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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Australians Missing: Numbers Expected To Climb |
| 2004-12-26 |
| Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said six Australians were unaccounted for so far but he expected that number to change. Mr Downer said three people were missing in Phuket - including a 16-year-old Down syndrome boy from Melbourne - two in Indonesia, and one in Sri Lanka. Western Australian state MP John Hyde, staying in Phuket, said the main tourist strip was a scene of "absolute desolation" after it was hit by two tsunami waves. "At 10am (local time) all of a sudden, just out of nowhere, a massive wall of water came through," Mr Hyde told Channel 7. "There are cars upturned and floating, there's debris, there are beach chairs and beach umbrellas, bits of restaurants are starting to float by," he said. "There are cars jammed inside buildings - just the force of it when it hit that initial beachfront must have been amazing to have been able to wedge cars into coconut trees. "Then we started to see people injured struggling up from the beach, orange-clad monks carrying people." PAUL GIARDINA, 16, from Melbourne, is among those missing after becaming separated from his parents, Joseph and Ivana Giardina, when a tidal wave hit as they dined in a Phuket hotel restaurant. There are grave fears for the boy, who suffers Down Syndrome. The family has appealed to the Australian government to do more to find Paul, who would have trouble telling anyone his name. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |