>> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. this is what tropical paradise looks like. >> one of the places which i loved so much, so beautiful, so vibrant. >> this woman looked at my dad and said "take your kids and run." >> oh, my god, it's a tsunami. >> it was like being gripped by a fist. >> could you feel the metal and the wood just crushing you like you're in a massive trash compactor. >> my chest hurt so much, i

couldn't hold my breath anymore. >> the hardest thing was the sound. it has been haunting me. not just wave and water but metal crushing. >> how could anybody survive something like this? >> i had no way to escape and i knew i was facing death. >> i'm going to die. this is not how you die. you're going to survive this. >> i survived -- >> i survived. >> i survived. >> i survived the 2004 tsunami in thailand. it has changed my life forever. welcome to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. the 2004 indian ocean tsunami was one of the worst natural disasters in modern history, killing an estimated 230,000 people in 14 countries. the monstrous sunday tsunami to

around the globe, erasing cities and swallowing coast lines. the images from that day are seared in our collective memory. you're about to hear from some of those trapped as that tsunami struck the beaches of thailand. you're about the hear the harrowing tale and impact of how some survived and some did not. here's our story, "swept away." ♪ ♪ >> back in 2004 married, happily, with my wife kayla and our children. we wanted to go away for the holidays. >> we said why not go away to a beautiful island, to thailand. >> i was 10 years old. i was excited to see a part of

the world i hadn't really seen before. >> if you took a picture and you said this is what tropical paradise looks like, you would take it off the island. >> all the shops are in the middle and then there's a hill on each end. >> kaitlin was 10 and she was smart enough to know we were abandoning our christmas tree but we assured them we were bring our stockings. >> our parents hid our stockings and in the morning like like, oh, santa did make it to thailand. >> 2004 was the year, it was one year after i was on the cover of "sports illustrated" and everything was booming.

simon -- his full name was simon atlee, and he was a fashion photographer. and we connected in a very beautiful way, romantic way. i was really excited of taking simon to thailand and showing him a place which was so close to my heart. when we got to khao lak, we checked into khao lak beach resort. it was by the seaside, beautiful, long beach with very few people. it was exactly what we needed, a little heaven. >> december 2004 life was amazing. i had just signed a deal to go and play professional golf for three years. i'd just been married. i feel that amanda found the best in me. she loved to travel, she loved

to do spontaneous things. so for our honeymoon our game plan was get on a plane, land in thailand, figure out what we do when we get interest. no hotel reservations, no plans, nothing. we would figure it out when we got there. we arrived at khaop.p. and it was amazing. >> we were going to sing a pore and thailand and added another trip to enjoy the thai beaches and diving. one of our good friends had been to khao phi phi. >> one of interesting moments that happened on that trip was laura asking questions to our professor what her chances would

be to die in a tsunami. and most of us thought that was a crazy thing to ask. >> i don't remember when i got this fear of tsunamis, but definitely from sort of junior high school on, it was always my most common, reoccurring nightmare. so when i asked him what are the chances i would die in a sue m tsunami, he looked at me and laughed and said, laura, you have less than a zero percent chance. dying in a tsunami. >> my dad, every year we'd go somewhere different. december of 2004, we went to thailand with my brother who was 16, my sister who was 15, my dad and his girl friend, sally, and i was 18 at the time. >> shonti is the oldest, jay-ron

and colleen is the youngest. jay on a sunday afternoon, middle of october was a passenger in a rollover accident, and they found that he had broken four bones in his neck. very, very bad fractures. so they had to stabilize the lower part of the spine. they did that by using titanium plates and cadaver bones and screws. and we chose to continue with our plans to go to thailand. >> jay had been having these dreams before we got to thailand. he did not want to come to thailand at all. one of his dreams was getting stuck on an island. i think one of them was drowning. and when we first got, there he couldn't sleep at all. these dreams kept waking him up and he was terrified.

we were in bangkok at this point. >> he was crying and hyperventilating, something bad's going to happen, dad. please don't take us there, to the beach. jay was afraid of his dreams because he dreamed his car accident. >> pretty much spot on exactly what happened. and even though my dad knew that that first dream had come into fruition, it's kind of a tough call. do you cancel a vacation just over a dream? so we decided to head south and see how it went. when we would go out to dive, jay would stay at the hotel, watch movies. the water is really incredible there. it's this turquoise blue that you only see in the caribbean. >> i dived in some of the most

beautiful places in the world, and i've never seen anything like this. there were so many fish, you almost have to push them out of the way to swim. >> as vacationers revelled in an eye loond paradise, disaster loomed. in december 2004, a massive earthquake struck deep beneath the ocean floor near the island of sumatra. it was a magnitude 9.1, so powerful it altered the rotation of the earth. that quake then spawned a series of sundtsunami waves and witnes would see three of these strike the shores of thailand. there witnesses, divers, would witness it offshore.

>> i i was a diver. i could lead with the certification. 8:15 i grab a t-shirt and leave the bungalow and get to the dive site which left shortly thereafter. we went to a very nice coral site that's about six miles south of khao phi phi. probably took us two hours to get there. we ended up getting into the water about 10:15. i saw the fish swimming in awkward direction, didn't seem to be swimming naturally and i saw all this dust kicked up. i thought that was the dust of the island. i didn't realize something was off until i looked at the dive

instructor and could see in his face he'd not seen that before. and he collected us and we slowly ascended to get back up to the surface. nobody could explain it. >> this day we were going to dive the north end of the similan islands. >> my sister decided she didn't want to dive with us that day. she was going to hang out with my brother. the currents were just absolutely crazy. the water was full of bubbles and there was no fish. we were against this rock, cliff island, so it just kept pushing you into the rocks and my dad and sally got swept away i think a mile or more away from us. >> i was actually in a vortex, and i went down about 45, 50 feet and they were just stronger and stronger.

it was like just being gripped by a fist. >> i got caught by this rip current, and then i surfaced again and i saw these big waves, you know, seven to ten-foot waves, and what's generating a wave in deep water? >> i figured it was a very good possibility that i wasn't going to make it out of this alive. >> coming up -- >> the water was breaking the windows, filling the bungalow, moving so fast. >> the tsunami roars ashore. >> it was like a bomb went off. >> oh, my god, it's a tsunami. i knew we were go to be submerged. >> this woman looked at my dad and said "take your kids and run." >> when "dateline extra" continues.

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i'm yelling for sally, i'm on the surface and i didn't hear her but that boat apparently saw her and they hand signalled to me where she was. >> trying to get back on to this boat with all these big waves that were coming through this choppy water that we'd never seen before. and i think the weirdest part is that's the kind of water you'd see when there's like a storm coming but it was sunny, clear blue sky and no clouds anywhere. >> everybody came up and was on the boat and talking about what was going -- you know, what is going on? >> it was sunday morning and the enormous surge that had swept past divers and fishermen off the coast of thailand was now roaring towards shore.

making the situation even worse, the tsunami would take most along the coast completely by surprise. there was no official warning system in place. the waves were coming. >> we woke up on the 26th of december at about 3:30 a.m. we got dressed, we took a stroll on the beach. we were supposed to leave two hours later to another part of thailand. so once we got to the bungalow, we started to pack. >> the plan was to spend the last day there, just to hang out by the beach. we sat down on our little bench in the lobby and we just started talking about we can go to the pool right here, which is amazing. we can rent a speed boat and spend the day having someone drive us from island to island and go and check out the place we haven't seen yet. >> stefan left to go do his dive, and my friend came over and he was going to help me

finish packing and then we were going to go to the beach for a couple hours before we checked out. >> we sort of set out for the day just to hang out on the beach. >> it was supposed to be high tide but it was what appeared to be low tide and all of the boats were all stuck in the sand. >> so we wanted to find a hair braider somewhere on the beach just to hang out for a couple hours, just to pass time before we left. >> we went to the ladies to get the girls' hair braided and they were speaking to themselves very sort of animated and we couldn't get their attention. >> we turned to talk to the lady about getting their hair braided and within that quick amount of time, we looked and the water's gone out of the bay completely. >> we were looking at coral or rocks we had never seen before. >> on the horizontal, there

seemed to be sort of a white line. >> and at that point things happened really quickly. >> this woman looked at my dad, pointed at my little sister, michaela and said "take your kids and run." and from that point on, we knew that this was no longer, you know, an average day. >> i just remember hearing people screaming. and it sounded like they were running towards us. and i initially thought, oh, wow, these people are really happy because that's where the boats were landing. but within three seconds i knew it wasn't that. because you could hear the screams. it was completely different than joy. i suddenly clicked into survival mode p mode. i was thinking 9/11. i grand -- grabbed amanda and

threw her to the wall and mandy was looking right into my eyes. >> i started running back towards the buildings and back more inland. >> go, go, go. >> i remember turning and running and noticing other foreigners walking towards the beach. taking pictures. i noticed that kaitlin was running really fast. >> jamie's holding michaela's hand and she has these little high-heeled little flip-flops she's running in. >> then michaela dropped her journal, and when i turned around to pick it up, that's when i saw a wall of muddy, brown white water. >> it was at least two stories high.

>> i've grown up, you know, being in the ocean, next to the ocean. you know, i've seen thousands of waves, but i'd never seen water behave like this. >> get in, get in, get in! >> i thought that's it, we're not going to make it. >> as i was packing, i looked up and that's when i saw people frantically running around the pool. the next second water was crashing into the windows and breaking the windows, filling the bungalow and it was so fast and i was screaming to simon, "what's happening?" everything happened in split of second. and then the current took myself

and simon out of the bungalow. i already have cuts around my body. then a debris of wood and metal and trees and glass started to press on my pelvis, and i had no way to escape. i felt i will die. >> i saw water just exploding through the bungalow ahead of us. i sort of said, oh, my god, it's a tsunami. and i jumped up on the bed and grabbed my friend's hand and pulled him up as well just thinking if we were a little bit higher, that would be better. i knew we were about to be submerged. i just didn't know how deep it was going to be or how bad it was going to be or how long it was going to last. so right before it hit, i took a deep breath. >> we got on our hand and knees

and there we were with our hands together and we were about to pray and then we just never had time to because at that moment right then and there it was like a bomb went off. just the loudest noise you could imagine. it just kept on getting louder and louder and louder to the point where amanda and i were two inches away from each other's shouting we love each other, "i love you, i love you." by that time the room was now shaking violently up and down, up and down. amanda looked at me and say, "this is it, isn't it?" and i looked back and for some reason i said "no." the second i said that, i looked to my right and the wall just went straight through us. >> as an enormous wave exploded on to the coast of thailand, it destroyed everything in its path. for many the decision made in those first few seconds and minutes meant the difference between life or death.

coming up, submerged. >> i really didn't know which way was up, which way was down. >> trapped. >> my legs were clearly pinned. >> defiant. >> at that exact second, my response was no, i'm going to die fighting. >> when "dateline extra" continues. almost there. i can't reach it. if you have alligator arms, you avoid picking up the check. what? it's what you do. i got this. thanks, dennis! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. growwwlph. it's what you do. oh that is good crispy duck. ♪ simulation initiated. ♪

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hi, richard lui. the celebrations continue into the night in miami's little havana after the death of cuban dictator fidel castro.

meanwhile, the communist nation has begun nine days of official mourning for the leader, who died at the age of 90. and hillary clinton said she will join in a recount request. donald trump called the effort a scam and said the election is over. for now back to "dateline extra." welcome back. for many the first sign of the tsunami that morning sparked more confusion than fear. the water moved so quickly and with such force that there may not have been time to even comprehend what was happening until they found themselves battling for their lives. then everyone in its path needed to contemplate their options, including whether the best thing to do was to fight or go in. we return to our story, "swept away." >> oh, my god, look at the waves

coming! clear out, people! >> tsunami! >> my god, it's coming! >> get in, get in, get in! >> it really hit with a lot of force. and it was very dark because it had picked up all this debris and sand. all of sudden it was being hit with this dark wall of water and thrown around. >> as soon as the water hit, i lost contact with my friend. for a few minutes i just tumbled in the water. i really didn't know which way was up, which way was down. is this my dream? because i have this tsunami dream a lot, but in this dream

i'm never actually in the tsunami so this can't be the dream. under what i assume was the bungalow was wood and rebar was on top of me and a lot of water. i tried to move and my legs were clearly pinned. i thought that my chest was pinned because my chest hurt so much, but i don't think there was necessarily so much on my chest so much as running out of oxygen was incredibly painful. my lungs started to hurt. i was under for about three minutes. i couldn't hold my breath anymore. at first i was very scared, but i really didn't want to die in a state of panic. and so i really did try to relax

and i remember feeling incredibly sad for my parents and how they would feel. there definitely was a moment when i thought -- the fact that i'm going to be the one to die in a tsunami when i've been saying this for years and years, it's ridiculously ironic. >> i remember a little boy crying, looking at me as i'm running past him and i'm thinking i can't save him, i can't do anything about this. and i remember with my relief a father coming by, scooping up and running into a house. we start to serpentine a little bit through the village and then i hear water hitting cement. i remember turning around and seeing water hit the building and then water coming out

everywhere. we kept running and now i feel like the ocean is some huge monster and it's coming for us and i just think i'm going to have to grab on to michaela and vivian, hold my breath, try and let me body go limp and when the water stops moving, then we'll go to the surface. somehow we run to this hill, kaitlin's right there and she looks at me like this and i scream at her "up." >> she reached a set of stairs on a hillside into some bungalows. we got to the stairs just in time because then the water did hit right as we hit the stairs and the water started to rise. people running next to jamie or right behind him were hit by the water.

>> when the wall hit us and i went through the next wall, we were instantly engulfed and we were underwater. and so now we're just tumbling in pitch black inside a hotel that's now in an ocean. i remember feeling amanda's hand slip out of my hand and realizing this was it, you know. and i just clearly remember saying to myself this isn't the end of my life. i remember saying this is not how will robbins dies. this is not how i die. i started to realize i don't have any oxygen left. so it went from this isn't the end of my life to this is how i die. so realizing that i'd lost my wife, realizing it's time to come to terms with this and so i said to myself, you know, just inhale the water and say it's over. and for some reason at that exact second my response was, no, i'm going to die fighting

and, bang, i popped up and i was in the middle of the ocean on that very last word. i turned to my right and my wife was there about two and a half feet away from me. she was screaming, "i'm broken, i'm broken, i'm broken" and i popped up and looked at the island and there was no island left. and it wasn't so much joy that we were alive, it was more of what happened and what's about to happen now? >> trapped, broken, desperate for air and yet somehow they were still alive. but the horror of that day was just beginning. coming up -- >> another one. >> killer wave number two. >> screaming for help, very, very frantic. >> the metal and the wood just crushing you like you're in a massive trash compactor. i'm going to die. and -- >> when "dateline extra" continues. g new cars.

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we looked out on what used to be an island filled with, you know, houses, bungalows, shops. >> get inside, get inside! >> you know, sand which is completely washed over with this muddy mess of water. >> pretty much a whole town flattened. >> get in, get in, get in! >> there are buildings that are missing. there are people hanging from a giant water tower. and now we're taking stock.

like kaitlin is freaked out, she's clutching. michaela is kind of stunned but not upset. vivian and i are looking at each other like holy [ bleep ], what was that? what is going on? we're trying to make sense of it. >> the colossal wave had struck with unimaginable force leaving death and debris in its wake, but not all was lost. many people, whether by luck or quick thinking, had survived the tsunami's wrath once. but now there was a second wave heading straight toward them. >> we heard the rumble of another wave coming. >> and hearing that sound and looking out and knowing that, you know, another one could possibly come and then hearing people scream "another one, another one," i immediately sort of like kicked back into fight or flight.

>> kaitlin jumped off the back deck of this villa and started running up into the jungle and jamie didn't. he was sitting there with michaela and kaitlin was running, and i said to jamie, i'm going to take off after kaitlin, catch up with us. >> we started to get dragged back on to the island and you could feel the metal and the wood just crushing you like you're in a massive trash compactor. the wooden boats were just being splintered to pieces up against the dock. i mean, they were hitting the dock and just splintering up in the air. and it was like this is it. there's no way out of this one because, i mean, i couldn't swim and i couldn't feel my left arm and i knew my wife was possibly paralyzed the way she was screaming. i just said, god, you need to help me out. >> i was under the blackwater for a long time, and i tried to fight to try to catch air.

i don't know how i was able to arise over the debris, but there i was, seeing blue sky. the current was going back into the ocean and i knew if i go into the ocean, it's going to be very hard to come back and it's going to be very hard to survive. and there was a palm tree, first palm tree i saw. and i tried to catch the leaves and i couldn't. and as i'm doing this, there are many other people doing the same thing, trying to hold on to something, screaming for help. adults, children. frightened. everybody was very, very frantic. >> after i had been underwater for really as long as i could, a second wave hit. and when it hit, it sort of

shuffled things again. and i felt things on top of me loosen. and then i was able to push and fight a little bit and get up to the surface. it's not about swimming, it's about trying not to get knocked by all of the stuff in the water. i got to a structure that was still standing, and there was a thai man who was able to reach down from either the second or third story and grab my arm. i thought, great, i'm saved, he'll drag me out. as i was trying to get another hand up and get ahold of anything to try to help him but he let go and then it was just right back to survival mode. >> and then there was one guy just standing in a boat, a wooden boat, and he was just standing there. i shouted out to him "you got to save us, we're going to die."

he said i can't help you. he'd lost his whole family. i shouted back to him and it was the shout of death, it was the shout of i'm going to die. and i shouted at him and i just said "you can't help them now. we're going to die. you can save us." and it was a miracle that he decided that was the best thing he could do was at that time give up on the people who he loved and go and help complete strangers. so marcus melberg. he was working on the dive boats. he's from sweden. he was out there with his family. they'd come out to visit him for christmas. he was out there on the island and didn't get a scratch. ended up in a little wooden boat. wasn't in a boat to start with. he lost his mother and his dad,

his sister and brother-in-law. he threw us a rope and dragged us across metal debris across to the boat. i look one way and i see an ocean. and i look the other way and i see an island that's no longer. you start to think what's going to happen now? then i see the next wave come. >> the worst of nature had brought out the best of humanity, but how much could anyone take? coming up -- >> i heard a woman call out "hold on, there's another wave coming." >> could it be a third tsunami wave? >> it was like the horizon just rose up. >> and would it be more deadly than the last? >> i had no strength left. >> that would be one of my last chances to survive. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

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welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. in the chaos of the tsunami's initial blast, some fled into the jungle. others were caught in the current's powerful grip as it pulled them out to sea, they clutched frantically at anything or anyone who could save them and still the assault continued. returning to our story, here is "swept away." >> i knew that there was the moment where i needed to grab on to something and that it would be probably one of my last chances to survive. i saw a second palm tree, and i was able to catch that palm leaf. i'm holding on to palm tree, butt naked because i had just swim suit on, which was taken away. i have cuts everywhere. at that moment what was hurting

me was my pelvis. i was in pain. >> i wound up at the edge of the beach on the south side. and i landed in the sand and i immediately coughed up, you know, a lot of water that i had inhaled, and i realized i couldn't really stand up. so i looked down and i saw that a big portion of my leg had been sort of ripped off and was hanging off of my leg. luckily i was absolutely in shock at that point and i didn't feel any pain from it. and amazingly my bikini and serong were still on. so i knew enough to elevate my leg. i took off my serong and i tied my serong over it.

>> you were looking at devastation and now you had the voices of people screaming out, screaming people's names. and there was a huge barge. we thought it's fine, we saw people standing on it, it's right by shore, it's gone through everything and it's okay. we need to get off of this little wooden boat and get somewhere safer. at this time i've got on to the barge, marcus is on to the barge, nobody is left in the little wooden boat except amanda but the little wooden boat is right up against the barge. and she was screaming. she was in absolute pain. >> two tsunami waves had struck and retreated and in their bawa, struggled to safety. then on the horizon, there it was, a third wave. >> it was like the horizon just rose up. but it wasn't, it was the ocean rising up for the next wave. amanda didn't move.

she just lay there crying. and you obviously can see what's going to happen. it's going to crush her and she just can't stand up and we're just yelling, everybody on the boat in every language you can imagine just screaming at her "stand up, stand up" and she just couldn't. and i looked her hold on there's another wave coming. so i scrambled up and grabbed a hold of the palm tree again. and a lot of debris swept up against me, i remember after

that wave subsided, lying back and thinking, if another wave comes, i can't get up. i had no strength left at that point. >> i didn't know what had happened to any of my friends. i was most hopeful about stefan. because i thought being out in the water diving might be the safest and i was obviously very worried about the friend who had been with me in the bungalow. >> and as the wave was decreasing, there was only water and debrreebris covered in mud , i had to be cautious of every possible sound. because one wave could mean that another wave was coming from. the worst sounds was of children calling for their loved ones, calling for help. and i was so close that i couldn't do anything.

>> i came to a clearing pretty high on top of the hill. so we just got up there and you saw little areas of people. and we saw a little flat area, and we sat down. >> i think that was the first, maybe 10 minutes or so after we got, that was the first time i was able to sort of relax. then it hit me what had just happened. >> there were screams of people that were injured, there were people panicking and crying, there were people sitting in silence. >> i was worried about my dad and my sister. i couldn't help but think there's a million different reasons why they wouldn't be okay. >> the tsunami's assault had finally ended, but survivors faced a new challenge. >> divers came to shore, but

what was left? >> it just looked like a bomb had gone off. >> no building was left. no hotels. >> we saw jay's black jean and khali's bathing suit top and that was all that was left of that bungalow. your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says, "you picked the wrong insurance plan." no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance.

it'...when that laxour loves your body back. only miralax hydrates, eases, and softens to unblock naturally. so you have peace of mind from start to finish. love your laxative. miralax. welcome back to "dateline ext ext extra." it was the single most devastating tsunami in recorded history. a doctor and some of his family

had been on a diving trip miles offshore when the wave struck. when they were heading back to land, they were just beginning to see the enormity of all that had happened and the devastation of what and who they left behind might be gone. this is more of our story, "swept away." >> the first thing we heard of anything happening on the island in particular was when a boat showed up and a man boarded our larger boat and we saw that his hand was bleeding and his back was bleeding. he said i got washed through the town and over rooftops and there was a massive wave and hundreds must be dead. the scariest part of his story was that we knew what he was describing was exactly where we knew our friends had been or were supposed to be that morning. not knowing what had happened to

them was gut wrenching. it was very clear to us that we needed to go and help. >> we were about two miles from shore. >> i thought at first that a ocean liner had blown up because there was so much stuff in the water, there were mattresses and cabinets and refrigerators, that would have been belonged in a home. >> we start realizing that there's so many bodies, everywhere you look there's bodies and we can't pick up all of these bodies and so we start looking for people alive that we could help. >> people had cuts all over their bodies, like little razor cuts, their faces and their chests and everywhere. >> and we pulled in as many people as we could and then the

captain said we just can't bring anymore, because the boat won't hold any more. >> the debris field was unbelievable. it was obvious at that point to me, anyway, that this was a tsunami. >> i just kept thinking that there's no way that my brother and sister would be alive. >> the captain wasn't willing to go back on shore and this seemed to have been true for most boats. there must have been 50 or 70 boats just in the bay, but not willing to get anywhere near the shoreline. just worried that there was another wave coming. two of the instructors put fins on and jumped in and said we'll swim and get a boat and whoever is willing to go back can go back.

>> you are a mile from hundreds of men, women and children, and you're in a position to potentially help them and you can't get there. >> i panicked because i had pitch knock lars. i used my binoculars to look at the beach. there is no buildings left, no hotels. there was a part of me that really didn't have any questions that jay and khali had to be dead. >> i starred to cry and i went back to being a doctor. you put your stethoscope on and you go on. >> the dive instructors were gone about two hours, and so we couldn't wait for them to get back. and when they did, both of us got on and goou