Jacob Dobbs overslept and missed a trip to visit friends where tsunami hit 'pretty hard.'

Survivors with Duval links find meaning in aftermath

Arlington exchange student misses visit to beach, volunteers as translator.

While the world looks on in anguish and disbelief at the rising tsunami death toll and wonders why, Jacksonville native Jacob Dobbs has no doubt about why he is in the middle of the destruction and misery.

God put him there.

"I actually believe ... I was put here for a reason," said Dobbs, 18, who grew up in Arlington and is a Rotary International exchange student in Phuket, Thailand, an island devastated by the tsunami and the ocean earthquake that spawned it.

That reason, Dobbs said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, was to be able to help the survivors.

Phuket is a premier tourist destination in Thailand. Foreigners descend on the island from across the world, and its beaches and resorts were packed when the earthquake and murderous waves hit.

Dobbs, a graduate of the Paxon School for Advanced Studies who plans to major in international business, speaks Thai, Japanese and Spanish in addition to English -- skills desperately needed in a stricken tourist area like Phuket.

"Most of the victims lost their passports and their money," Dobbs said.

So he volunteered as a translator, a role he performed all day and into the evening Tuesday.

"My job was to help translate from English to Thai or Spanish and back ... and to help them get their forms filled out," he said.

He said he is convinced this is his purpose because a beach camping trip was canceled at the last minute, and because then he overslept and missed a planned Sunday morning visit with friends who live near the beach.

"And their area was hit pretty hard," he said.

Janet Dobbs of Arlington said she is thankful her son's host family lives on high ground and that he has always been a heavy sleeper.

"We're put in different situations for God's purpose," she said.

As the death toll from Sunday's tsunami rocketed past 50,000 Tuesday, First Coast residents with relatives and friends in the affected areas were beginning to hear from -- or about -- their loved ones.

In some cases the news was good.

The family of Shawn Mimbs, 26, a Los Angeles resident who grew up in Arlington, got word from him Sunday morning and have had several calls from him since then. He also is in Phuket.

"He's actually in really good spirits," said Shawn's sister, Heather Mimbs.

Shawn Mimbs was thrown out of bed by the earthquake, which he initially mistook for a terrorist bomb attack, his sister said. But when he realized it was a temblor, he headed for what he thought would be the safest place -- the beach.

But once there he saw the tide rapidly receding and instantly knew a tsunami was coming, Heather Mimbs said.

He warned some other tourists and even convinced a French woman to hop on the back of his moped, which he drove to safety.

"So he pretty much saved her life," Heather Mimbs said.

She said her brother plans to stay on the island to volunteer for the Red Cross.

"He said it's completely changed him the last few days," she said. "He said it's like a war zone over there."

The family of Jacksonville native Rachel Turner, 29, finally got a telephone call from her on Tuesday from hard-hit Sri Lanka.

"She sounded very reassuring to me," said Rachel's mother, Rosemarie Turner of Mandarin.

Rachel Turner was on a Sri Lankan beach when the tsunami hit and barely escaped, family friend Mark Powell said. She spent two nights on a roof before being rescued and is now on her way to the capital of Colombo.

"She didn't want to let me know there was anything wrong," Rosemarie Turner said. "She kept saying, 'I'm OK, I'm OK, everything's all right, I'm not hurt.'"

But for others the news hasn't been so good.

Jacksonville convenience store owner Najappan Ramamurthy has been in touch with his coastal village in southern India. At least 1,000 people died in a square-mile area there, he said.

Ramamurthy said he lost an uncle and some cousins. His mother and father survived, but his brother's mother-in-law did not.

"They found the body and already buried her," he said.

In one nearby village of 500 people, "189 people are gone. Some of them were my family," Ramamurthy said.

Ramamurthy said his major concern now is getting help to his family and neighbors back home.

He said he wired $1,123 there Monday and is trying to raise more money because no government agencies or relief organizations have arrived there to help.

"I'm not concentrating on my family," he said. "It's all about my hometown."

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