Out of the blue : facing the tsunami / Kimina Lyall.

"When journalist Kimina Lyall was offered the coveted post of Southeast Asia correspondent for the 'Australian' newspaper, she jumped at the chance. Based in Bangkok, she was captivated by the diversity and vibrancy of the region, from the bustling energy of Vietnam to the mystery of Burma. Then a violent incident on a deserted beach left her vulnerable and traumatised. Under pressure to deliver scoops and exclusives, Kimina was constantly on the move, chasing suspected terrorists and accused paedophiles from Cambodia to the jungles of the southern Philippines. She was giving the newspaper editors the kind of stories they liked - but she wasn't coping. Determined to make peace with the country and its beaches, Kimina and her partner decided to build a house on Golden Buddha Beach, off Thailand's west coast. But on Boxing Day 2004, a rupture in the earth's crust 696 kilometres from their peaceful paradise triggered a tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean. 'It hit our ears first. A roar, louder than an ascending jet, broke the blue and froze us all into stunned silence ... Way out to sea, impossibly far, a cloud of white water forming.' Killing hundreds of thousands of people in eighteen countries, and leaving its millions survivors with little more than nothing, the tsunami was on of the most destructive natural disasters in history - and instead of just reporting on it, Kimina was living through it." -- BOOK JACKET.