Two a long time after the devastating tsunami that hit Southeast Asia, Petra Nemcova remembers what and who helped her survive the storm.
The Czech-born supermodel opened up about her vacation-turned-nightmare with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in a phase that aired Thursday on “Good morning America.” Sawyer first interviewee Nemcova on her unlikely survival in 2005, simply months after the storm claimed the lives of greater than 230,000 individuals, together with Nemcova’s boyfriend, British photographer Simon Atlee, who was among the many 5,000 lifeless in Thailand.
“It’s all the time onerous to return to the second my life modified,” Nemcova informed Sawyer in Thursday’s phase, which included footage of their unique dialog almost 20 years in the past.
Nemcova had beforehand described how the December 26, 2004 tsunami flooded the bungalow the place she and Atlee had been staying, simply as they had been packing to go away. Atlee was consumed by the waters, however Nemcova managed to cling to a palm tree for eight hours earlier than being rescued.
“I went into this quiet, virtually meditative state,” the previous “A Model Life” host mentioned Thursday, “as a result of I knew that if I begin to panic, you lose extra vitality. And I wanted all my vitality to maintain myself alive.”
In the hours Nemcova was frozen, the particles broke all of the bones in her pelvis and brought about extreme inside bleeding in her abdomen, ABC reported.
Because of her accidents, Nemcova could not swim, she mentioned in 2005.
But then a bunch of strangers discovered her, Sawyer mentioned in Thursday’s phase. Dressing her in new garments, they positioned her on a mattress and guided the makeshift life raft to medical care.
“Those individuals had been prepared to threat their lives for strangers, and that exhibits the very best of humanity,” Nemcova mentioned Thursday.
The second a part of the dialog with Nemcova might be broadcast on Friday morning. It will spotlight the philanthropic work the mannequin has completed because the tragedy in Thailand, “turning all of the darkness into mild,” Sawyer mentioned.
In 2005 Nemcova based the Happy Hearts Backgrounda charity that coordinates catastrophe reduction efforts past what emergency responders can supply. While competing on the twelfth season of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2011, the mannequin carried out a routine to Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” saying the tune empowered her to start out her personal nonprofit.
