Water churning "like a washing machine" swept away Patrice Gicquel's wife, daughter and twin babies when the Indian Ocean tsunami slammed into their beach resort in southern Thailand, Reuters reported. Six months later, he stands in the gutted Sofitel resort at Khao Lak, a strip of white beaches and luxury hotels where most of Thailand's 5,395 deaths occurred, hoping a renewed search will find the body of his 22-month-old son. "I have no idea why I'm still alive. It's a mystery to me," Gicquel said as highly-trained French sniffer dogs scoured the ruined hotel and nearby mangrove forests where bodies may be still be buried under the mud. "My pain is huge. I want to find my son and bury him," said Gicquel, who has returned seven times since the 9-metre (30 ft) waves wrecked the 5-star hotel on Dec. 26. More than 200 guests and staff were killed. "I was with my family and then it was just like a washing machine and I was swept out of the room," said the food company executive, who helped form a victim support group to press the French government to continue the search for bodies. His seven-year-old daughter's body was found quickly, but it was almost three months before the remains of his wife and 22-month-old daughter were recovered. --More 1420 Local Time 1120 GMT
