Lawrence resident survives disaster
Judge's two sons also reported safe
A Lawrence businessman traveling in Thailand lost his belongings, but he survived the earthquake and tsunamis that killed tens of thousands in southern Asia, a friend said.
Tom Van Holt, owner of Starving Artists Moving, was on Surin Island north of the resort area of Phuket when a tsunami struck, according to a friend.
Jeff Wine, of Kansas City, Mo., said he received a short e-mail from Van Holt on Monday morning in which Van Holt said he was OK.
“He did say that he saw several people getting washed out to sea,” Wine said. “It sounds like he might have got wet himself, but I can’t say for sure.”
Van Holt left Lawrence for Thailand in early December and didn’t intend to return until Feb. 5, friends in Lawrence said.
Wine, who has been friends with Van Holt for the past few years, sent an e-mail to Van Holt on Sunday after hearing about the earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra that spawned powerful tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.
The response the next day from Van Holt was only a short paragraph. He was in a building but was being urged to leave because quake aftershocks were a threat, Wine said.
“He just wanted me to let his parents know that he was OK,” Wine said.
Van Holt’s parents, Jay and Marilyn Van Holt, were anxiously awaiting news from their son at their home in Santa Rosa, Calif. They welcomed Wine’s phone call.
“Oh, my goodness, it is just really bad over there,” Marilyn Van Holt said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon. “He lost everything, but happily he’s alive.”
Van Holt, who is single, traveled to Thailand alone. Going off on such travels are nothing new for him, his mother said.
Friends of Van Holt weren’t the only ones in Lawrence nervously awaiting news about someone they knew in Thailand. Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone learned his two sons were safe at Ranong, Thailand.
Malone’s son Ryan lives on the small island of Ko Payam and was at the airport at Ranong, waiting to pick up his brother, Luke, and Luke’s girlfriend, who were flying in from Seoul, South Korea. Michael Malone said his sons were OK but boats were not allowed to leave Ranong because of swinging, high tides.
The judge said he received e-mails from his sons Sunday morning and again Monday morning.
“We have not heard from them since, although we have sent many e-mails with questions,” Malone said. “The fact that we haven’t heard from them tells me that they are on the island, which had few communication devices with the outside world before the tidal wave.”
6News video: Family of Lawrence man in Thailand gets good news
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