1 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,799 Speaker 1: You're listening to Alive Again, a production of Psychopia Pictures 2 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: and iHeart Podcasts. 3 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,600 Speaker 2: My name is Dwayne Meadows. On the day after Christmas 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 2: in two thousand and four, I survive one of the 5 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 2: world's worst natural disasters. To this day, what gets me 6 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 2: through thinking about it is thinking about all of the 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,560 Speaker 2: helpful things that people did in the face of this 8 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:40,960 Speaker 2: immense disaster. There was so much help that made things 9 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 2: even just a little bit better for everyone. 10 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Alive Again, a podcast that showcases miraculous accounts 11 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: of human fragility and resilience from people whose lives were 12 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: forever altered after having almost died. These are first hand 13 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: accounts of near death exp periences and more broadly, brushes 14 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: with death. Our mission is simple, find, explore, and share 15 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:09,040 Speaker 1: these stories to remind us all of our shared human condition. 16 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: Please keep in mind these stories are true and maybe 17 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,399 Speaker 1: triggering for some listener, and discretion is advised. 18 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 2: I grew up in rural Ohio, but I was a 19 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 2: swimmer and I always love the water. Early on, as 20 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:28,920 Speaker 2: a child, I wanted to learn how to scuba dive, 21 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 2: and so I was able to get certified at the 22 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 2: age of fifteen. I had lots of little farm ponds 23 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 2: and lakes around me, very small, and I would go 24 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 2: and grab my gear and ask the ask the owners 25 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 2: if I could just scuba dive and see what was 26 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 2: in their lakes. That kept me occupied as a teenager. 27 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 2: From there, I decided I would go to college to 28 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 2: learn how to be a marine biologist. It turned out 29 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 2: to be something that was really interesting and people were 30 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 2: willing to pay me to go to interesting places to 31 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:09,160 Speaker 2: look at interesting animals. 32 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 3: I had the. 33 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:15,080 Speaker 2: Opportunity to go visit a college friend who was from 34 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 2: and lived and worked in Thailand, and I got there 35 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 2: on Christmas Day in the afternoon, so it was a holiday. 36 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 3: People were celebrating and. 37 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 2: Taking the time off, and I met a young German woman, Caroline, 38 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 2: who was looking for the same resort that I was 39 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 2: staying at, and we ended up talking about scuba diving. 40 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:41,040 Speaker 2: We decided to meet in the morning and maybe go 41 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:48,680 Speaker 2: snorkeling on the nice beaches that they had there. It 42 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 2: was a lovely, beautiful sunny day, and after we finished 43 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 2: our breakfast, we both decided we needed to go back 44 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 2: to our rooms, but we agreed to meet in just 45 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 2: fifteen minutes and unfortunately, that's when everything really started. 46 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 3: I was back in. 47 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 2: My bungalow, a little two room building right on the beach, 48 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 2: looking out on the sea. 49 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:16,799 Speaker 3: It was gorgeous. 50 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 2: I started to throw laundry into a big backpack, and 51 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 2: I heard a scream, and then I looked out to 52 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:31,080 Speaker 2: the ocean and I saw some distance out, now, maybe 53 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 2: a mile or something, this white line far out in 54 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 2: the ocean. 55 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 3: That looked like some kind of small wave. 56 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 2: I knew it was a tsunami, but I thought, oh, 57 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 2: this is just a tiny, little little wave out in 58 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 2: the distance, and I thought I was going to be safe. 59 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 2: My bungalow was kind of up off the sand. It 60 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 2: was on a slope, and there were maybe five or 61 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 2: six steps up to the actual level of my room, 62 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 2: so I figured I was a little bit above the 63 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 2: water level. Just to be safe. I thought, Oh, I'm 64 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 2: gonna take my clothes and throw this backpack up on 65 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 2: top of this armor furniture, and it's all gonna be good. 66 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 2: Maybe I'm gonna get my feet wet, but this kind 67 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 2: of little wave might wash through and it's no big deal. 68 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 2: So I wasn't really scared at that point, but very 69 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 2: quickly that started to change. The next thing I remember, 70 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 2: the water just comes gushing into my room and almost 71 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 2: immediately fills it up. There was no time to get out, 72 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 2: and I just kind of remember bracing myself and thinking 73 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 2: I could hold on and ride it out and see 74 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 2: what happened, or this building is just going to be 75 00:04:52,000 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 2: a death trap. Everything just exploded as the wave came in, 76 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 2: and I found myself underwater, just spinning and twisting and 77 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 2: completely disoriented and not knowing what way was up and 78 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 2: whether I could really survive just the force of the water. 79 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 2: I convince myself, I need to just calm down. My 80 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 2: air supply will last longer if I lower my heartbeat. 81 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 2: This is what we learn when we're diving and snarkling. 82 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:43,679 Speaker 2: I was tossing and turning, and I could feel myself 83 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 2: flipping around just like a. 84 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 3: You know, rag dollar whatever they say. 85 00:05:57,120 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 2: I was thinking I would swim up, but I had 86 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 2: no idea which direction was actually up. I still felt 87 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 2: myself twisting and turning, so I felt very helpless. The 88 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:20,559 Speaker 2: reality of the fact that I was not maybe gonna 89 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 2: be able to make it out of this started to 90 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 2: settle in. I remember very distinctly saying goodbye to my 91 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:36,679 Speaker 2: son who was like six years old at that point 92 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:38,720 Speaker 2: and wasn't with me on this day. 93 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 3: He was still back home with his mother. 94 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:45,839 Speaker 2: We were divorced, and thinking about my other family members 95 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:51,920 Speaker 2: and my parents were still alive. Time just seemed to expand. 96 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:55,719 Speaker 2: I don't know how long it lasted, but there were 97 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:00,840 Speaker 2: so many visions of my life during that time, and 98 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,600 Speaker 2: I felt like that's what I was really seeing in 99 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:07,039 Speaker 2: front of me. As I was still in this dark, 100 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 2: dark water, kind of just felt myself almost giving up 101 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 2: to these thoughts and not really thinking about how to swim. 102 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 2: With my training, I had been able to hold my 103 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 2: breath for three or four minutes underwater. I'm guessing with 104 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,000 Speaker 2: all the stress and adrenaline and everything of this, it 105 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 2: was probably more like a minute. 106 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 3: And a half. 107 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:38,920 Speaker 2: Out of nowhere, I ended up popping up to the 108 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:47,960 Speaker 2: surface of the water, you know. I remember that feeling 109 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 2: of relief and almost euphoria surviving this thing like quickly 110 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 2: changed to another sense of Oh my god, this is horrible. 111 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 2: The water was moving incredibly fast, like a whitewater rafting trip, 112 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:09,200 Speaker 2: and very quickly I was feeling lots of stuff hitting me, 113 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:14,720 Speaker 2: and as I start to look around, I can see 114 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 2: debris everywhere now, and I mean cars floating in the water, bungalows, 115 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:27,920 Speaker 2: whole bungalows floating, and trees and wood with nails. And 116 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 2: they used a lot of propane tanks, I think for 117 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,280 Speaker 2: heating or cooling your refrigerators and whatever, and some of 118 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,839 Speaker 2: those were spewing gas and you could hear the hissing 119 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 2: sound everywhere in the background, so it was very loud 120 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:47,840 Speaker 2: and still like crunching of debris, and the debris was 121 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:53,440 Speaker 2: coming into like big piles that were many, many feet high, 122 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 2: so you couldn't see very far even if you really 123 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,080 Speaker 2: wanted to, because the piles were starting to come together, 124 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 2: and the buildings were breaking up, and the metal was 125 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 2: creaking like all these different sounds on top of screams. 126 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 3: I heard lots of people. 127 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,080 Speaker 2: In the water screaming, but I never saw any for 128 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 2: the longest time, because there was so much debris between us, 129 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:23,600 Speaker 2: and even the water itself was quite big, waves especially 130 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,959 Speaker 2: and just mud. The water was so full of mud. 131 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,560 Speaker 2: It was so chaotic with so many things in the 132 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 2: water that I felt that I could only like look 133 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 2: ahead of me and try to block things with my 134 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,600 Speaker 2: hands from hitting my face and my chest, and kind 135 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:45,240 Speaker 2: of my vital organs. 136 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:48,280 Speaker 3: Was so rapid fire that like. 137 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:51,319 Speaker 2: You couldn't really like look ahead of you and see something, 138 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:55,960 Speaker 2: even if it was thirty feet in front of you. 139 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:58,000 Speaker 2: You know, I really started to get in a little 140 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 2: panicked at all of the things that were hitting me 141 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 2: and just not being able to really relax at all. 142 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 2: And I remember something pulling me under and realizing that 143 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:15,960 Speaker 2: I was barely above water and I had like strap 144 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:20,640 Speaker 2: on Tiva sandals, and something had gotten between my heel 145 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 2: and the sandal and was pulling me under. 146 00:10:25,679 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 3: It was heavy. 147 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 2: I have no idea what it was, but I reached 148 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 2: down take my sandal off, and just unconsciously I put 149 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:41,080 Speaker 2: a sandal on my wrist. It just kept going and going. 150 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:44,520 Speaker 2: At some point there, probably a few minutes, I ran 151 00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 2: into a palm tree. And I had been noticing that 152 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 2: the water level was basically the tops of palm trees. 153 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:54,320 Speaker 2: And if you've you know, you ever spend any time 154 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 2: at a tropical beach, you know, those things are thirty 155 00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 2: forty to fifty feet tall, And it made me realize 156 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 2: just how deep the water was. Clearly I was somewhere 157 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:10,000 Speaker 2: actually over what should have been land as I was 158 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,760 Speaker 2: grabbing onto the tree. Basically the water was still hitting 159 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,360 Speaker 2: my back. It was coming from behind me, and so 160 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:19,720 Speaker 2: the debris now instead of kind of floating with me, 161 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 2: was hitting me, and sometimes hard, like enough that it 162 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 2: would sort of knock your breath out almost. 163 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:31,000 Speaker 3: So I just decided to let go and again. 164 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:41,760 Speaker 2: Was floating in this kind of giant river. I finally 165 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,360 Speaker 2: found the thing that really I think kind of saved me, 166 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:46,920 Speaker 2: which was. 167 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:49,000 Speaker 3: A mannequin. 168 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:54,280 Speaker 2: I had the lower half, just the legs and kind 169 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,040 Speaker 2: of the waist, and I hugged it close to my 170 00:11:57,200 --> 00:11:59,760 Speaker 2: chest and it was helping me stay a little bit 171 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:03,080 Speaker 2: out of water and catch my breath. And we just 172 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:09,080 Speaker 2: cruised along like that. As the water kind of slowed down, 173 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:14,160 Speaker 2: I could finally start to look around me. I realized 174 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,480 Speaker 2: I was actually really in the ocean. Now, there there 175 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 2: was ocean. There was the mountains behind me, but nothing 176 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:26,320 Speaker 2: nothing looked familiar. I really had no idea exactly where 177 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 2: I was, and it was sort of hard to look 178 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 2: around at this point. There was so there were big 179 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 2: piles of debris, wood trees, you know, I could see 180 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 2: where the shore was. I wasn't that far out. I 181 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:45,240 Speaker 2: kept the mannequin with me. I had kind of started 182 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,360 Speaker 2: to feel my body come down from all the adrenaline, 183 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,240 Speaker 2: and I could tell at some point my knee was 184 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:55,560 Speaker 2: hurting and it felt like things had been messed up 185 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:56,120 Speaker 2: in some way. 186 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:58,720 Speaker 3: I couldn't really tell. I couldn't see in the water. 187 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:00,800 Speaker 2: But I thought, oh, this man would be a really 188 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:02,559 Speaker 2: nice crutch when I got to shore. 189 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 3: But I'll keep this. 190 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 2: And I also remember at some point thinking, this is 191 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:11,240 Speaker 2: like a great momento, and I really wanted to keep it. 192 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 2: And so I was swimming with this mannequin. It was 193 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,199 Speaker 2: not a straight line from where I was to the 194 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,800 Speaker 2: shore because of all of this debris, and so I 195 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:28,240 Speaker 2: had to swim kind of round about probably half a 196 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,680 Speaker 2: mile to get this a quarter mile, and during that 197 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:37,640 Speaker 2: time I could hear people screaming asking for help. I 198 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 2: didn't see any other people except the one person I 199 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 2: saw on a bungalow that I was swimming very nearby. 200 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,160 Speaker 2: It was a tie woman, so I could just tell 201 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 2: she was upset and hurt, but she was actually all 202 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 2: the way on the top of a roof, like her 203 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,600 Speaker 2: hands hanging over the peak of the roof, so she 204 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:05,120 Speaker 2: was almost completely out of the water. And able to 205 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 2: kind of catch her breath and rest. But she knew 206 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:10,760 Speaker 2: that she, like me, was also far out in the 207 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 2: ocean and needed to get back to shore, and so 208 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 2: I assumed she wanted help, and I swam over to 209 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:26,120 Speaker 2: this floating bungalow and I reached out the mannequin and 210 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 2: she understood what I was saying, and she was willing to. 211 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 3: Give it a try. 212 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,840 Speaker 2: I kind of said, I'm going to go with you 213 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:39,120 Speaker 2: and we'll go into shore. And she came down into 214 00:14:39,160 --> 00:14:42,920 Speaker 2: the water and she grabbed onto the mannequin, but she just, 215 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 2: you know, her face was just barely above the water, 216 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:49,840 Speaker 2: and she just freaked out. I don't think she knew 217 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 2: how to swim. She was kicking and screaming, and I 218 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,000 Speaker 2: couldn't get her to calm down, and she didn't want 219 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:56,880 Speaker 2: to stay in the water. 220 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,880 Speaker 3: I thought I could maybe like tow. 221 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,800 Speaker 2: Her in, but at the end she just climbed back 222 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,880 Speaker 2: up on the roof and I remember kind of motioning 223 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 2: to her that I would swim in and then come 224 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 2: back out to get her, and I meant it. 225 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:18,760 Speaker 3: At the time. It was silly. 226 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,600 Speaker 2: I had really no idea what things were really like 227 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 2: on shore, but I really meant it, and it haunted 228 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:32,800 Speaker 2: me for a long time afterwards that I wasn't able 229 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 2: to find her again. As I got closer to shore, 230 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:43,800 Speaker 2: I noticed these rocks that were along the coast, very 231 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:46,840 Speaker 2: close to the beach. And the thing that caught my 232 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:52,560 Speaker 2: attention though, was that there were snails and muscleshells and 233 00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:55,880 Speaker 2: other marine life that were growing on this rock. But 234 00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,080 Speaker 2: they were six or seven feet out of the water, 235 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 2: and I knew that that was too high to be natural, 236 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,400 Speaker 2: that they were too far above the current water level 237 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:08,440 Speaker 2: that I was swimming in for that to be natural. 238 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,760 Speaker 2: So what that told me as a marine biologist was 239 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,320 Speaker 2: that the water level was too low. That rock should 240 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 2: have only been two feet out of water, and it 241 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,480 Speaker 2: was six feet or seven feet out of water. And 242 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 2: that's how I knew there was another wave coming. I 243 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,680 Speaker 2: just thought, I can't do this again. I can't survive 244 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:41,160 Speaker 2: another wave. It was clear from where I was at 245 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 2: that the wave had gone a long way into shore 246 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 2: and that I was nowhere near to the safety that 247 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,480 Speaker 2: I had just thought I was at. I swam as 248 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 2: quickly as I could to shore and got out, but 249 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:57,560 Speaker 2: I was very depressed at that point as I started 250 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 2: to walk. I could tell pretty quickly that my leg 251 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:05,480 Speaker 2: was injured, that I was going to be limping. My 252 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,919 Speaker 2: hip felt weird. I mean, I had cuts everywhere on 253 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 2: my body. In front of me, there was kind of 254 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,640 Speaker 2: a newer resort building, like concrete, unlike most of the 255 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,280 Speaker 2: bamboo kind of bungalows that most of us had stayed in. 256 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,480 Speaker 2: It was three stories tall, was a lot. 257 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 3: Of it was just gone. All the windows and glass 258 00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 3: and some of the walls were gone, but it was. 259 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 2: Still kind of there, and there was a gap between 260 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:35,399 Speaker 2: that one building and another, and so I started working 261 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:40,159 Speaker 2: my way in that direction. And it was at that 262 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:44,879 Speaker 2: point that I really started to come across other survivors. 263 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:52,160 Speaker 2: Some people were just completely hysterical, screaming for their loved ones, 264 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 2: their children especially, or partners. And I kind of suggested 265 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:04,080 Speaker 2: that maybe we should go up, hopefully the main road 266 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,760 Speaker 2: was okay or somewhere where there were more people, like 267 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 2: another wave might be coming. And it's not say. 268 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:22,680 Speaker 3: We were all alive. 269 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 2: And while we saw a good share of dead bodies 270 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 2: on the beach, it seemed like a lot of people 271 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:34,880 Speaker 2: had made it. And I remember, you know, using that 272 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 2: logic with people to suggest that you know their loved 273 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 2: ones probably made it. The fact that I came out 274 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:45,160 Speaker 2: of the water very far from where I had started. 275 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:49,560 Speaker 2: When I was talking with people about like where their 276 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,199 Speaker 2: loved ones might be and why they weren't in the 277 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,159 Speaker 2: same place they were for some people that worked, and 278 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,719 Speaker 2: of course for some people they you know, we're just 279 00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 2: completely distraught. It was at that point that I realized 280 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:02,560 Speaker 2: I still had my sandal and I was the only 281 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:06,480 Speaker 2: person who had any kind of footwear in our group 282 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,240 Speaker 2: of there's probably five or six people at that point, 283 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:11,560 Speaker 2: and I said, Okay, I'm going to put my sandal on, 284 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:15,000 Speaker 2: and I went in front of the group of people 285 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:18,000 Speaker 2: and just kind of shuffled my way through some of 286 00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:20,560 Speaker 2: these puddles that we just couldn't avoid, to kind of 287 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,399 Speaker 2: make sure we weren't like stepping on anything like really sharp. 288 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,199 Speaker 2: There were enormous piles of debris and puddles kind of 289 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:32,239 Speaker 2: just like in the ocean, like I described earlier, and 290 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:36,720 Speaker 2: so we had this crazy little trail of people making 291 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:39,520 Speaker 2: our way through this debris and trying not to hurt 292 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:45,520 Speaker 2: ourselves any worse. We ran across some tie or Burmese 293 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,119 Speaker 2: workers that had been working on construction in the area 294 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 2: that were mourning a dead relative that was there. We 295 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:58,080 Speaker 2: were able to convince them to join us in leaving, 296 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,720 Speaker 2: and it was like right at that point that somebody 297 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,640 Speaker 2: in the group looked back and saw kind of exactly 298 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,639 Speaker 2: what we saw the first time, was another white line 299 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 2: on the horizon and the wave coming in. Everybody just 300 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:15,920 Speaker 2: sort of started to scatter and make their way up 301 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,679 Speaker 2: the hill as best they could, and we were just 302 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:22,920 Speaker 2: very lucky that for us the second wave turned out 303 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,040 Speaker 2: to be not as big as the first one, but 304 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,720 Speaker 2: in some places the second wave was bigger than the first. 305 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:35,240 Speaker 2: There was basically one main road and behind it there 306 00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 2: was mostly a mountain and a national park with the 307 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:42,119 Speaker 2: forest land, and the main road had additional hotels and 308 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:46,920 Speaker 2: restaurants and shops. Somebody, I think, motioned us over and 309 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 2: had some bottles of water, and there were a few chairs, 310 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 2: and I remember there was a tai Man who was 311 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,680 Speaker 2: running a little tourist shop and he stepped out and 312 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:03,399 Speaker 2: he offered me a baseball hat and he pointed to 313 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 2: the sun and it said something in a little bit 314 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:10,680 Speaker 2: of broken English, and you know, convinced me I needed 315 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,080 Speaker 2: a hat to protect myself from sunburn. It was just 316 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:19,560 Speaker 2: the smallest things at that point were just so amazingly 317 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,719 Speaker 2: helpful and useful. And I was at that point that 318 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:29,280 Speaker 2: a man came by on a motorcycle and said, oh, 319 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 2: there's another wave coming. It's not safe here. You should 320 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:37,680 Speaker 2: go up, and he pointed me up towards this resort 321 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:41,719 Speaker 2: that was up on a hillside. And as I was 322 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 2: going along, I came across this young Swiss girl at 323 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:49,040 Speaker 2: fourteen fifteen something like that. She told me her name, 324 00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:53,360 Speaker 2: and she said she was missing her family and siblings, 325 00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,359 Speaker 2: and she was very distraught and crying and upset. And 326 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:01,719 Speaker 2: I said, oh, come with me, we'll look for your family. 327 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 2: I was, you know, by myself. I was missing Caroline, 328 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 2: this friend I had met the day before, but I 329 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,359 Speaker 2: didn't have those family connections that a lot of people. 330 00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 3: Were worried about. 331 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,040 Speaker 2: And so she and I walked and we eventually came 332 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:15,840 Speaker 2: up this kind. 333 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:20,480 Speaker 3: Of state dirt road. There was like a hotel. 334 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,000 Speaker 2: Check in administration area and a couple of buildings and 335 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,240 Speaker 2: then a lot of little bungalows spread out. They sort 336 00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:28,760 Speaker 2: of had like a triage area set up, and we're 337 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:33,200 Speaker 2: trying to figure out who had injuries that needed attending 338 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 2: to and I said, well, but I've got some advanced 339 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,600 Speaker 2: first aid training which I had gotten through my work. 340 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:46,159 Speaker 2: I could give IVS fluids to people, I could do stitches, 341 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 2: and so I said, give me a couple of minutes 342 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 2: and I'll help you guys out. I need to kind 343 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:54,880 Speaker 2: of catch my breath. I was still really like hyperventilating 344 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:58,880 Speaker 2: and just breathing hard and stressed and coming down from 345 00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,000 Speaker 2: all this adrenaline, I think, and. 346 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:04,159 Speaker 3: I did that. 347 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:06,800 Speaker 2: I took the girl over and we sat in the 348 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,119 Speaker 2: shade between a couple of bungalows with a bunch of 349 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:10,879 Speaker 2: other people. 350 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:18,200 Speaker 3: It was horrible. It was the worst part of the day, 351 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,400 Speaker 3: at least after getting out of the water. 352 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:26,360 Speaker 2: Part, because you felt helpless and you were looking at 353 00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:30,239 Speaker 2: some people who were still hysterical, crying and screaming, some 354 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,200 Speaker 2: of them in pain from injuries, some of them pretty 355 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:37,000 Speaker 2: sure that some family member relative was seriously heard or 356 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:41,120 Speaker 2: had died they maybe have seen something happen. And other 357 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:45,720 Speaker 2: people who were just catatonic, they just weren't moving at all, 358 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:50,719 Speaker 2: just blank stares. I asked somebody else to look after 359 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 2: the Swiss girl, and just as I had sort of 360 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:58,560 Speaker 2: done that, the guys from the triage area came over 361 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:03,160 Speaker 2: and said, we have this young boy. He's kind of wheezing, 362 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,280 Speaker 2: he's turning blue. We don't really know what to do. 363 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,359 Speaker 2: Would you come take a look at him. And they 364 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,640 Speaker 2: brought me over to this bungalow and this. 365 00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 3: Boy was lying on a bed inside with his mother. 366 00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:21,199 Speaker 2: His name was Paul, and he was German. And it 367 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 2: turned out he had a hole in his chest, obviously 368 00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,000 Speaker 2: from debris, so air was getting into his chest and 369 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:32,080 Speaker 2: basically compressing his lung and I knew I needed a 370 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,199 Speaker 2: dressing that would allow air to be pushed out but 371 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,960 Speaker 2: not allow air to get in. Of course, we had 372 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,640 Speaker 2: just some very rudimentary first aid kits band aids, and 373 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,119 Speaker 2: you know that sort of stuff you get in a 374 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 2: first aid kit you have in your car. But amongst 375 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 2: all the people that we put out the word and 376 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 2: we were able to find some things to jury rig 377 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:55,880 Speaker 2: and that was sort of the story of the day, 378 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 2: jury rigging first aid. And we were able to stabilize 379 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,480 Speaker 2: Paul and get the air out of his lungs so 380 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 2: that he could breathe better, but obviously it was still 381 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:12,439 Speaker 2: a very very serious injury. From then I started to 382 00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:18,760 Speaker 2: do first aid on other people, and then started to 383 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,639 Speaker 2: have more and more people to peer once they know 384 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,399 Speaker 2: somebody could do first aid. We were on our own 385 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:28,240 Speaker 2: until a foreign nurse showed up who was on vacation 386 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,560 Speaker 2: and just happened to be a nurse and started to help, 387 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:36,000 Speaker 2: And very quickly after that a doctor arrived to help, 388 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:38,679 Speaker 2: And so in those early hours I really ended up 389 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,280 Speaker 2: doing first aid. But for me it was really it 390 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 2: wasn't so much about helping others. It was a way 391 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 2: not to think about what had been happening that day. 392 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,160 Speaker 2: I hadn't even really looked out at the ocean again 393 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:53,959 Speaker 2: until somebody said, oh, there's another wave coming in. I 394 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 2: remember taking a little break and looking out at the 395 00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:01,200 Speaker 2: ocean and sort of contemplating how massive this must have been. 396 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 2: We learned that the wave had washed out the main road. 397 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,640 Speaker 2: There was no way for us to really escape. The 398 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,120 Speaker 2: tsunami was caused by an earthquake measuring nine point three 399 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,160 Speaker 2: on the Richter scale off the coast of Bandace in Indonesia. 400 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 2: There were something like two hundred thousand people killed in 401 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:28,360 Speaker 2: Indonesia and Thailand I think was the second most. They 402 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,400 Speaker 2: had eight or nine thousand killed and acknowledged before they 403 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:37,760 Speaker 2: really stopped counting, and in a very large percentage of 404 00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 2: those were within a few miles of where I was 405 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:48,400 Speaker 2: in Cowlak, So we saw a lot of the destruction 406 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:57,600 Speaker 2: and a lot of the death. There were people from 407 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:03,600 Speaker 2: almost forty countries killed in Thailand in the tsunami. I 408 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:08,240 Speaker 2: couldn't speak Thai, and I had very rudimentary German. Sometimes 409 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:10,600 Speaker 2: we would need a couple of translators just to help 410 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:16,040 Speaker 2: us talk to somebody who was injured. It very quickly 411 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,639 Speaker 2: became a realization of like the good in so many people, 412 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:25,800 Speaker 2: despite how injured they were, that they were doing whatever 413 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:31,360 Speaker 2: they could. Those who were not hysterical or not catatonic, 414 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:36,320 Speaker 2: people really did try to step up and help strangers. 415 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:44,639 Speaker 2: It just so happened I was able to get on 416 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 2: the original flight I was scheduled to to return back 417 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 2: to the States just a few days after the tsunami. 418 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 2: Finally I was on this plane with strangers, and I 419 00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:57,199 Speaker 2: spent a long time just going through my mind all 420 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:01,320 Speaker 2: the all the injuries, and all the people bowl that 421 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:09,720 Speaker 2: had lost someone, And quickly got overwhelmed with the scale 422 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 2: of it and the loss. 423 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:13,440 Speaker 3: That I had seen. 424 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,200 Speaker 2: And I think it was only then that I really 425 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:25,840 Speaker 2: started to tell myself that I needed to think about 426 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,399 Speaker 2: my own mental health. I probably was going to have 427 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:36,000 Speaker 2: some sort of PTSD trauma response. After I got back, 428 00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 2: my injuries to my upper leg and hip started to 429 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 2: become more severe and really limited my mobility, and so 430 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 2: I ended up spending too much time on the internet. 431 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,320 Speaker 2: It was really the first, you know, global disaster where 432 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,680 Speaker 2: the Internet became a source of aid and assistance in 433 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:02,560 Speaker 2: communication amongst survivor. I would go on these different websites 434 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 2: where people would post messages about people that were missing, 435 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:10,120 Speaker 2: and I did the same and described Caroline, and I 436 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,960 Speaker 2: described where I was at. And I would get a 437 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 2: lot of questions from other people who were looking for 438 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 2: someone who was staying at the resort I stayed at, 439 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,960 Speaker 2: or who worked at the resort in cow Lock, and 440 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 2: they would send me pictures and asked me if I 441 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 2: had seen them. I had many, many, dozens, if not 442 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:36,600 Speaker 2: one hundred, messages like that. It was really heartbreaking because 443 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,960 Speaker 2: I wanted to be honest, but I had seen so 444 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 2: many people, and I would force my brain to sort 445 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 2: of replay a lot of the events to think about 446 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 2: if I had seen this particular face in the group 447 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,080 Speaker 2: of people. I did first daid on and that sort 448 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:57,840 Speaker 2: of thing. Meanwhile, Caroline had been doing the same thing, 449 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:00,920 Speaker 2: and she had remembered the name of the dive shop 450 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,200 Speaker 2: that I had used, who still had their central computer 451 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:08,400 Speaker 2: somewhere that was not destroyed, and had me in their records, 452 00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:12,040 Speaker 2: had my email address, And so it took all those 453 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:19,120 Speaker 2: all those weeks for us to finally reconnect and realized 454 00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:23,640 Speaker 2: that we were both alive. Were able to go back 455 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 2: to Thailand about four months after the tsunami and provide 456 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:33,840 Speaker 2: some humanitarian assistance and some underwater assistance. Using our expertise 457 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:38,480 Speaker 2: as scuba divers. We were able to walk around and 458 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 2: pick up a couple pieces of debris that reminded us 459 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:50,200 Speaker 2: of the resort. There was a tree that had managed 460 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 2: to survive that was quite near the ocean that had 461 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 2: a lot of pictures of people who didn't make it. 462 00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:01,360 Speaker 2: I think for me finally cemented feeling of how lucky 463 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,960 Speaker 2: we were. I got lucky with the mannequin and with 464 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,080 Speaker 2: what did hit me and what didn't hit me, and 465 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,760 Speaker 2: what I hit and what I didn't hit to make it. 466 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 2: That day, there were a number of pictures of children 467 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 2: who died in that area at Oar Resort, or one 468 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:25,160 Speaker 2: of the ones just immediately next door. That was my 469 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:33,160 Speaker 2: moment of making a commitment to doing things to honor 470 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:38,920 Speaker 2: their memory and their loss. I had some great contacts 471 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,680 Speaker 2: and mentors over the years who have given me these 472 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:45,480 Speaker 2: opportunities in a variety of different spheres to give back, 473 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:48,600 Speaker 2: and I gave money to help support a couple of 474 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:54,200 Speaker 2: children who were survivors. I worked with some of my 475 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 2: mapping skills to help create new risk maps for different 476 00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,240 Speaker 2: areas of the West coast of these and think about 477 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 2: ways that we could urge the government to start to 478 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,280 Speaker 2: plan better for tsunamis. 479 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:08,720 Speaker 3: We have a huge tsunami. 480 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:13,200 Speaker 2: Risk on the West coast, especially off Oregon in Washington, 481 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 2: and I was also helping with shipwrecks and hurricane damage 482 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,520 Speaker 2: to coral Coral reefs are some of the most sensitive 483 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,760 Speaker 2: organisms to climate change, so it's it's it's going to 484 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,360 Speaker 2: be a difficult road for them. But many other animals 485 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,320 Speaker 2: and habitats of the natural world that really bring us 486 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:34,680 Speaker 2: a lot of benefits, right, I mean, one of the 487 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,760 Speaker 2: things that that that you know, the experts tell us 488 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,680 Speaker 2: is core reefs. They help protect us from big waves. 489 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 3: They give us. 490 00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 2: Food and beautiful places to see and and without them, 491 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:49,960 Speaker 2: we either have to build things that at a great 492 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,800 Speaker 2: amount of expense to protect our our buildings and things 493 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:57,760 Speaker 2: on shore and hotels and restaurants at a tremendous extra 494 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:10,680 Speaker 2: expense to ourselves. And so I think that's a message. 495 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: Welcome back. This is a live again joining me for 496 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,440 Speaker 1: a conversation about today's story. Are my other Alive Against 497 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: story producers Nicholas Takowski and Brent Die And I'm your host, 498 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:38,160 Speaker 1: Dan Bush. Brent, thank you so much for reaching out 499 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:45,200 Speaker 1: to Dwayne and talking to him. This story resonates with 500 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:49,840 Speaker 1: me specifically because I was there. I was not there 501 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,920 Speaker 1: during the tsunami, but I went there with the documentary 502 00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:58,080 Speaker 1: crew shortly thereafter. So the tsunami happened right around Christmas 503 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:04,040 Speaker 1: twenty two and four, and we left to document the 504 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:08,160 Speaker 1: situation in on the island of Sumatra near bond Ace 505 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,960 Speaker 1: in January. So we were there pretty fresh, freshly after 506 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:22,879 Speaker 1: the incident. And so there are a few things that 507 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,879 Speaker 1: I mean, I think I still have some forms of 508 00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: I guess you could call it PTSD. I noticed some 509 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,440 Speaker 1: things that happened when I got back from having stood 510 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:34,319 Speaker 1: at the fresh Mass burials. Twenty thousand people or more 511 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:41,800 Speaker 1: eighty percent of certain towns that we visited were completely gone, 512 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,000 Speaker 1: and the people as well, the populations were like down 513 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 1: to twenty percent of what they were, and we interviewed 514 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:49,480 Speaker 1: these people. And then at the time, I was in 515 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,600 Speaker 1: the mindset of, you know, I was I was the DPI, 516 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:54,400 Speaker 1: was the cameraman, and I was the sound guy. I 517 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:55,920 Speaker 1: was all of these things in one and so I 518 00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 1: was I was so focused on that in the trenches 519 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:02,120 Speaker 1: of doing that and taking you helicopters from place to 520 00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: place because the roads were, you know, unusable, and collecting 521 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,320 Speaker 1: these interviews and documenting what had happened that I wasn't 522 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,680 Speaker 1: really I think a part of my brain had shut off. 523 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,160 Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the things that we'll 524 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,759 Speaker 1: talk about with Dwayne's story, is it didn't hit him 525 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,000 Speaker 1: till he was on the plane what he had sort 526 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: of just been through. I think. Anyway, Brent, can you 527 00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:26,560 Speaker 1: tell us just kind of walk us into the story 528 00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:28,000 Speaker 1: and tell us a little bit about why you were 529 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,200 Speaker 1: attracted to talking to Dwayne and what I think. 530 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,879 Speaker 4: I think I had the same attraction to the story 531 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:36,520 Speaker 4: that you did. My girlfriend at the time and I 532 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,359 Speaker 4: had planned a trip to Southeast Asia to begin in 533 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:43,760 Speaker 4: February of twenty twenty five. So turning on the news 534 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,799 Speaker 4: Christmas morning and seeing that one of the worst natural 535 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:53,520 Speaker 4: disasters in history had pretty much wiped out southern Thailand 536 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,600 Speaker 4: and a lot of the other countries Bangladesh, even as 537 00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:58,640 Speaker 4: far away as the coast of Africa. There was even 538 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,480 Speaker 4: effects from the I mean, that's how dramatic this this 539 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 4: event was. So yeah, we went to Thailand right after 540 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,040 Speaker 4: this tsunami, my girlfriend and I. Her father had served 541 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,200 Speaker 4: in the Vietnam War and was actually killed in ben Wo, 542 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,799 Speaker 4: so we went to see where he had served. It 543 00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:20,640 Speaker 4: was shocking to get to Bangkok and see just rows 544 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 4: of rows of street dividers lined up with xerox photographs 545 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,040 Speaker 4: of victims, missing people from this tsunami that had taken 546 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,879 Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty thousand lives out of the entire 547 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,919 Speaker 4: impact area. And that's just like as as Dwayne said, 548 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:38,719 Speaker 4: that's that's the number they got to when they were 549 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:42,200 Speaker 4: still counting, and some of these countries quit counting. We 550 00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:44,839 Speaker 4: would meet people on hikes who had been there when 551 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:48,560 Speaker 4: the tsunami hit, and they would describe this surreal, slow 552 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:51,120 Speaker 4: moving disaster that was coming at them. You know, the 553 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:55,839 Speaker 4: water recedes and everybody's like fascinated by what's happening. They 554 00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:57,960 Speaker 4: got their their inclination is to walk down and look 555 00:36:58,000 --> 00:36:59,799 Speaker 4: at the fish flopping around in the sand, and then 556 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:03,600 Speaker 4: the wave comes and knocks everything apart. And what Dwayne 557 00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:05,960 Speaker 4: went through is what a lot of people described that 558 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:07,920 Speaker 4: we met. But it was just absolutely horrifying, and to 559 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:11,799 Speaker 4: think that something of this scale could occur in modern times, 560 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:15,400 Speaker 4: I mean, it's biblical. This was the worst natural disaster 561 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:18,800 Speaker 4: recorded in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, or Thailand, and it was 562 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,600 Speaker 4: the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the world 563 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:26,120 Speaker 4: since modern seismography began in nineteen hundreds and two hundred 564 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,880 Speaker 4: and fifty thousand people were killed in fourteen countries in 565 00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:34,759 Speaker 4: Southeast Asia, India, and Africa, and the fault line was 566 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 4: a rupture of seven hundred and eighty miles and it 567 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,560 Speaker 4: was the longest duration of faulting ever observed, So the 568 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:48,080 Speaker 4: time it was rumbling was ten minutes. Remotely triggered earthquakes 569 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:50,840 Speaker 4: as far away as Alaska, and the height of the 570 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,720 Speaker 4: teutonic plate shift was fifty feet, So the earth shifted 571 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,799 Speaker 4: fifty feet out there in the ocean to start. 572 00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,920 Speaker 1: All this from happening. 573 00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:09,360 Speaker 4: Jesus, it's a shocking event. So I was really excited 574 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:11,520 Speaker 4: to talk to somebody who'd been there personally, and to 575 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,160 Speaker 4: talk to somebody with Dwayne's presence of mind through the 576 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:18,680 Speaker 4: whole thing. He's a very measured person, a very thoughtful person, 577 00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:20,520 Speaker 4: as you can hear, and just in the way he 578 00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:24,760 Speaker 4: delivers information, I can see how he kept his wits 579 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:26,880 Speaker 4: about him through all of this and was able to 580 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:32,160 Speaker 4: calm people down in the most extreme situations. I mean, 581 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,560 Speaker 4: I can't imagine if my children had been washed out 582 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:36,799 Speaker 4: to see or if my wife was missing. I don't 583 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,560 Speaker 4: know how I'd be able to listen to somebody like 584 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:41,759 Speaker 4: Dwayne to say, let's get to higher ground, let's get 585 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:44,120 Speaker 4: to safety. But he was able to do that, and 586 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:48,880 Speaker 4: I just think it's. 587 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:48,000 Speaker 1: An amazing case of. 588 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 4: How people can come together in these extreme events and 589 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,120 Speaker 4: how different personalities really lend themselves to these situations. 590 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:01,120 Speaker 1: There were two things that sort of struck me listening 591 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,680 Speaker 1: to his story profoundly. One is what you just said, 592 00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,000 Speaker 1: Brent and Nick, you might be able to speak to 593 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,640 Speaker 1: this too. Is this. We hear these stories of these 594 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:15,400 Speaker 1: people who find this resilience in the moments of crisis, 595 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:21,319 Speaker 1: and I don't know if it's everybody. You know, I 596 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:27,920 Speaker 1: don't know if certain unspoken political leaders would find bundance, 597 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,600 Speaker 1: would find such resilience. But there's something that kicks in 598 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 1: and I don't know it's for everybody. But and it 599 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,240 Speaker 1: might have been because Dwayne did not have any immediate 600 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,080 Speaker 1: family that he was you know, concerned about that would 601 00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,759 Speaker 1: have allowed him the space to be able to become 602 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:47,360 Speaker 1: heroic and beaten into But after having survived this, I 603 00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:48,960 Speaker 1: don't know how many hours did he say how many 604 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: hours he was sort of wrestling with the first wave. 605 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:54,640 Speaker 4: You know, it's funny because he describes these things and 606 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:57,160 Speaker 4: as sounds as if he's talking about something that might 607 00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 4: have taken may have taken three or four hours, and 608 00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:01,759 Speaker 4: he's like, so thirty minutes later, you know, I'm at 609 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,600 Speaker 4: the shore and I'm like, wow, it happened so fast. 610 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:08,680 Speaker 4: And I think what's interesting in that is how his 611 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:12,120 Speaker 4: sense of time was scaled to the moment as well, 612 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:13,799 Speaker 4: like he's going through this and he said it says, 613 00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:17,400 Speaker 4: if you know, when he was tumbling in that first 614 00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,400 Speaker 4: wave where he was tumbling like a rag doll, he said. 615 00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 4: In the water, he said he felt like he was 616 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,680 Speaker 4: communing with his family back home. He was saying goodbye 617 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,160 Speaker 4: to people, he was reviewing his entire life. He was 618 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,200 Speaker 4: very calm, and he said it felt like that went 619 00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:34,520 Speaker 4: on for minutes. But knowing how long he can hold 620 00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:38,160 Speaker 4: his breath, especially in an extreme situation like that, it 621 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:42,040 Speaker 4: couldn't have been more than ninety seconds at his top 622 00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:44,640 Speaker 4: capacity to hold his breath, but he said it's probably 623 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:46,400 Speaker 4: more like thirty seconds that he was under but it 624 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:47,719 Speaker 4: felt like forever to him. 625 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:51,359 Speaker 1: If you've ever had to fight any strong currents, you 626 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:54,680 Speaker 1: know that within a minute or two you're worn out. 627 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:59,799 Speaker 1: So what struck me was this after having battled and 628 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 1: you know, even just using your abdomen muscles to keep 629 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: you afloat, or to keep your knees up, or whatever 630 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:06,440 Speaker 1: you have to do to stay in a certain position 631 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,640 Speaker 1: so you're not getting completely destroyed by the debris. And 632 00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:11,520 Speaker 1: other than the luck, he talked about just the luck 633 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,080 Speaker 1: of certain things hitting him and other things not hitting him. 634 00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:19,000 Speaker 1: To battle NonStop with every muscle in your body, to 635 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:24,080 Speaker 1: swim for an hour against these extremely massive, you know. 636 00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:29,680 Speaker 1: I mean, water is heavy and it's unstoppable, and it's 637 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,520 Speaker 1: just this this force that you know, you can't really 638 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:35,640 Speaker 1: reckon with. But to survive that and then to be 639 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:39,040 Speaker 1: able to after a moment of catching his breath, find 640 00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:43,000 Speaker 1: somewhere within him, within him the energy to start working 641 00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:47,200 Speaker 1: first aid for other people, like without a thought, I 642 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:51,560 Speaker 1: just think that there's something I didn't I always I'm 643 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,360 Speaker 1: fascinated by that that's even possible, because it seems like 644 00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,080 Speaker 1: after if you go in a wrestling match with somebody 645 00:41:57,080 --> 00:41:59,239 Speaker 1: for five minutes, you're done for the day, if not 646 00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,799 Speaker 1: a week, right, So but for him to just kind 647 00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:04,440 Speaker 1: of be able to put that aside and to get 648 00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:07,040 Speaker 1: up and continue to work, and it's something that I see. 649 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:12,000 Speaker 1: That's the superpower in humans that happens in these situations 650 00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:14,680 Speaker 1: and it's stunning to me that we have that capacity. 651 00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,480 Speaker 4: Well, not to mention, you know that this was an 652 00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,759 Speaker 4: event where it felt as if okay, we were done, 653 00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:25,040 Speaker 4: and then another wave comes or another you know, he 654 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:29,920 Speaker 4: describes even making it out of that first that first 655 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:34,560 Speaker 4: submersion and thinking okay, I'm oh wow, miraculously I'm on 656 00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:36,640 Speaker 4: top of the water. I survived and then now he 657 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:39,400 Speaker 4: has to deal with all the debris hitting him and 658 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:43,080 Speaker 4: this being pulled further out to sea, and then you know, 659 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:44,960 Speaker 4: he gets to the shore and he thinks he's done, 660 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,000 Speaker 4: and then he's he can tell by the water level 661 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,160 Speaker 4: that another wave's coming, and he's just like, I just 662 00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:52,680 Speaker 4: didn't think I could do any more of this. This 663 00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:56,759 Speaker 4: was a constant, a rage. You know, there was no 664 00:42:57,280 --> 00:42:59,640 Speaker 4: you do the event and then you rest. It was constant. 665 00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:02,120 Speaker 5: I think probably one of the things that makes that 666 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,239 Speaker 5: story so terrifying. It's not just the fact that the 667 00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:10,600 Speaker 5: you know, nature is so relentless, acts so relentlessly, and 668 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:15,480 Speaker 5: the fragility of you know, life itself in the face 669 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 5: of that, but also that it is that like that 670 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:21,240 Speaker 5: moment when he gets to the shore and he's breathing 671 00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 5: and he you know, and he can see that the 672 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:28,120 Speaker 5: water level is you know, showing too much of the 673 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,800 Speaker 5: like or that too much of the algae on the rocks, 674 00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:35,239 Speaker 5: and I think the most terrifying thing for me in 675 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,640 Speaker 5: that moment is this idea that it's like, as long 676 00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:40,200 Speaker 5: as it's going, your body is going to stay. You're 677 00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:42,440 Speaker 5: going to stay in this high alert moment, and the 678 00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,120 Speaker 5: second you have like a moments of rest and look 679 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:48,960 Speaker 5: around you and take a moment to actually absorb it, 680 00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,920 Speaker 5: you understand the full horror. And like him talking about 681 00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:56,440 Speaker 5: that moment just like just sort of despairing for a 682 00:43:56,520 --> 00:44:00,279 Speaker 5: moment before getting up and like, you know, try to 683 00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,120 Speaker 5: get where he needed to go. I think that like 684 00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:08,880 Speaker 5: having that moment to breathe was probably probably made the 685 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,479 Speaker 5: whole experience actually a little bit more horrifying for him 686 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,399 Speaker 5: because suddenly he could take it in and he wasn't 687 00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,560 Speaker 5: just looking at the problem immediately in front of him. 688 00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:20,319 Speaker 1: Right, you know. 689 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,560 Speaker 5: I think that, like I think that the sort of 690 00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:29,759 Speaker 5: sudden realization of one's own sort of misery in that 691 00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:39,400 Speaker 5: moment is probably mentally intensely taxing for him To be 692 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:43,239 Speaker 5: able to just like keep plowing forward as really impressive. 693 00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:45,960 Speaker 4: He had no idea. He knew how bad it was 694 00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 4: in colloc where he was staying, but he had no 695 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,520 Speaker 4: idea that this tsunami was so huge because they had 696 00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:56,640 Speaker 4: no power, they had no communication with the outside world, 697 00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:59,080 Speaker 4: so it was a shock to him. I don't even 698 00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:00,799 Speaker 4: know if when he got on the plane to go home, 699 00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:02,880 Speaker 4: if he knew how huge this thing was. 700 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:07,760 Speaker 1: Did Dwayne get into any like, what's it been twenty years, 701 00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:11,239 Speaker 1: so it's been two decades. Does he still suffer from 702 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,319 Speaker 1: any sort of PTSD or has he been able to 703 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:19,439 Speaker 1: sort of translate that into efforts to, you know, help 704 00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:20,399 Speaker 1: other people or. 705 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:24,719 Speaker 4: He said the way that he's dealt with his post 706 00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:31,200 Speaker 4: traumatic stress is by being active in helping educate different 707 00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:34,400 Speaker 4: coastal communities on the threat of tsunamis. He's been to Oregon, 708 00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:39,520 Speaker 4: he's been to Hawaii, He's gone back to Thailand to help. 709 00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 4: He helped with the recovery efforts, and he met Caroline, 710 00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:44,680 Speaker 4: the German woman that he had met while he was there, 711 00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,600 Speaker 4: and they worked together. They were able to kind of, 712 00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:52,200 Speaker 4: through that return visit get some sense of closure. 713 00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,239 Speaker 1: This reminds me of another one of your stories, Brent, 714 00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:59,319 Speaker 1: where I think it was Cliff but where he talks 715 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:04,880 Speaker 1: about the eleven Pentagon tragedy. How when you're in the 716 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,840 Speaker 1: thick of that and doing everything you can to survive 717 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:09,960 Speaker 1: and help others to survive, you don't let tell your 718 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:12,640 Speaker 1: guard you're obviously fighting and you're doing something, so you 719 00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:14,839 Speaker 1: keep moving forward and keep moving forward, and then finally 720 00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:18,359 Speaker 1: when you get a moment to rest or, you take 721 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:22,479 Speaker 1: a shower or get on a plane and it hits 722 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,600 Speaker 1: you all of a sudden, you know what you've been through. 723 00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:28,440 Speaker 4: I think another thing that stuck out for me in 724 00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:32,879 Speaker 4: this story was the small kindnesses that went a long way. 725 00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:34,759 Speaker 4: Like he said, when they were making their way up 726 00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:38,920 Speaker 4: to the hillside, they passed through the part of the 727 00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:40,600 Speaker 4: town that wasn't hit. And I think this is another 728 00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,560 Speaker 4: remarkable thing as you think of the entire town being devastated. 729 00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:45,520 Speaker 4: When he said, the man working there was like pointing 730 00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:47,640 Speaker 4: at his head, like you need a hat, and he 731 00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:50,040 Speaker 4: gave him a hat. And he said, those little moments 732 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,719 Speaker 4: of kindness really went a long way. And you see 733 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:56,839 Speaker 4: him talking about how everybody had something they could give, 734 00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:01,160 Speaker 4: whether it was translating language for some, whether it was 735 00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:04,560 Speaker 4: understanding how to set up a communication system to get 736 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:08,000 Speaker 4: word throughout the camp, what was going on, helping find people. 737 00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:10,160 Speaker 4: It gives me a lot of hope. Actually this story 738 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:14,840 Speaker 4: for how people come together to help each. 739 00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:21,200 Speaker 1: Other, that's great. That's nicely put Brent. Next week on 740 00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:24,319 Speaker 1: the Live Again, we meet artist Angeline Pass who, after 741 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,879 Speaker 1: suffering an almost fatal brain aneurysm, discovered a new relationship 742 00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:29,320 Speaker 1: with her work and her life. 743 00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:33,520 Speaker 6: I had collapsed on the floor. I don't even remember 744 00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:36,279 Speaker 6: the pain in my head at that point. I just 745 00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:39,479 Speaker 6: remember everything getting dark. I was like, oh my god, 746 00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:44,359 Speaker 6: I'm dying, Like my body knew. I want to keep 747 00:47:44,400 --> 00:47:45,759 Speaker 6: seeing beautiful things. 748 00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:46,279 Speaker 3: I want to. 749 00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:50,040 Speaker 6: Eat and drink and travel. It doesn't have to be 750 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:54,280 Speaker 6: Italy or you know, Europe. It can be your backyard even. 751 00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:01,680 Speaker 1: Our story producers are Dan Bush, Keith Sweeney, Brent Die, 752 00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:06,520 Speaker 1: Nicholas Dakoski, and Lauren Vogelba music by Ben Lovett, additional 753 00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:10,640 Speaker 1: music by Alexander Rodriguez. Our executive producers are Matthew Frederick 754 00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:13,880 Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Special thanks to Alexander Williams for additional 755 00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:17,719 Speaker 1: production support. Our studio engineers are Rima L. K Ali 756 00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:22,080 Speaker 1: and Nomes Griffin. Our editors are Dan Bush, Gerhardt Slovitchka, 757 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:25,680 Speaker 1: Brent Die and Alexander Rodriguez. Mixing by Ben Lovett and 758 00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:30,440 Speaker 1: Alexander Rodriguez. I'm your host, Dan Bush. Special thanks to 759 00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:33,480 Speaker 1: Dwayne Meadows for sharing his incredible story of survival and hope. 760 00:48:33,560 --> 00:48:35,279 Speaker 1: His story and the T shirt he wore on that 761 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,920 Speaker 1: fateful day are displayed at the Pacific Sunami Museum. Thank you, 762 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,760 Speaker 1: Dwayne for inspiring us with your bravery and your commitment 763 00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:45,319 Speaker 1: to making a difference. Alive Again is a production of 764 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:48,400 Speaker 1: I Art Radio and Psychopia Pictures. If you have a 765 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:51,480 Speaker 1: transformative near death experience to share, we'd love to hear 766 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:56,080 Speaker 1: your story. Please email us at Alive Again Project at 767 00:48:56,080 --> 00:49:00,040 Speaker 1: gmail dot com. That's a l I ve e A 768 00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,239 Speaker 1: g A I N p R O j E C 769 00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:22,759 Speaker 1: T at gmail dot com.