Supermodel Petra Nemcova was one of many caught in the devastating tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004. She got caught in the massive wave after it smashed through her bungalow in Kaho Lak.
Now, Nemcova is reflecting via People on that fateful day. It was the day after Christmas, and Nemcova was about to fly home. She was busy packing when she heard screaming coming from outside. She glanced towards the outside pool and saw the massive wall of water just as it hit her. The tsunami consumed the bungalow and washed her away.
"Everything happened in split seconds. I looked up to see frantic movement and people jumping and then in the next second, the wave is crashing into the bungalow and breaking all of the glass windows," she recalled. Glass sliced through her skin as her boyfriend screamed her name "I heard Simon screaming my name and it was the last time I heard him."
Nemcova thought that she was going to die. She said, "At some point, I couldn't breathe anymore. And I thought, 'That's it.' That's my last moment. And I let go. And actually, it was the most blissful moment of my life," Nemcova remembers now, describing how she made peace with her own death. And then, by some miracle, I was able to see sky again."
Tsunami Hits Petra Nemcova
However, Nemcova managed to grab onto the leaves of a palm tree. She ended up holding onto the plant for a grueling 8 hours. The force of the tsunami ended up shattering through her pelvis. At the time, she couldn't move or even feel her legs. All she heard was creams then silence.
"Half an hour later, I couldn't hear them anymore. And that meant that they couldn't hold on. I couldn't swim out [to them] because I was trapped by debris," Nemcova says. "That day, I couldn't help. I had no choice."
Fast forward 20 years, and Nemcova established All Hands and Hearts, a nonprofit to help communities recover after disasters such as tsunamis.
"Hearing children screaming for help and not being able to help them, that leaves such a powerful mark," she says. "Today and every day, I have a choice to help. You are helping others to rebuild their lives, but many times your life also gets, in a way, rebuilt. You find a purpose."
