Three Alabamians and several other Baptist workers were injured early July 25 when a vehicle slammed into the two-ton truck carrying the team of volunteers away from the coast of Thailand as tsunami warnings sounded.
Residents of Thailand’s west coast began evacuating the area after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked India’s southern Nicobar Islands and Thai officials issued a tsunami warning.
The Alabama Baptist-led missions team — sent to begin rebuilding areas of Thailand devastated by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami — was near the coastal town of Khao Lak among the masses en route inland when the accident occurred.
A Thai driver, in a panic from the warnings, hit one of the team’s trucks, spinning it around and ejecting three men from the vehicle, according to Tommy Puckett, disaster relief coordinator for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
“According to someone who was there, if you could have seen the carnage of the wreck, you would have thought several people died,” Puckett said. “It was evident God’s angels were present in and through it all.”
Danny Ray “Dray” Williams, a member of Antioch Baptist Church, Jasper, suffered the most serious of the team’s injuries when he got his leg hung in the spinning truck — a severe head injury, broken ribs and a broken collarbone, according to his wife, June.
And though initial reports projected Williams’ condition as warranting surgery, doctors have since deemed that unnecessary and have transferred him from a hospital in nearby Phuket to the larger Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok to prepare him for a flight home.
As of press time, he remained in the care of the Bangkok hospital, his situation slowly but consistently improving, according to his family. (See related story, this page.)
Beverly Jordan of Glory Fellowship Baptist Church, Jasper, underwent surgery to mend a compound arm fracture, and Kenneth Northrop of Northside Baptist Church, Jasper, suffered broken ribs. Three Oklahomans traveling with the team were also hospitalized, treated and released. Others injured in the accident had scrapes and cuts — some severe — and one suffered a concussion.
Team members able to work returned to Khao Lak later in the day, some repairing damaged stilt homes, others packaging food and distributing it to displaced survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami.
“They knew what their task at hand was, and they worked through their bumps and bruises,” Puckett said. “Those who came with a purpose to serve served, laboring diligently and in a spirit of prayer.”
The team, which left Alabama for Thailand July 17, was the first sent by the SBOM to kick off a yearlong project led by Alabama Baptists to rebuild the tsunami-hit parts of the nation. The state recently took on the responsibility of acting as point person for national Southern Baptist efforts in Thailand.
With the exception of Williams, who will fly home when his medical conditions allow, the remainder of the team was set to return to Birmingham July 31 as originally planned. The next Alabama team will leave for Thailand Aug. 15.
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