Couple who witnessed 9/11 and Japan earthquakes

survive Asian tidal wave

Exclusive by Jen Green

A MENITH Wood couple who lived through Twin Towers attacks and last October's earthquakes in Japan have again escaped with their lives -- from the Asian tsunami.

Bill and Christine Dance returned home on December 29 from the Maldives, one of the countries hit by the giant wave on Boxing Day.

The couple, who used to run their own marketing company in Surrey, had been holidaying on the islands, say they must have their own guardian angel.

"I don't want to overdramatise but it was very frightening," Mr Dance said.

"We were at the Taj Exotica Hotel on a small island and well settled in after a good Christmas.

"Walking to breakfast from our waterside bungalow on stilts Christine noticed that the tide was unusually high.

"It swept over the walkways and we realised we were in big trouble. My wife managed to hoist herself onto a balcony and I grabbed and hung onto a post in the rising water.

"The frightening thing was that I had no idea what was going on anywhere else or what could happen and as the water receded I was in danger of being struck by heavy debris sweeping in and past me.

"If I had been struck by a passing table it could have been curtains."

Exhausted and soaked through, Mr Dance was grabbed by hotel staff and reunited with his wife.

"We had no possessions with us, they were still in the bungalow but, more importantly, we did have our passports and credit cards still on us." he said.

About 200 people reached safety in the hotel and after a few hours staff managed to rustle up food for them, but Mr Dance said nobody knew what was going on, what would would happen next or whether they would be rescued.

"Communication was practically nil and I wondered what the hell was going on," he added.

"Half of the group wanted to get off the island before anything else happened but Christine and I gambled on staying put, which was well worth it because no other wave followed.

"Later, the hotel staff took out small boats to rescue our belonging in the bungalows. After 24 hours of little food and terrible sanitation, we wanted to get out too because we knew that the next 24 hours could be terrible."

Fortunately, the hotel was able to charter a plane to get people to Mal where they were able to wait for a flight to Madras and then to the UK and home, where the couple are left wondering how they happen to be in the wrong places at the wrong time.

The couple were holidaying in New York and shopping in Fifth Avenue when the attacks on the World Trade Center were carried out. They were again holidaying in Japan, and were on the ninth floor of a department store, when the country was rocked by a series of earthquakes.

Mr Dance said: "It seems so strange that we have gone through three major episodes in the world.

"We feel so very lucky to have been rescued and are full of gratitude to the hotel team who got us out.

"We really are being kept an eye on by someone up there and, because of what has happened to us, our family suggests that before we go on our next holiday, we must inform the United Nations."