A SURVIVOR of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami has told how she faced drowning for a second time after her car after it became submerged in floodwaters last month.

Nina Aldrich, who developed multiple sclerosis months after witnessing the disaster during a holiday in Thailand, said she did not have the energy to wade through the waist-deep water on a lane near Malton, North Yorkshire.

The 38-year-old said: “I thought I was going to drown. It was up to the door handles.

"The car had broken down. I had only one bar on my mobile, but managed to call my husband, Marcus.”

He contacted friends in the area, including James Clearey, who rushed to the scene, waded up to his waist to get to the car and then carried Mrs Aldrich to safety.

Mrs Aldrich, of Whitwell-on-the-Hill, said she was convinced she developed the debilitating condition as a result of the trauma of witnessing the tsunami.

She said: “It was horrific. We looked out and the sea had just disappeared. All the boats were stranded on the seabed.

"Then there was a surge of water towards the land and it just kept on surging and surging.

“Then they said we had to head for the mountains as there was a 60ft wave coming, and I thought we were going to drown.”