Former Thai paradise island is now paradise lost

Former Thai paradise island is now paradise lost

Agencies, Phi Phi Island, Khao Lak, Thailand

Thailand's one-time paradise island of Phi Phi is now paradise lost.

Two days after a wall of water smashed into the holiday island from both sides, rescuers on Tuesday were still retrieving bloated corpses from the lagoon or from the wreckage of shattered buildings.

Every building on the 28 square kilometers main island, apart from two luxury resorts, was destroyed or badly damaged when tidal waves battered Thailand's southwest coast on Sunday.

One rescuer, Wirat Mansa-ad, has estimated that more than 300 people were killed on the island. No updated figure was available on Tuesday but officials say it was the second worst hit area in the south.

Thais who worked to develop the island made famous by the Hollywood movie "The Beach" were mourning both the loss of loved ones and their businesses.

"My wife and son and daughter are safe but I'm still looking for my father, sister and two nieces. I think they're all dead," said Dud Sama-ae, 51.

Apart from his personal tragedy, the entrepreneur's businesses are also gone. "I have nothing left, my business is gone with the water." he told AFP.

"I just finished renovating my restaurant last month, preparing for high season."

When the first wave hit, Dud had no time to warn his family.

"I saw the wave smother the island so I had to climb up a coconut tree and when I looked back to where my restaurant had been there was nothing there."

All 40 bungalows operated jointly with his brother and sister are also gone, he said, estimating that he and his family lost 10 million baht (US$256,400) from the disaster.

"I have no idea what we'll do," he said, his voice quivering with shock.

"Phi Phi is dead. It will decades to bring it back to life, to the level it was before the earthquake."

Thakengsak Diswath, 53, came to Phi Phi 16 years ago when its tourist business was just starting. He has lost his bakery and has nothing left.

"The richest and the poorest on Phi Phi are now one and the same. Everybody must start from zero," he said.

His house was not destroyed but moved 200 metres off its foundations.

Bodies were still being taken off the island as troops joined the search for remaining corpses. Some 38 bodies were taken off on Monday and 15 as of early afternoon on Tuesday.

The last of about 5,000 tourists who survived the disaster left the island on Tuesday and fewer than 100 remain. Many locals have also left.

But Samart Srinuan, 45, whose 15 bungalows were severely damaged, was still on the island to try to find his daughter.

"I haven't found her and I cannot go anywhere until I do," he said.

Meanwhile, miles of tsunami-shattered beach hotels on the Thai mainland north of Phuket island began yielding up their dead on Tuesday, bloated bodies, bodies gashed and mangled.

At least 770 corpses, of both Thais and foreign tourists, had been recovered by 0800 GMT (3 p.m in Jakarta) in the area around Khao Lak beach, a magnet for Scandinavians and Germans escaping the long, dark winters at home.

That made it the worst hit place in Thailand and there were fears the final toll would be higher in an area which drew tourists for scuba diving and snorkeling among the coral reefs of the Andaman Sea as well as its golden sands and sunshine.

Local hotel owner Yanyong Korpetch said he believed half the estimated 5,000 foreign tourists staying at Khao Lak were killed when the wall of water struck on Sunday. The bodies of more than 100 of his 300 guests had been recovered, he said.

Chantima Saengli, owner of the Blue Village Pagarang hotel, told a Bangkok radio station she knew about 60 of her Scandinavian guests were safe.

She feared the other 340 were dead, their bodies swept into the lush rain forest covering the hills behind the beach.

Thailand's official death toll was 1,516 with 1,400 missing, many of them Thais working in the tourist trade. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered three days of national mourning.