Fed: Australian tourists tell of luck, survival and tragedy

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-2004
Fed: Australian tourists tell of luck, survival and tragedy

There've been emotional reunions at Australian airports with scores of survivors of
the Indian Ocean tsunami, which has killed more than 80,700.

Almost all had watched people die and many had escaped death themselves.

One Sydney woman was lucky to survive when the tsunami flung a car on top of her as
she walked along a Thai beach.

DIANNE BOARDMAN and her husband LES were strolling along the shore just hours after
arriving on the holiday island of Phuket when they noticed the waves.

Mr BOARDMAN says he held onto a stranger's arm but the man was swept away.

Canberra woman SEELI PACKIANATHAN and her three daughters also arrived home from Sri
Lanka yesterday, grieving over the loss of several relatives who drowned in their coastal
home.

She says she's lost many of her cousins and their children.

AAP RTV mp/dk/ved/gjr/jo

KEYWORD: QUAKE AUST SURVIVORS (MELBOURNE)

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.