Editor Emma Silverthorne has returned to the newsroom of the Sidmouth Herald following her lucky escape from the tsunami terror.

Twenty-six-year-old Emma and new husband Steve Cooling had been honeymooning on the Malaysian island of Penang when disaster struck.

Around 50 people on the island, which is south of Thailand, died and many locals, including fishermen, were still missing days after the tragedy.

Now safely back in the newsroom, Emma has appealed to readers to support the local Sid Valley Rotary Club to provide shelter boxes, containing tents, sleeping bags and water purification tablets, to those left homeless.

The newlyweds were asleep when earthquake tremors were felt at around 9.30am on Boxing Day in the beach resort of Batu Ferringhi, where they were staying.

But as they were staying inland it wasn’t until much later that they heard about the huge tidal waves that had crashed against the Penang coastline.

Emma said: “We were really lucky. It wasn’t that bad where we were and we didn’t realise the scale of what had happened until we saw the pictures on CNN.

“We had planned a boat trip, but hotel staff said that as it was a public holiday it would be really busy so we had decided to wait.

“It is hard to believe that people had been enjoying the sun one minute and completely submerged in water the next – and even harder to believe that we could have been among them had our plans for the day been different.”