20 Years After Tsunami: Austrian Helper Looks Back

"The images stay in your mind. The strain on the psyche was great," recalls Lower Austrian Josef Schmoll 20 years later in an interview with the APA. Schmoll, from Höflein an der Hohen Wand, had already provided earthquake aid in Algeria, Turkey, and Iran before he set off twenty years ago to the holiday areas of Thailand, Phuket and Khao Lak in the province of Phang Nga, which were heavily destroyed by the tsunami.

Austrian Helper after Tsunami: "There is no Comparable Operation"

With earthquakes, there are buried people, after the tsunami bodies were washed up, explained the experienced crisis manager. 5,000 alone were in the completely destroyed Khao Lak. Families were torn apart in this holiday paradise, survivors were looking for relatives. "There is no comparable operation," the Lower Austrian had already emphasized 20 years ago on the spot. Victims were also recovered with elephants.

Even on the day of arrival in Phuket, it was clear that there were no injured people "who had not yet received medical treatment," Schmoll said in December 2004 in an APA interview. "The operation was top organized by the Thais," he emphasized two decades later. Injured people were taken to the nearest of the approximately 30 hospitals in Phuket. Because some were subsequently - sensibly - transferred to free places in hospitals throughout the country, facilities had to be screened to locate Austrians.

20 Years after Tsunami: "You Don't Forget That"

Among the tasks that had to be accomplished, Schmoll mentioned the search for missing persons and the organization of return transfers for injured Europeans. It was also determined what relief supplies were needed. "You don't forget that," the Lower Austrian looked back before Christmas 2024. "Going into nature, clearing your head," was his personal "therapy" after the experience. Schmoll was in Phuket several times professionally in the months after the tsunami, for example for the medical and psychological care of operational forces such as DVI teams (Disaster Victim Identification) and also on the commemorative flight for relatives of Austrian victims organized by the Foreign Ministry in April 2005.

The operation leader also remembers the ARC aid for a fishing village in the hinterland of Khao Lak. With the purchase of nets and the restoration of the bases of destroyed huts, the livelihood of the residents of Bann Tuppla was restored. The Lower Austrian himself had been there twice with teams for the medical care of the 16 families. The village, located in the freshwater area of a river mouth, had operated 43 floating fish farms. After the tsunami, only two were intact. Schmoll (56) is now the managing director of Notruf Niederösterreich. The former state president still belongs to the Red Cross. "It's close to my heart."

(APA/Red)

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