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UPDATED, DECEMBER 2006: Paul Landgraver is still living near Phuket at Khao Lak with his girlfriend Karin. His last interview was with the fifth estate. He rents a small house situated 100 metres from where he washed up during the tsunami. Paul and Karin rarely talk about that day. He says, "it's more like a childhood memory, it's distant."
He's troubled by the "gore tourists" he sees frequently pass through the village, looking for remnants of the disaster. His experience of dealing with the injured following the tsunami has led him to open a business in Khao Lak that focuses on dive safety and first aid, courses he teaches to locals with Karin. He says diving remains the best therapy—for him it is a religion: "floating weightless in mother earth."
He and Karin plan to spend the rest
of their lives there, with the community he was with during the tsunami.
In terms of his relationship with Karin, he says: "we have a strange
and deep relationship because we're both survivors and we realized
one of the things we care about the most is each other."
Thannis, 17, now lives in
southeast London with his father and uncle and attends Southwark College
where he studies English and has made a few new friends. His uncle says that
Thannis still doesn't talk much about his trauma, but that sometime after his
interview with the fifth estate he began meeting with a Sri Lankan psychiatrist
out of London, for a period of about 4 months, to work through his depression.
His uncle indicates that after these sessions concluded and once Thannis started
college and began talking with people there was significant improvement.
UPDATED, DECEMBER 2006: Clive Francis hasn't been back to therapy since Tsunami: Untold Stories aired, but friends think he's still affected by his experience and should return for counseling.
He hasn't heard from the Czech father, Martin, regarding his daughter Eva whose life he saved, but he is planning to go to Prague in February to find them and see her. He thinks it will be a very emotional moment for him when he sees Eva.
The impact of the tsunami has left Clive unable
to watch movies or television programs with traumatic or highly emotional
content. He gets too upset. These days he spends as much time as he can with
his wife and son Daniel.
UPDATED, DECEMBER 2006: Chamnarn Uttamang is now 65. He remained a monk for only 3 months before leaving the Order because of failing health. He has eight remaining grandchildren and lost five to the tsunami.
Eventually the bodies of all his missing relatives were found and cremated
just before the first anniversary of the tsunami. His health has improved
and he now lives at his re-built house with his youngest son and tries to
fill his time in the village by helping with carpentry and rebuilding.
UPDATED, DECEMBER 2006: Stein and Tuula Ulve are still living in Tromsø, Norway, but are building a house in Finland and planning to move there in the summer of 2007.
They returned to Phuket last Christmas and took a day trip to Phi Phi where the wave came in. They got to experience the paradise they lost the year before and the dream holiday at Christmas and felt they got closer to the memory of their lost son, Are, and his last moments.
The big news is that they are busy with
their 5-month-old daughter who they named, Esme Aurora, or "beloved light." Tuula
says the baby helps them remember Are.
The Moore family never returned to Thailand and they haven't seen Tuula
and Stein Ulve since the disaster although they will send greetings to the
Ulve family this Christmas. They would love to visit Thailand again, but have
no plans to do so.