It was Boxing Day, now 16 years distant, when the Andaman Coast of Thailand, and coastlines around the Indian Ocean, suffered one of nature’s most disastrous events of our generation.
The tsunami reached Phuket and provinces nearby around 10am on Boxing Day, December 26, 2004, and caused uncountable losses. Official Thai government statistics estimate 4,812 souls were lost to the waves on December 26, 2004, with another 8,457 injured and 4,499missing, presumed dead, all lost to the 3 large waves that swept inland along parts of the Andaman Coast.
While confirmed deaths in Phuket officially numbered only 259, another 700 remained listed as missing.
Up to 270,000 souls from 45 countries around the world were lost with millions affected. The coastal Thai community of Khao Lak, north of Phuket, was particularly badly affected by the waves. Poom Jensen, the grandson of the late King…
