^{[All posts on the quake are compiled here. Links to ways to make donations for relief can be found here. Also, feel free to use the TCP forums if you would like to discuss this topic or share information/links/stories about it.]}

• "First of all we climbed up into a tree for a couple of minutes, but then that began to fall down because of the water. We were swept along for a few hundred meters, trying to dodge the motorcycles and the refrigerators and the cars that were coming with us. Finally, about 300 meters inshore, we managed to get hold of a pillar, which we held on to, and then the waters just gradually began to subside.."

• Simon Clark, a 29-year-old photographer from London who vacationing in Thailand on Koh Ngai island near Krabi, told Reuters: "Suddenly this huge wave came, rushing down the beach, destroying everything in its wake. People that were snorkeling were dragged along the coral and washed up on the beach, and people that were sunbathing got washed into the sea."

• An account from a Washington Post reporter who was there:

I was a quarter way around the island when I heard my brother shouting at me, "Come back! Come back! There's something strange happening with the sea." He was swimming behind me, but closer to the shore.

[...]

Then I noticed that the water around me was rising, climbing up the rock walls of the island with astonishing speed. The vast circle of golden sand around Weligama Bay was disappearing rapidly, and the water had reached the level of the coastal road, fringed with palm trees.

• John Krueger, 34, of Winter Park, Colorado, described being inside his bungalow Sunday on Khao Luk Beach, north of Phuket, with his wife, Romina Canton, 26, of Rosario, Argentina, when the water filled it and blew it apart.

• Floating Mattress Saves 20-Day Baby From Wave:

When the tsunami hit the popular Miami Beach in Batu Ferringhi here at about 1.15pm, S. Tulasi was sleeping in a room behind her father's western food outlet along the beach.

"We were all caught offguard when the wave hit us...I was thrown several metres but managed to hold onto one of the posts but my 12-year-old daughter was swept by the wave," said A. Suppiah.

Suppiah, 55, said his wife, Annal Mary, 40, braved the strong wave to open the room door to save their baby.

"I thought I had lost both my daughters...but thank God the mattress was floating in about 1.5m of water and my baby was crying. My other daughter, Kanchana somehow managed to get to her feet and run to safety," said Suppiah who injured his right ankle.

• "Shortly after the boat landed, I saw that the sea was just disappearing and I told my wife something was wrong and that we needed to run," Majer said. "We ran to a small, three-story hotel near the beach. I opened the door and we both went in. I thought we were safe. But then there was a terrible boom and a huge wave washed over us. The walls collapsed and I was buried under water. I was saved only by an air pocket there."

• For a close up look at the devastation, check out blogger Ernest who is in Phuket. He took several photos. He wrote:

After about 2 hours and several other big waves coming in we walked about 5 blocks up a hill to a resort hotel. I kept telling the people there all around me that I was diabetic and lost my insulin in the waves. A police truck came by on the way to the hospital and gave us a ride to the hospital in land and up hill. I got there and the place was a mad house. But I went straight to the pharmacy and bought insulin. We then found a new hotel about 2 blocks from the hotel it is called Nipa Villa still in the town of Patong and on Phuket island. The airport is under water, there is a bridge connecting the island to the mainland in the north of the island but that has been destroyed. I don't know how long we will be stuck here but we are ok. [link source]

• I just spoke to a friend who is trying to find the courage to make the phone calls to ask if people are OK. It is hard to make a phone call that might bring bad news. The roads are quiet and although people are trying to get on with life as usual most find it difficult. The fear that there is bad news we have not yet heard is paralysing and makes concentrating on normal work very hard. I do not know how to explain to my two year old daughter why she has seen people crying, but at least we are all alive.

For more personal accounts, see here.

[to be updated]