Die Situation im Klettergebiet Phi Phi in Thailand nach der Welle

Cathy Beloeil und
Mike Beck 1992
in American Fork
Cathy Beloeil dürfte vielen ein Begriff sein.
Die gebürtige Französin
machte sich in den 80er und 90er Jahren einen Namen als
Kletterfotografin.

Sie wohnte lange Jahre in den USA und war dort auch
mit Scott Franklin verheiratet. Seit einiger Zeit lebt Cathy nun in
Thailand und hat auf Phi Phi eine Kletterschule eröffnet.

Die
nachfolgende Email schickte sie mir mit der Bitte um Veröffentlichung.

Wer direkt mit ihr in Kontakt treten möchte, der kann von mir Details
erhalten.

Cathy in Thailand

Dear everyone

Things here are really frustrating. The news are not describing
accuratly what's going on here. Especially not what happened on
PP.

Some of you have been to Phi Phi. I know you have loved it and loved
it's people too. What I am going to tell you is going to brake
your heart and it's breaking mine every minute of every day.

On December 26th, a huge wave coming from Lodalum bay, the North of the
island hit the beach with such force that it went completely over
the whole sandbar destroying everything in it wake. Some people
were able to run inland but all the one who could make it to the
Thai muslin village were hit by an other wave coming from the
South side. The South wave was not as big but it's strength 
destroyed all the longtails on Tonsai bay and most of the houses and
shop on the main street, killing hundreds of people. The Thai
village was completely obliterated. The whole sandbar found
itself sandwished between too tidal waves and chances of escaping
the waves were very slim.

The only people who survived were the ones who started running at the
fist warnings and only those who made the right turns…

Then a few minutes later an other wave hit Phi Phi and killed all the
people who survived the first wave but were still cought in the
low land, often seriously injured and unable to move.

The survivors had fled to the hills but according to witnesses there
was no more than 2000 of them. This was during the very high
season and we estimate the number of people on the island at this
time at about 7000 people. You do the math.

Now Phi Phi is a very desolate place, it blows my mind when I go there.
It looks like it has been hit by an atomic bomb. There is no
chance that it will ever be what it was. It will take at least a
year I think until they can finish cleaning and rebuilding. I
don't beleive that tourists will start coming back until the year
2006.

The problems here are enormous and there is very little being done by
the government. And it is not because they don't have the money
to do it. Unfortunatly, Phi Phi is part of Krabi province and
most people think it part of Phuket. There has been a lot of help
sent to Phuket and none here. There are about 2000 local people
here, they have lost everything and don't even know if they will
ever be able to go back to Phi Phi to resume their lives…

With a few friends from Phi Phi, Farangs and Thai, we are trying to put
the money we can collect to good use. We are trying to do what
the government can't seem to be able to do… Of course our
resources are very limited but we have received quite a few
donations from people who trust us.

I am not sure what you can do or what Patagonia can do but if you could
send this letter and this website address to as many people as
possible and get the word around, it would be a step forward. I
am putting myself 100% at the service of this cause as well as a
few friends. We are not getting any income from this and we are
running our association with our own, very slim, savings….

http://www.phiphi-releve-toi.com

I need to get a contact at the news, which ever one. If you know of
anyone let them know what's going on here and give them my
contact #.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
Cathy

QuelleText: Cathy Beloeil, Fotos: Martin Joisten, Cathy Beloeil