A woman who was on her honeymoon in Thailand when the catastrophic Boxing Day tsunami struck in 2004 has opened up about how it changed her life. Lou Harrand, 51, was marking the beginning of a new chapter alongside her husband Greg when the tsunami hit. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the disaster, Lou has opened up to OK! about what happened that day…

“As I tried to fight my way to the surface of the thick, dirty water, I didn’t know which way was up. Just moments ago, I’d been holding onto my new husband, Greg, but now I had no idea where he was – or where I was for that matter. What had started as another beautiful day in Koh Phi Phi had turned into something drastically different. This wasn’t the honeymoon we’d planned.

Greg and I met when we were 14. I had a crush on him – my friends even addressed letters to “Mrs Louise Gregory Harrand” – but it wasn’t until we were 29 that we got together. Just 18 months later we married on a cold, crisp day in York in December 2004. It was everything we wanted it to be. As hoteliers, January is our quietest time, so we decided to go on honeymoon then. The plan was to stay in some resorts in Thailand and then spend five weeks travelling, but Mother Nature tragically changed everything.

After landing in Thailand, we spent our days sunbathing, relaxing and scuba diving, which was a welcome relief from wedding planning. On Christmas Day, we had a barbecue in Maya Bay with some locals and on the morning of Boxing Day we were nursing a bit of a hangover. When we woke up, we noticed our beachfront bungalow was swaying and Greg even commented on the bathroom door moving. Thinking nothing of it, we headed to breakfast, ready for another day in paradise.

Just an hour later, people started running around when we were in the hotel reception. As we stepped outside to see what had happened, we were surrounded by ankle-deep water. The panic heightened and we began running too. Shouts of “get high” filled the air, so we headed to a nearby hotel with roof access. However, as there was only a single staircase, there was a bottleneck of people. Suddenly, a huge wave came from behind, sweeping Greg and me away instantly.

Lou noticed something was wrong when she found herself surrounded by ankle-deep water ( 
Image:
Getty Images)

Trapped below water

We’re both strong swimmers but there was nothing we could do – we were instantly separated. As I tumbled through the water, I kept thinking, “This isn’t supposed to happen; this is my honeymoon.” I have no idea how long I was under water, but I couldn’t have lasted another 10 seconds. Both of us have said we contemplated taking a mouthful of water to end our lives because we thought that was going to happen anyway. It was terrifying.

At one point, I got stuck between two pieces of stone and was trapped. Because of the pressure my ribs eventually broke, though luckily that allowed me to then pass through the gap. When I eventually resurfaced, I was at roof level, and my survival instincts kicked in. I thought if I don’t get away before the debris behind reaches me, I’m dead. I pulled myself onto a table that was floating beside me, and to my right there was a group of men on a roof who’d seen me. They made a human chain and, reaching out to them, I clambered on and joined them. We sat on the hot metal, watching the water, wondering whether the whole world was like this or if it was just us.

I can’t recall how long afterwards, but slowly the water went down. In fear of another tsunami, I headed to the hotel staircase for a second time. As I entered, I glimpsed my face in a mirror in the hallway – I didn’t recognise myself due to my injuries. Making my way to the top floor, a German man and his girlfriend, who’d been in their room when everything happened, took me in and looked after me. I told them about my husband and they asked if I was worried about him. I replied that if I was okay, he’d be okay too. That’s how I dealt with it.

Lou was trapped underwater, though was able to climb onto a roof for safety ( 
Image:
Lou Harrand)
Once the chaos had passed, the man asked for Greg’s name and began calling out his name among the debris. As if by magic, he found him. It sounds strange but because I thought Greg would be fine, I simply greeted him with “oh, hi” as if he’d just nipped out to the supermarket. But once we were reunited, I shut down. I couldn’t do anything other than let Greg tell me what to do. People gave us bits of information so we headed to a clearing area where we were assessed and given bottles of antiseptic for our wounds.

That evening, a wooden sailboat took us to a fishing trawler, which then transported us to Phuket, three hours away. Ambulances, pick-up trucks and mopeds were waiting to take us to hospital – finally, we felt safer. An X-ray revealed I’d broken my ribs and I needed my arm stitched up, but the adrenaline meant I hardly felt the pain. The Thai people were amazing. They’d lost their houses and families, but they still wanted to help. A woman gave us a lilo which Greg slept on for the first night, while I took a bench.

The following day we headed to the airport and waited for two seats to become available. Around six of us got on a flight to Bangkok in hospital gowns as we had no other clothes. We stayed in Bangkok for two nights before frantically begging the airport desk to let us on a flight home. All we had was a Polaroid of ourselves in the hospital and a piece of paper that said, “This person is a British national.” Luckily, the airline we were due to fly home with in the New Year allowed us to transfer flights, and relief flooded over me.

On the 13-hour journey home, we felt like royalty. People were moved to give us a row of seats and some of the other passengers came to sit, cry and pray with us. It was just beautiful. When we landed at Heathrow, my parents had driven from York to pick us up. As soon as we saw them, my dad hugged Greg so tightly. My dad hadn’t previously been one to show his emotions, but he changed after that.