Corey Thompson ... paddled out to sea to dodge the tsunami. Photo: Thompson family

Pacific.Scoop
By Lucy Mullinger

After 14 hours not knowing whether her son was dead or alive, a North Auckland woman admits she has a renewed respect for the social networking tool Facebook following the Samoan tsunami.

Dargaville mother Lynley Thompson was not aware her son Corey, 29, had been on a surfing trip in Samoa until she received a phone call from a family friend.

The friend had seen her son getting into a boat just before the tsunami struck the south coast of Upolu last week.

“I always thought Facebook was a bit silly,” Thompson told Pacific Scoop.

But straight after filing a missing persons report, she went on to the internet and contacted all of her son’s friends on Facebook to find out if anyone knew what had happened.

“Communication with Samoa wasn’t so great after the tsunami” she said.

However, Facebook was easy to access and she quickly received replies.

“I added some of Corey’s friends to my list and once they accepted me I could read their discussions about Samoa.”
This was a good way to find out where her son was, she said.

Adventurous type
Corey Thompson has always been the adventurous type.

While working as a fruit and vegetable picker at a hostel in Queensland, he befriended a long term resident.

Soon after he moved on to the next hostel, he was surprised to find the man he had befriended had burnt down the hostel, killing 18 people.

On another occasion, Thompson and his friends were planning a trip to Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali – but he decided to travel to London instead.

One of his close friends continued with the original plan and was badly hurt in the Bali bombings while sitting at a cafe.

The Samoan tsunami was Thompson’s closest shave, but once again he managed to survive completely unscathed after surfing his way out of the tsunami in Samoa.

After 14 hours, Lynley Thompson received an email from her son, saying: “I’m ok Mum – Just – Love ya”.

Although she was relieved, she said: “I still didn’t know whether he had been injured”.

However, after reading stories from his friends on Facebook, Lynley Thompson could rest assured her son and his friends were fine.

‘Water bubbled’
Corey phoned his mother the next day and explained what had happened after he got on the boat to go surfing on a reef with friends.

“Suddenly the water started to bubble – just like a spa bath.”

He was told to paddle his surf board out past the reef.

The group paddled as far out into the ocean as possible and sat on their boards for an hour as they watched their boat being thrown about like a “rag doll”.

Once the water started to calm down, the reef was refilled with water which looked like “a giant waterfall”, said Thompson.

Arriving back at the beach, Thompson and his friends were confronted with many dead bodies washed out to sea, which he is still not comfortable discussing.

Thompson was also surprised to see a deep sea trawler upside down in a coconut tree.

After finding their bearings, the friends walked back to where they were staying, only to find the fale was no longer standing and their clothes, passports and belongings were all gone.

They were left with only the wetsuits and board shorts they had been wearing before the tsunami hit.

Red Cross raises $1m
Red Cross communications manager Denise Mackay says New Zealand people have been generous with support and money, raising $1 million in only a week.

Although people are feeling the need to help out, some volunteers are just getting in the way.

Mackay’s advice is: “Unless you have plans in Samoa it is better to stay in New Zealand.”

Donations can be made on the website at www.redcross.co.nz

Thompson is back on what he refers to as “home soil” in Australia and his mother is looking forward to seeing him over Christmas.

Lucy Mullinger is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at AUT University.

Corey rides it out