NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – There were some anxious moments in Nashua last weekend as a family waited to hear about the fate of a loved one at a resort in Thailand that was smashed by the tsunami.

Gerard Willis, a lawyer for Honeywell, has worked in Asia for 18 years. He was in Phuket, Thailand, during the weekend, celebrating his 51st birthday alone, as his wife and four children spent the holidays in Nashua with their in-laws.

His sister, Maryann Stawasz, said Willis told her by phone he was headed for the beach when he saw the approaching tidal wave. He ran back up to a terrace, just ahead of the wave, and didn’t get wet. He said lots of people on the beach, where he was headed, were swept out to sea.

“He said, I barely made it – by one second, I made it’ … If we were there, some of us might have been on the beach,” said Willis’ wife, Jocelyn, speaking from her in-laws’ home.

“We talked on the phone. He said it is amazing; it is awful. It washed away everything, just like what you see on the TV.”

Jocelyn said she and her husband previously had been to Phuket, which is one of the best-known beach resorts in Southeast Asia.

“It is lovely, a lovely place there. I like it more than Hawaii,” she said. “It is very sad what has happened.”

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Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.nashuatelegraph.com