Wave Of Destruction: Erich Krauss

Long before the tsunami struck on 26 December 2004, the villagers of Nam Khem had learnt they needed large amounts of luck and determination to get by. Dang and her neighbours were battling the government and a mining company for possession of their homes. After he became blind and lost his successful business, Puek and his wife Lek gave tourists beach-side massages. Nang collected coconuts to pay her husband's hospital bills after he was shot for lobster fishing in Burmese waters. And Wimon and Watcheree were just pleased to have two healthy children, since Wimon's mother seldom allowed the couple to sleep in the same bed. They were all in the path of the world's deadliest tsunami which killed over 200,00o people in 13 countries. Erich Krauss arrived in the Thai village of Nam Khem on a relief truck 12 days after the disaster; wandering around the wreckage in a contamination suit, trying to deliver food and water, he found survivors desperate to tell him what their village had been like and how their lives had been changed forever. This is the story of four families from one Thai village, who started that day with little and ended with nothing.