Caught in the Wave

Open Water filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau were among those caught up in the killer wave in Phuket, Thailand. Kentis was returning to his hotel in Phuket after running morning errands when he saw the huge wave headed toward him.

“I heard people yelling, ‘Run, run!’’’ said Kentis. “I looked behind me and I thought, ‘This is what happens in a movie when there’s a tidal wave.’ You could hear the rumbling and this wave was coming right at us.” Fleeing to his upper story hotel room, Kentis discovered his wife Lau and his seven-year-old daughter were not there. They were in a second-floor Internet cafe, trapped by a telephone booth lodged in the stairwell.

Lau and her daughter escaped by lowering a bamboo ladder over the balcony, then hiked in waist-deep water back to the hotel. They collected their luggage, then, afraid another massive wave might follow, hiked several miles into the mountains. From there, they took two minicabs to Phuket’s east coast, which Kentis said seemed almost unaffected by the tsunami.

“When we got there, it was all people on yachts having a good time. It was just surreal,’’ Kentis said. “Two hours later, our kids were swimming in this beautiful hotel pool. And we’re ordering food.”

Their recent movie Open Water, which was inspired by a report in the pages of Undercurrent, was just released on video. To get a copy at the best price, with all of the profits from sales going to help coral reefs, log on to Undercurrent.

— taken in part from an article by Gillian Flaccus, AP