-
A view of the Sinalei resort, south of Apia, capital of Samoa, after it was struck by a tsunami - Source: Reuters -
Related
Vicki Waite wanted nothing but a break in Samoa's tropical
sunshine.
Instead, the Sydney woman, cut, bruised and in tears, was dealt the
fight of my life by a killer wave - whipped up by Wednesday's South
Pacific earthquake and tsunami - that smashed through her thatched
hut.
Dressed in a singlet and knickers, Waite stumbled out of bed after
hearing a weird noise.
"The next moment there was this huge bang and water
everywhere.
"I just cry every time I think about it."
Several minutes passed before she picked herself up and headed for
the hills behind the beach resort in the decimated village of
Lalomanu, at the south eastern tip of the main island of
Upolu.
"I just headed to the hills but I was a total zombie. I just
followed a whole lot of injured people. They were all running for
their lives."
Eventually seeking treatment in Apia, Waite was still shaking
uncontrollably as she was pushed outside the hospital in a
wheelchair.
Her face and arms were gashed, her legs were bruised and she was
concussed. But worst of all was her now fragile state of
mind.
"I just came for a holiday, to rest, and I got this," she
said.
"It's devastating. I've got nothing except the clothes on my back,
the clothes I woke up in," she added, looking down at her torn
singlet.
"Everything else, everything is in the ocean."
All around her was chaos.
An ambulance pulls up and offloads a dozen bodies, among them a
European female and the body of a two-month-old baby.
The hospital's distressed manager wiped sweat from his brow and
admitted he was frightened of what he may have to face next.
Dozens of people lie on stretchers in the outpatient clinic waiting
for treatment while the bodies of dozens more are piling up in the
hospital morgue.
"It's disgusting in there," says Steve Williams, a Victorian
paramedic working in Apia.
More accustomed to pulling bodies from car wrecks on Victoria's
Hume Highway, Williams says he struggled to cope.
"The children, that's what gets you," he said.
"Seeing them all coming in, their tiny little bodies, it just ruins
you."
