Tsunami Survivors Live to Tell the Good News

Rebecca Grace | Agape Press | Published: Mar 03, 2005

Tsunami Survivors Live to Tell the Good News

The night was clear. The waves brought a subtle stirring to the silent air.  The moon was full as it bounced off the stillness of the Indian Ocean.

 

"We were in paradise," Scott Sweat said while reminiscing about the previous night when he and his wife Susan had the perfect dinner at their Thai resort.

 

The couple was celebrating their second wedding anniversary with a trip to Thailand that included visits to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and the small island of Phi Phi - the site of their unforgettable dining experience.

 

The next morning was one of relaxation as Susan anxiously staked her claim on a beautiful strip of sandy white beach where the movie, The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed.

 

"I was lying on the beach ... [when] I saw all of this water starting to rush into the beach carrying with it just tons of debris - pieces of wood, pieces of houses," Susan said.

 

"I thought it was a landslide," she admitted. "[But] what I was seeing at the time was actually the [South Asian] tsunami hitting the western side of the island .... We were on the eastern half."

 

The island of Phi Phi is located in the Andaman Sea about 30 miles southeast of Phuket, the main tourist island in Thailand. Phi Phi is only about one mile in length and approximately 300 yards in width split down the middle by large rock cliffs.

 

While the massive tidal wave was reaping havoc only yards away on the western half of Phi Phi, locals and tourists on the eastern side were uncertain of exactly what was taking place.

 

Retreating to Safety

 

"So I ran to our bungalow and beat on the door and told Scott there was a landslide, and we needed to get to higher ground," Susan explained.

 

She admits there was no feeling of impending doom, but her heart did start to beat a bit faster as they noticed the formation of a large wave on the horizon. Susan described it as an "interesting anomaly."

 

"We didn't know it at the time, but that was actually a secondary wave," Scott said. "The primary wave, obviously, had already hit the west side of the island and rushed through that little valley and onto the beach just down from where Susan was lying."

 

"The water that had come through the hill from the other side of the island was actually flowing sideways," Susan added. "It was flowing down the beach instead of out to sea ...."

 

Perplexed by the immediate changes in their surroundings, the couple along with others on the eastern half of the island, retreated to the top of a hill where they remained for the day and made camp for the night. During their hilltop stay, the Sweats were able to come down for a couple of hours to shower and make phone calls.

 

Spreading the News

 

"So we called my dad [a pastor in Macon, Mississippi] for about three minutes at 4:30 in the morning, woke him up, and said, 'We just had this really big wave and some people have died. We're not sure [if] this is going to make the news in America ... [but if it does] we're fine,' " Susan explained.

 

At that time, the South Asian tsunami was only a ticker in the American news, but within only a matter of time it became the primary focus of all media outlets worldwide. "We were still just thinking, even a few hours into it, that this was just a larger than normal wave because [of] what they described hitting our beach," Susan said.

 

"There was no recognition of danger, I don't think, for many hours -- probably even the next day until it really set in of what happened on the other side of our island," she added.

 

Before long, the resort was able to make a satellite connection and began receiving images from CNN Asia. It was then that the Sweats started to realize the extent of mass destruction caused by the tsunami. However, they were still under the impression that the damage was confined only to Thailand and later learned that is stretched to Sri Lanka.

 

Arriving at Home

 

"When we got back to America, is when finally we started getting news out of Indonesia and realizing that 100,000 people in Indonesia had died [at that time]," Susan explained.

 

As the Sweats settled back into their daily routines in Washington, DC, their recognition of tragedy began to expand as the death toll continued to rise. Susan is the senior legislative assistant for Congressman Roger Wicker (R-MS). Scott is a major in the Air Force and the executive officer for the Air National Guard's chief information office. As Susan returned to work, she couldn't get the Thai people off of her mind.

 

"The Thai people who lived there on the island - most of them either worked at the resorts, fished for the resorts, or operated boats as little taxis that went around the island taking you from one side to the other," Susan explained. "Those boats were all gone."

 

"They [boats] all got thrown up against the trees and just busted up against all sorts of debris," Scott said of the boats.

 

So not only did these Thai people lose their homes and family members, "insult was added to injury," according to Susan, as the tsunami quickly swept their livelihoods out to sea. "That, to me, was really the most devastating part of walking away and realizing we're going back to our jobs," Susan explained.

 

Although back at work and into a daily routine, the Sweats continue to process their role in the one of the world's largest natural disasters.

 

Planning According to God

 

"We were just really fortunate that we weren't on the west side of the island," Scott said. "If we had been on the west side, obviously, we would have bared the brunt of the first wave, and we probably wouldn't be here today," especially since the couple's initial plans were to stay on the opposite side of the island where the tsunami hit hardest.

 

While no reservations were available for the west side of the island, they settled for one night's stay on the east side with plans to move to the west side the following day.

 

"Usually, we are great planners," Scott admitted. "So for us to scramble to find a hotel at the last minute was uncommon."

 

Though uncommon, it was part of God's plan. "The hotels that we had reservations for the next two nights were both completely destroyed - gone," Susan explained.  "The evidence is so huge that Someone greater than us was controlling our schedule over there and placing us in the exact place that we needed to be," she added.

 

"We take great comfort and strength in knowing that God has a plan for our lives," Scott said. "We trust in God's plan ... and if it had been our time to go, if He had taken us to be with Him, we know that He would use that in awesome ways [too]."

 

But for now, God is choosing to use Susan and Scott as spokespersons for His Kingdom. Being tsunami survivors is providing them with numerous opportunities to share their faith and their belief in God's sovereignty with others.

 

Voicing a Heart of Gratitude

 

"Susan has done her best in the media to give a Christian witness," Wicker said of his assistant. "A lot of times with the media that part of the interview doesn't get aired, but she says it in every interview."

 

Throughout the entire situation, Susan and Scott have gone the extra mile to communicate with others what was and is still going on in their lives in regards to the tsunami. However, on their way back to the States via a short stay in Bangkok, there was span of about two days when no one back home heard from the couple.

 

"Unbeknownst to us, they were looking for us this whole time and hoping that we made it to Bangkok," Susan said.

 

Wicker and Susan's parents stayed in contact following news of the devastation, and the Congressman was very supportive throughout the couple's return home. "There was nothing additional I could do as a member of Congress to find out anything, " Wicker admitted.

 

"[However] we are really hugely appreciative of his support in particular, and primarily, [we are thankful] for God's protection," Scott said.

 

"It's hard to understand why God chooses to save some in a situation like this while others perish," Wicker explained. "But I think that ... Susan and Scott feel that God has put them in a place for a purpose."

 

The couple agrees. "For us, at least, it's so evident that our God is bigger than a tsunami ...," Susan added. "He is just using this - what we perceive as such a large, huge thing - as just a small step in His greater plan of bringing Himself glory and bringing us closer to Him.

 

Rebecca Grace ([email protected]), a regular contributor to AgapePress, is staff writer for AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.

 

Image Compliments of Scott Sweat: On a nearby beach, locals assess the damage caused by the tsunami the evening after the massive tidal wave crashed into the island of Phi Phi.

 

 

 

Tsunami Survivors Live to Tell the Good News