Former Sandpoint couple recalls tsunami disaster

Do you remember the Oldies and Goodies Bakery in Sandpoint?

Walter and Alice Kunze were famous in these parts for the freshest, lightest-tasting doughnuts and a Bavarian creme bar that was heavenly, so I am told.

The Kunze family moved away years ago and the bakery closed in the early 1980s. They now live in Medford, Ore. The Kunze daughters, Krista and Karrie, both graduated from Sandpoint High School. Karrie Turner and her husband, Robert, live in Spokane and have four children and Krista and her husband live in Bangkok, where she is an executive for Nike.

Krista and David Schreiber had a first-hand view of the tsunami that devastated Thailand. Krista's aunt, Betty Hill of Sandpoint, wanted to share an e-mail David shared with friends, relatives and an Oregon television station.

Here is an unedited copy of the e-mail. This is an amazing story.

As most of you know, we are Oregonians that live in Bangkok. We had a busy year traveling around the world and decided to spend Christmas a little closer to home — why go anywhere else when paradise is an hour away? Au Nang Beach is where our bungalow was located. The first couple days of our holiday were spent in town and on the beach. We were traveling with a friend of ours and the three of us decided we really wanted one day out on the water to do some snorkeling and check out some of the islands we had not seen before.

Our Canadian host used to be a dive instructor so he recommended we have someone he knew take us out before all the other tourists hit the water. By 8 a.m., our boat driver had picked us up in his motorcycle. Yes, there were three of us and our driver, and one motorbike with a makeshift sidecar that made my childhood go-cart look safe.

Several years ago you would have never seen me in such a contraption, but time in Thailand has worn on me. On the way to the pier we stopped by the driver's small and run down concrete shack where we saw him say good-bye to his family.

The pier was a parking lot of Long Tail Boats draped in colorful banners. A long tail boat is a freak of manmade innovation. Using the hull of an ancient fishing vessel, they stick an open car motor on the end of a 20-foot pole with a prop on the end. Basically, it is a canoe with a giant weed eater on the aft. Four years in the Coast Guard told me we should go nowhere near these things, but years in Asia have worn down my overly cautious attitude. The weather was good and the sea was calm… What could go wrong?

Our first stop was Chicken Island where we snorkeled for a while, but gave up quickly once the other boats showed up. Our driver, sensing our need to be away from crowds, headed us towards Poda Island. We beached inside a giant rock cove with a lagoon about 1/2 acre and the beach about the same, OK that is what it was when we got there.

After only 10 minutes of snorkeling, we all got out the water. Some type of water mosquito was biting at us and the reef was not worth the pain. When we made it back to the beach, a boat dropped off a Dutch lady who began feeding bread to the fish. Altogether, there were five of us on the island.

Now we have been on a lot of tropical islands throughout the world and maybe it is my growing up with Gilligan's Island, I am not sure, but I always look at them in terms of "what if we were stranded here."

So I think it was no surprise to my wife when I said "Hey this would not be a bad island to be stranded on." Of course everyone laughed, but I kept checking it out just in case. Fruit trees, elevated caves, lots of fish all told me this could do it if we needed it. Then I laughed inside and thought how could we ever be stranded here, there are boats everywhere and we are so close to land.

The girls decided to explore the rocks while I decided where to build my hut. In contemplating how much beachfront property I would have, I noticed the tide moving out at incredible speed. So did our driver and he decided we needed to leave soon or he was going to have a grounded boat. I yelled for the girls, but they were way up in the rocks and were having a challenge getting down.

I decided to get in the boat so when the girls came down I could help them up. As soon I was stable in the boat, Reese, our driver, yelled, "wave." With a quick glance I noticed a rolling liquid hill as high as I could see. I knew what it was instantly and knew there was no way I would make it if I stayed in the boat so I jumped into the water and ran as fast as I could to the shore. Now why I thought I could outrun a 40 mile-an-hour wave I have no clue, but halfway up the beach it grabbed me and pushed me in to a giant bush then left me and the bush on top of a cliff 15 feet off the ground.

Our friend was on that same cliff, but the wave was not as kind to her and pushed her into a cave with a three-foot opening. Krista, my wife, had already made it down on the ground and was thrown against the rock wall, along with the Dutch woman who ended up right next to her.

As I got my bearings, I realized that Krista was on the ground in front of a tree and the Dutch woman was in front of a second tree. As the water receded, I could see the second wave coming from my vantagepoint. I yelled for them to hold on and held my breath as I watched the woman I love with all my heart hang on with every thing she had. As the second wave receded and a third wave was close behind, once again I yelled and watched them both take on an unimaginable force of water.

As the third wave pushed back, both women climbed up to the cliff where I was standing. Then somehow our friend emerged from the cave. Quickly, we decided we needed to get to higher ground and Krista and our friend headed to the right side of the cliff where they had been climbing earlier. The Dutch woman stayed with me on the cliff for a moment and watched the sea in front of us.

Our boat was gone the debris was massive. Within a few moments, her husband showed up in a long tail boat with their driver. It was floating, but did not look good. They tried to go into the cove, but it was too dangerous so we warned them away.

As we headed to the right, Krista and our friend were deciding to climb up an 8-foot shelf with the help of a rope that had been there for some time. When it was my turn to climb, my back was hurting quite badly and I had little strength on my right side. Krista told me I had no choice but to get up there and with every ounce of energy I had, I somehow managed to get up the wall.

Our resting place was about four stories above the water and I felt quite safe for the moment. Krista had saved my yellow "Live Strong" T-shirt in case we needed it for bandages. Other than that, we were in our swimsuits with not much else. We also believed that within a few hours someone would come back and get us — after all, they knew where we were. Quickly, I grew concerned as our friend and Krista were slipping in and out of shock. Conversation was our first priority and we needed to keep everyone awake. We shared stories of our favorite childhood memories and discussed what could have caused the tidal wave.

Only days before, we were warned of a terrorist threat to the resorts of Thailand and Bangkok. There were also earthquakes recently in the news and I always had a theory that when there is one quake on one end of a plate, there will be a counter quake on the other side. Three hours went by quickly and soon I became restless.

The water was receding and we could see our boat motor on the beach with the capsized hull floating out in the bay. I knew we would need supplies if we were going to spend the night and our friend was getting chills. At one point, we all felt dizzy and I suspected it was another quake. This meant another wave could be around the corner.

I finally decided to climb down to the beach. This was not easy and in the back of my head I knew I most likely would not be able to make it back up again. One of our bags had made it to the cliff and it had our two beach mats, an extra T-shirt of mine and a very small bottle of Johnny Walker Black Whiskey. I threw the contents up to the girls. Now why I had brought the whiskey along was beyond me. But I knew if things got bad it would become very useful.

As I made it down to the beach, I began to find all sorts of things from life jackets to my beach towel to a green mango. I collected what I could and started hauling it up the cliff. Finally, I decided to look into the cave our friend was dragged into. Halfway through, I heard the helicopter.

So I ran out and saw nothing. At this point, I had to make a decision. It would be dark in a few hours and we would need more supplies for the night. There were also boats in the very far distance around Chicken Island. I decided to make a flag from a 12-foot bamboo pole and a piece of yellow cloth I found on the beach.

Then I heard the helicopter again. And as they went by, I waved my flag as much as could, but they must have been looking in the other direction because in seconds they were gone. I guess I finally let out my frustration and stole a line from the movie 'Castaway.' Apparently the girls heard me and began laughing.

At this point, the shadow was casting over the cove and sunset was not far way. I had to make a choice to either stand boat watch or gather supplies. Luckily, I chose boat watching and after seeing several in a distance going the other way. I noticed one heading in our direction.

Then it stopped. This caused me to wave the flag harder. It must have worked because within seconds they were full steam in our direction.

OK, I got a little excited and yelled for the girls to come down from the cliff. They didn't believe me at first because it took a lot of encouragement to get them out of the cave. The boat was from a local dive company called Aqua Dives. They could not get into the cove so they sent a diver out to get us. When he got to shore he explained we had only 20 minutes before another one was coming. Well this meant my lucky Live Strong T-shirt was going to be left behind as we rushed everyone through the rocky water and onto the boat.

The comfort and sadness we saw on the boat would set the tone for the next few days. We were given water, sodas and what little news they knew of what was going on. At the same time, I was sitting next to a Thai couple holding their deceased baby in their arms. The physical trauma was over; the emotional roller coaster was about to begin.

When we reached shore there was a bit of urgency to get everyone off the boat; we thought another wave was coming and we needed to get our rescuers out of harm's way. Rescue vehicles were in short supply at this point so we were tossed into the back of a pickup with the tailgate down and I was on the tailgate. 50 to 60 mph on a Thailand road is scary enough, sitting on a tailgate with nothing to hold on to really were worse than the wave.

We made it to the hospital emergency area and even though it was almost six hours since the wave hit, we were some of the first to arrive. But this is where reality began to hit us as we saw still children wrapped in blankets and blood everywhere. My wife had her lip stitched up to her nose and all I could do was hold her hand as I could see the pain in her eyes. It was going to be a long night.

The local people of Crab Town, along with uninjured tourists, were wonderful. They gave us blankets, clothing and food and water. We used their phones to call our hotel and they offered us free lodging near the hospital if we needed it. I made it back to our hotel and got my wife's phone and began calling our families. But the problem was what to say. The news in the U.S. was slow - most of the first people we called didn't even know what had happened and this was 12 hours after the wave hit.

One Swiss tourist told us FOX Network was reporting that there was a fight on one of the soap opera TV shows while BBC was giving around-the-clock coverage. Americans back home have no idea how embarrassing that Network is to us who live over here.

Finally, we decided we would spend the night at the hospital because our hotel was too far away and our friend was having problems moving. So we camped out on the floor.

Across from me was a man from Israel who lost his wife and next to us a woman from Argentina who lost her husband and baby. A couple from Sweden lost their father. All we could do is loan them our phone and hold their hands.

In the morning local people who you know have very little came by with bags of fruit, clothes and water. They had nothing, but they were willing to give what they had.

Eventually, we made it back to our hotel and then home to Bangkok the next day. As we were getting ready to go to the airport, we were told they found the body of our boat driver. I knew he was gone but it was hard to hear.

The funny thing is that this happened on Boxing Day, which is a British holiday where those who are better off give to the poor. Yet it was the poor who were giving to us.

Walter and Alice Kunze are in Thailand right now for what was going to be a vacation with their daughter and son-in-law.

According to aunt Betty Hill, she's sure the family is mourning the loss of the many lives in the tsunami while feeling very blessed they survived.

David Keyes is publisher of the Bee. His column runs weekly.