I was choking on water as kids & hotels vanished in the sea ..then

BILL star Myfanwy Waring has told for the first time how she narrowly escaped death after being engulfed in the tsunami.

Just seconds before the killer wave struck, the actress had been enjoying a quiet early-morning dip at Mirissa resort in Sri Lanka.

She had swam a good distance out from the shore when she found herself picked up by the swell of a giant wave.

Myfanwy was thrust to the top of a 20ft wall of water which flung her forward as it broke on the beach.

The 27-year-old actress watched in disbelief as she heard screams followed by a deathly silence as the entire village was engulfed.

She told the Sunday Mirror: "I was swimming quite far out. When I looked back I could see people eating breakfast on the beach.

"Suddenly out of nowhere there was a giant swell - luckily I was on top of the water and not pulled under it. The wave grew and then hurtled towards the shore.

"I went into panic, I was talking to myself, saying 'Think, breathe. What do I do, what do I do?'

"I was being carried towards the shore but luckily for me I was a bit behind the wave so I didn't feel the full force of it as it hit the beach."

Myfanwy, who plays PC Amber Johanssen in the hit ITV series, was not the only Bill star to be involved in the disaster.

Earlier this week actor Eric Richard told of his agony at losing his baby grandson in the disaster.

Eric, who played Sgt Bob Cryer in the soap, said two-month-old Charlie Smith was swept from his son Richard's arms when the wave hit Unawatuna, a resort just 15km from where Myfanwy was staying.

Myfanwy recalled her horror as she was flung about by the sea and realised rooftops and trees were the only things visible after the wave hit.

"I thought I'd be smashed to bits as I hurtled towards what was once the beach. It all happened so quickly. The beach was completely under water. All the families having breakfast on the beach had vanished.

"As I was swept along, I saw a lifebuoy hanging on the roof of a restaurant shack but as I thought about grabbing it, the building collapsed and sank without trace.

"Then I made it to a tree and clung on to the trunk a split second before the water was sucked out."

Witnesses said the water pulled back from the shore with such force it was like someone had pulled the plug on the sea.

Myfanwy clung to her tree - she has no idea for how long - until eventually she dared to scrabble down. It was then she met a restaurant worker she had befriended, Thennakoon Mudiyanselage, who had raced to rescue her.

Thennakoon, 18, known as Casei, had been woken by a fridge crashing into his leg.

Myfanwy said: "I was in total shock when Casei arrived, blood gushing from his legs. I climbed down and we just hugged. He had lost everything, yet he thought of me first - a person he had known for three days.

"The only reason I had gone into the sea that morning was that I had arranged to meet him at the other end of the beach and decided to swim there.

"If I had stayed in bed I would have been sucked out to sea and killed."

Incredibly, she managed to find her passport, credit card and money among the beach debris.

Casei took the bikini-clad Myfanwy to a hilltop temple where other survivors were gathered. There they met Myfanwy's male travelling partner, Bobby, who had also escaped the wave.

Myfanwy said: "We spent parts of the day going back down to the beach to try and salvage more stuff and I managed to text home from another girl's phone.

"We were terrified another wave would hit the coast and told Casei we'd take him as far as we could with us.

"He managed to get us places on an open truck. We knew we had to get out of there. There was talk of disease and infection setting in."

But Myfanwy's ordeal was not over. As she arrived in nearby Weligama, another tsunami alert unleashed chaos.

She said: "Suddenly hundreds of people started screaming and running towards us, saying another wave was coming. I thought: 'This is it. Please, if this is the end, let it be quick'.

"People were trying to climb on to the truck and falling off the back. All we could do was hug each other."

No wave came, however, and the truck finally reached the town of Galle.

Myfanwy said: "The whole place was teeming with desperate people. There was no water.

"I was still in my bikini, filthy and bedraggled. A woman from a guesthouse kindly took us in and we shared beds with strangers that night."

The next day the group travelled inland to Colombo. Monsoon rains hit their convoy and Myfanwy feared they would be forced off the road.

She said: "After all that, I couldn't believe we might be swept away."

She took shelter in a conference centre which had been turned into a makeshift refugee camp. "At 3am a bus took us to the airport where I sat in front of the CNN news. The horror was unimaginable. I couldn't believe how lucky I'd been.

"We finally took off for home at 7am the next day.

"The saddest thing was leaving Casei as we'd been through so much together. But I knew I could do more to help from home."

Myfanwy is now determined to repay her friend for his kindness.

She said: "Casei lost everything but he changed my life in a few short days. He would love to visit Europe and if I can help him realise his dream I will. I will never forget him."

-TO make a donation to the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal, call the Disasters Emergency Committee on 0207 436 6000 or visit www.dec.org.

The Sunday Mirror has donated the fee for this article to the appeal on behalf of Myfanwy Waring.

Copyright 2005 MGN LTD
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