The girlfriend of a recent Kansas University graduate is among the thousands of tourists missing in tsunami-ravaged Thailand.

Nicole Weissberg was supposed to meet Morgan Browning on Dec. 27 at the airport in Phuket, Thailand.

He arrived as planned. She did not.

Browning, 27, spent the next week searching the region’s hospitals and makeshift morgues.

“It was really difficult,” Browning said Wednesday in a telephone interview with the Journal-World. “All of the hospitals were chaotic — people coming in and out, sirens blaring, people crying, a lot of foreigners looking at lists and photographs (of the deceased) and trying to find a medical person they could talk to.

“At the morgues, it was different — very solemn,” he said. “Basically, they were set up in the temples, most of which had large grounds. The dead were just laid out on the grass. The bodies were very disfigured; most were unrecognizable.”

Browning, who returned to the United States late Sunday, says he’s hopeful Weissberg is alive.

“Until I know otherwise, I’m confident she survived,” he said. “She’s an incredibly strong person. If anyone could make it through, she could.”

Browning said he and Weissberg had been dating for about six months.

“She has an incredible sense of adventure,” he said. “She wants to see the world. She loves to travel; it’s part of who she is. She’s already been to a dozen different countries.”

Nicole Weissberg and Morgan Browning were supposed to meet Dec. 27 in Thailand, but Weissberg didn't show up. Browning spent three days searching the tsunami-ravaged country but didn't find her.

Browning graduated from KU in 1999 with degrees in history and geography. He’s now a third-year law student at American University in Washington, D.C.

He appeared Tuesday on the “CBS Evening News” and on CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now”; Wednesday he was on NBC’s “Today” show.

“I’m doing everything I can to get Nicole’s name and picture out there where people will see it and, maybe, help find her,” Browning said.

Weissberg, 27, is a second-year graduate student in business and hospitality management at the University of Denver. Before the tsunami, she had been vacationing in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand for four weeks.

Browning had boarded a plane in Denver on Christmas night, intent on spending the coming week with Weissberg in Thailand.

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The tsunami struck while Browning was in the air; in Thailand, it was the morning of Dec. 26.

Browning said he spent two days searching for Weissberg in Phuket. On the third day, he bribed a cab driver to take him to Khaolak, where Weissberg had spent Christmas.

Much of Khaolak, a popular tourist destination known for its scenic white-sand beaches, was wiped out by the tsunami.

Browning later spent three days searching for Weissberg in Bangkok, where many of the seriously injured had been taken.

Browning was introduced to Weissberg by David Tacha and Tacha’s girlfriend, Diana Bienkowski.

Tacha, 28, is the son of John and Deanell Tacha, Lawrence. He graduated from KU in 1999.

“He’s one of by best friends,” said Tacha, who lives in Denver.