UM family flees from Thai hotel to escape destructive wave

A United Methodist communicator and his family fled their hotel in Thailand to escape a tsunami that devastated the coast Dec. 26.
Tim McDaniel, 36, associate director of communications for the North Georgia Conference, was celebrating Christmas with his family in Phuket when the tsunami struck.
The tsunami, born of an earthquake in the Indian Ocean, sent a shock wave into the North Georgia Conference office in the form of an e-mail message later that day from McDaniel. The subject line read, “We are safe.”
McDaniel and his parents, Don and Fran McDaniel, had made the 11-hour flight from Atlanta to be with his brother’s family. Tim’s brother, Mike McDaniel, is a missionary for the Southern Baptist Mission Board and is stationed in Bangladesh.