumatic enough. To try and contemplate that much is too difficult. It's too painful to bear. I saw hundreds of acts of heroism that day when things are at their darkest. When somebody is in trouble, people want to help. That is the wonderful power of the human spirit.