thailand tsunami 2

the tsunami was a much bigger event than people initially realized. whereas cnn's 'largest natural disaster in recorded history' label may be sensationalist, it's growing increasingly obvious that this is a huge tragedy, affecting an enormous amount of people in the region.

it's often difficult to comprehend disasters of such scale. whereas the challenger accident and the events of 9/11 are etched in the mind of many people, large natural disasters and conflicts can seem like distant events happening to foreign people very far away- something of no consequence to one's daily life.

sunday was also the one-year anniversary of another tragedy- the earthquake in iran that killed over 30,000 people but received relatively little media attention. what this sunday's tsunami had that the earthquake didn't is a lot of western tourists caught in the middle and, as a consequence, lot of photos and video. it becomes clear that anyone, you or me, could have easily been caught up in this if we have decided to go to the beach last weekend.

it's especially shocking for me as i've been to the beaches affected many times. i'd never imagine something like this could happen- it's absolutely the furthest thing from one's mind when relaxing on the beach in peaceful happy thailand.

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below is an amazing sequence of photos showing the rush of water towards the sheraton grande laguna hotel in phuket. they were taken by helmut issels, the subject of this brief australian news story. the rest of the sequence can be seen on the original website as well as helmut's comments that the man in the photos was saved.