How Restaurant Owner Who Survived World’s Worst Tsunami Found ‘Strength’ to Help 100 Others, amid Her Trauma (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Thuleewan “Kimmy” Boonyarattana.Photo:National Geographic/Charlie Laing/Alec Davy

National Geographic/Charlie Laing/Alec Davy

Thai restaurateur Thuleewan “Kimmy” Boonyarattana was on the Phi Phi Islands when she got a phone call from her nephewon the morning of Dec. 26, 2004.

“Are you all right there?” he asked. “Something happened.”

The phone disconnected as waves froma catastrophic tsunamirushed forward toward the islands and many other parts of the Indian Ocean.

Boonyarattana, now 52, never saw her nephew again.

“I [closed] my eyes and I just pray … ‘Oh God, take my life. I couldn’t make it,’ " she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, one of several survivors looking back at the worst disaster in modern human history.

“My fears just went away,” adds Boonyarattana, who is also featured in National Geographic’sTsunami: Race Against Time, streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. “Something inspired me that I had to start to help these people because I could not ignore [their] suffering.”

For more on life 20 years after the 2004 tsunami, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, orsubscribe.

Boonyarattana recalls coming across an injured girl who asked for her help and to pray with her. The girl then died — among the approximately 230,000 people estimated to have been killed.

“I [closed] her eyes and I [felt], ‘oh no, my God,’ " Boonyarattana says. “After that … everybody called for help.”

After the devastation, Boonyarattana estimates that she and other survivors aided at least 100 people. She even helped translate.

“I could not leave the people and even children,” she says. “I could not ignore them.”

The memories left a traumatic mark on Boonyarattana as she still wonders “why all of this happened” and why she couldn’t help more people.

But today, she finally feels “much better.”

She says, “I feel stronger.”

source: people.com