Trauma lingers on for survivors of the deadly tsunami that hit Thailand 20 years ago

BAN NAM KHEM, Thailand (AP) — The 20-year-old freshman student was still asleep that Sunday morning at the family's house on the Andaman Sea coast of southern Thailand when her mom, sensing something wasn't right, woke her up saying they needed to leave right away.

The day is forever seared in Neungduangjai Sritrakarn's memory: Dec. 26, 2004, the day the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami struck across South and Southeast Asia, after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

It was one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.

Neungduangjai's mom had noticed a strange pattern of whitecaps on the sea, just as a relative who returned from a fishing trip came by to warn them. They grabbed all the family members' essential documents and hopped on motorbikes.

Within minutes, Neungduangjai, her mother, father, brother and sister were speeding away, trying to get as far as they could from their village of Ban Nam Khem. Looking back, Neungduangjai saw a surging wall of water, taller than her home, moving toward shore from far away.

She had never seen anything like it.

They got about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) away when the wall of water crashed into the shore of Phang Nga province and caught up with them, knocking them off their bikes. The water was dark, sweeping all kinds of objects, man-made and natural.

Nuengduangjai pulled herself to her feet but could barely stand in the moving mass — the water was almost up to her knees.

She didn't know at the time that the tsunami had hit a dozen countries, leaving about 230,000 dead, around a third of them in Indonesia. Some 1.7 million people were displaced, mostly in the four worst-affected countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

Along Thailand’s Andaman coast, at least 5,400 people were killed and some 3,000 remain missing to this day, according to the Thai government.

The shrimp farm where Neungduangjai’s family worked and lived was wiped out.

In its place today is a thriving bar and restaurant — the fruits of Neungduangjai’s rebuilding efforts — with a porch looking out to a beautiful sea view. A view she said wouldn’t be there if not for the tsunami that destroyed parts of the coast.

In Phang Nga, life has been rebuilt and the tourists are back — on the surface, all is fine.

Neungduangjai, who was home from her studies in Bangkok for the New Year break when the tsunami hit, said her immediate family survived but they lost five relatives, including her grandparents. One of her uncles was never found.

After a week of staying with relatives in nearby Ranong province, she went back. She remembers the stench of death and how she thought everything had been moved from its original place.

“There were bodies everywhere,” she said. “When I returned to the village, I couldn’t recognize a single thing. ... Everything was different.”

Though tourists have little reason to notice them, reminders of the tragedy abound today in Phang Nga — signs showing an evacuation route, tsunami shelters near beach areas, several memorials and museums displaying wreckage and photos that tell the story of that day.

Sanya Kongma, the assistant to Ban Nam Khem's village chief, said development has come a long way, and that the quality of life in the village is good compared to 20 years ago.

But the haunting memories and the trauma of what they lived through are very much present and fear is never far away, he said.

"Even now ... if there’s an announcement from the government on TV, or whatever, that there’s an earthquake in Sumatra, everyone will be spooked,” he said.

About once a year, a siren blares off in a tsunami evacuation drill. But what is meant to reassure residents of their safety can cause some survivors to relive their pain.

Somneuk Chuaykerd lost one of her young sons to the tsunami while she was out at sea, fishing with her husband.

The 50-year-old still lives in the same spot, the sea right at her backyard. In evacuation drills, she has learned to keep an emergency tote bag with all important documents. The bag is in her bedroom, along with a photo of the little boy she lost.

But the siren freezes her up every time and sends her heartbeat racing. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to grab,” she says. “It's so scary.”

But she has made peace with the tragedy and has no plans to move away.

"I live by the sea. This is my living. I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she said.

As for Nuengduangjai, for years after the tsunami, every time she looked at the sea she would get a panic attack. A roaring sound of waves haunted her in her sleep.

She chose to move back home after college and make a living right next to the sea. She is proud of her bar and restaurant.

“I’m still scared, but I have to live with it, because it’s my home," she said. "Some people moved away, but I did not. I’m still here.”

A visitor looks at coastal reconnaissance boat T215 at Tsunami memorial in Phang Nga Naval Base province, southern Thailand, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A motorcycle rides past a tsunami evacuation route sign Ban Nam khem, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

People fish at Ban Nam Khem Beach, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Fisherman collect fish at Ban Nam Khem, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A fishing boat is back on shore at Ban Nam Khem, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Flowers hang on tiled memorial wall displaying names of victims from the tsunami 2004 in Tsunami memorial park, at Ban Nam Khem, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Tourist walk in from Tsunami Memorial poster at Khao Lak, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Boats float on Bang Niang Beach, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A survivor from tsunami Somnuek Chuaykerd talks to the Associated Press reporters during an interview show emergency bag with important document at Ban Nam Khem, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A woman walks on Bang Niang Beach, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Tourist take pictures beside photo of who dead by Tsunami memorial tree Nang Thong Beach, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A survivor from tsunami Assistant of village chief Sanya Kongma, talks to the Associated Press reporters during an interview tsunami hit to Ban Nam khem, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Tourists play on Bang Niang Beach, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

An area view Khao Lak beach, where tsunami hit 2004, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Tourists look at Police Boat T813 that was swept inland at Tsunami Memorial Khao Lak, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A survivor from tsunami Nuengduangjai Sritrakarn talks to the Associated Press reporters during an interview explain tsunami hit to Ban Nam khem, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Visitors looks at a tiled memorial wall displaying names of victims from the tsunami 2004 in Tsunami memorial park, at Ban Nam Khem, Takuapa district of Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) — Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship began flying home Sunday aboard military and government planes after the vessel anchored in the Canary Islands, where travelers were escorted to shore by personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks.

Spanish passengers were the first to leave the MV Hondius following its arrival in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast. They were then flown to Madrid and taken to a military hospital. Hours later, a plane that evacuated French passengers landed in Paris, where it was met by emergency vehicles.

The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was expected to last until Monday.

One of the five French passengers developed symptoms on the flight, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement, and all were put into strict isolation with plans to be tested.

Earlier, officials from the Spanish Health Ministry, the World Health Organization and the cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions had said none of the more than 140 people who were then on the Hondius had shown symptoms of the virus.

Three people have died since the outbreak began, and five passengers who left the ship earlier are infected with hantavirus.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak.

“We have been repeating the same answer many times," he said. "This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”

Even so, those disembarking and workers at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective gear during the evacuation process, including hazardous materials suits, face masks and respirators. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed passengers on the tarmac donning similar suits and being sprayed down with disinfectant.

Passengers were relieved to be on their way home, another WHO official said.

“It’s been great seeing all the buses coming out and people really happy to be on land again and being repatriated,” said Diana Rojas Alvarez, the WHO health operations lead, who is on Tenerife.

Authorities have said the disembarking passengers and crew members will be checked for symptoms and will be forbidden from having any contact with the local population. They are to be taken off the ship only when evacuation flights are ready. Tedros and Spain’s health and interior ministers are supervising the operation in Tenerife.

Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings, and the disease not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Passengers and disembarking crew members left behind their luggage and were allowed to take only a small bag with essentials, a cellphone, a charger and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, Spanish authorities said.

The journey to Rotterdam takes about five days, the cruise company said.

The WHO is recommending that passengers' home countries "have active monitoring and follow-up, which means daily health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” Van Kerkhove said.

“We are leaving this up to the countries themselves to actually develop their own policies,” she added. “But our recommendations are very clear, and this is really a cautionary approach to make sure that we don’t have any opportunities for this virus to pass from others.”

Numerous countries have said their people would be quarantined or hospitalized for observation. Earlier, for example, the French Foreign Ministry said its passengers would be hospitalized for 72 hours of monitoring, then would quarantine at home for 45 days.

After the passenger came down with symptoms, the prime minister said the five would be kept in the hospital "until further orders."

Passengers and crew from the U.K. will be hospitalized for observation, British authorities said.

The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, said Americans would first be flown to the University of Nebraska, which has a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.

After that, he told CNN’s “State of the Union,” they will be given the choice of staying in Nebraska or going home, where their conditions would be monitored by state and local health agencies.

He noted that seven Americans who left the cruise have been in the U.S. for roughly two weeks, and they are living across the country.

Australia is sending a plane, expected to arrive Monday, to evacuate its people and those from nearby countries, such as New Zealand, and unspecified Asian countries, said Spanish Health Minister Mónica García, who added that the evacuation flight was expected to be the last to leave Tenerife.

Norway sent an ambulance plane to the island with personnel trained to transport patients with high-risk infections, its Directorate for Civil Protection told public broadcaster NRK.

Elsewhere, British Army medics parachuted onto the remote South Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hantavirus.

The patient was a passenger on the MV Hondius and disembarked last month.

The U.K. Defense Ministry said a team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped Saturday from a Royal Air Force transport plane, which also dropped oxygen and medical equipment.

Tristan da Cunha is Britain’s most remote inhabited overseas territory, about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the nearest inhabited island, St. Helena. The group of volcanic islands has no airstrip and is usually accessible only by a six-day boat voyage from Cape Town, South Africa.

Meanwhile, a Spanish woman in the southeastern province of Alicante suspected of being infected tested negative for hantavirus, Spanish health authorities said Saturday.

The woman was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship.

Naishadham reported from Madrid. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris, Jill Lawless in London and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

British Army medics parachute onto the south Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hanatavirus, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (British Ministry of Defence via AP)

A Spanish government plane takes off with passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers sit inside a bus after being disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers stand next to a Spanish government plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

A passenger waves to the Guardia Civil officers as they are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers watch as others are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers stand on the deck of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers are being disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

A Civil Guard border police stands guard following the arrival of hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Civil Guard border police officers following the arrival of hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers and crew at the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers at the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A passenger stands at the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Civil Guard officers patrol next to the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

View from the bridge of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaks to the media near the area where passengers from the MV Hondius are expected to arrive at the port of Port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)