chicago (jta) | A Jewish family from the Chicago area is going through the excruciating process of waiting and wondering whether their son survived the tsunami that engulfed 10 Asian nations, killing an estimated 150,000 people.
In an Atlanta suburb, a Jewish family awaits word from their daughter, who is believed to be safe — but who hasn’t been heard from since the Dec. 26 disaster.
Ben Abels, 33, a real estate salesman from Evanston, Ill., was on Thailand’s Ko Phi Phi Island during a two-week trip to Asia when the tsunami hit the bungalow where he and a companion were staying. As of Tuesday, Jan. 4, his family did not have any word on his whereabouts.
“We don’t know if Ben was trapped under the debris or if he was blown out,” said his father, Bob Abels. “We don’t know anything.”
They last heard from Ben on Dec. 24, and asked for help from anyone who might have information.
Ben Abels’ companion, Libby North of Seattle, had been in touch with the family, they said. North lost one of her hands and suffered a serious leg injury before she was discovered by aid workers.
Hope Abels added that North “remembers the rescuers taking her away and saying, ‘I don’t know where my friend is, I don’t know where my friend is.'”
Meanwhile, Ditza Israeli, 24, of Alpharetta, Ga., reportedly was traveling in India when the tsunami swept across southern Asia.
According to a link on a Web site run by Chabad, Israeli’s last e-mail to her parents, sent on Dec. 24, said she was spending the winter holiday in Varkala, Kerala, on India’s western coast.
Three e-mails posted on a BBC missing-persons site following an inquiry by Terri Israeli, Ditza’s mother, suggested that the area where Ditza was traveling wasn’t hit hard by the tsunami.