When Paradise Goes Bad: A New Yorker's Account of the Tsunamis...

Staff · Issue 22, Jan/Feb 2005 · pp. 28–29

I was at sea scuba diving in the uninhabited Similian Island chain, an 8 hour boat ride from the island of Phuket, when then first wave came through. What would follow are a series of events that changed the lives of so many people forever. As an up and coming underwater photographer, I had planned on spending the week taking pictures of the breathtaking beauty of the reefs and island scapes, however, I spent the last 2 days documenting the devistation, destruction and compassionate rescue efforts that not even images can properly portray. We have experienced the two extremes of paradise. The idyllic beauty and the sheer destructive power of the amazing planet that we inhabit. We were diving at a remote site in the open ocean called Richlieu Rock, a pinnacle in about 120 feet of water, which at high tide is exposed by about 10 feet, and during low tide is totally submerged. There was an …