2004.12.26 TSUNAMI. Woman pictured confronting wave survived
By Jamie Wilson
The Guardian
Published January 3, 2005
It has become one of the defining images of the tsunami disaster: a woman in a bikini running towards the giant wave trying to save her children who had been playing in the surf.
When the photograph appeared in newspapers across the world last week most people assumed the family had perished moments later.
But yesterday it emerged that Karin Svard, 37, a policewoman from Sweden, her husband, three sons and her brother had all survived.
"I had to try to save my children; nothing was going to stop me. Terror was coming up inside me. I could feel it. But I was so focused I just started running to my family," she told the Expressen newspaper in Sweden. "I could see this white wall coming to me and it was coming faster. I did not care. I was looking at my children. I wanted to hold them and care for them."
"I can remember the white foam, how the surf took them up, and they disappeared," she said. "Maybe a second or two later the wave hit me and took me up. I thought I was going to die."
The policewoman was engulfed by water and swept in land. She managed to cling on to a palm tree, but lost her grip when another giant wave crashed into her.
Eventually she was washed up on higher ground, where she faced an agonising search for her husband Lars, brother Per and children Anton, 14, Filip, 11 and Viktor, 10.
"By this time I thought my family were dead. My life was over as far as I could see it. My children were taken away from me. It was 10 minutes - the worst 10 minutes in my life - before I found my family together on the higher ground away from the water.
"The boys were with Lars and Per. They were all holding each other, looking very frightened and confused.
"I rushed to them and yelled, 'Thank God you are alive.' We hugged each other. All around us people were shouting for their families and I could feel their fear."
She said there had been warning signs that the giant waves were on their way. "The sea had gone out so quickly that the fish had been left stranded. The children were picking the fish up and shouting excitedly like they were prize catches.
"It was strange but I thought maybe it was just the tide going out. I didn't understand any of its importance - until I looked at the horizon."
The family are now back in Sweden, a country in mourning.
Although the authorities have only confirmed 59 fatalities, they fear more than 1,000 Swedes may have died on Thailand's beaches.