What’s a tsunami between 68,000 dead people and a swimsuit model? Front page according to the New York Daily News.

Thailand- Injured New York supermodel Petra Nemcova is too badly hurt to leave her Thai hospital bed – and is overwhelmed knowing she survived a tsunami that killed tens of thousands.

“She knows she got a second chance, and she wants to make the most of it,” family friend Roman Hajabac told the Daily News from her hospital room last night.

The battered beauty spent much of yesterday sedated on morphine, which eased the pain of a shattered pelvis, other broken bones and internal injuries.

At the same time, Nemcova’s sister Olga, 23, and manager Leigh Crystal circled the globe so they could comfort her at her bedside as she worries about her missing boyfriend, Simon Atlee.

“She’s unable to undergo any transportation whatsoever,” Hajabac said. “We have doctors coming from Bangkok. We have the best doctors we can get.”

Nemcova, 25, and Atlee, 33, were vacationing on the secluded beaches of Khao Lak when the tsunami ripped through it Sunday, making it one of Thailand’s most devastated areas, with hundreds of tourists dead or missing.

Nemcova planned the trip as a surprise for her fashion photographer boyfriend, but the wall of water ripped apart their beachfront bungalow and swallowed Atlee without a trace.

She survived by gripping a palm tree for eight hours until she was rescued. If she was strong enough to do that, Hajabac said, she’s strong enough to make a full recovery.

“She’s tough. She’ll make it,” he said. “Tell everybody she’ll be okay.”

Olga Nemcova and Crystal were scheduled to reach Nemcova’s side early this morning, when they can judge for themselves if she is ready to be moved and where she should go.

Faith Kates, owner of the Next modeling agency, is prepared to fly Nemcova on a medical evacuation plane – to Bangkok, to the model’s family in her native Czech Republic or even to a hospital in New York.

“I want someone that knows Petra to see her,” Kates said. “I have planes on standby so that if she’s ready to go, she’ll be out of there in four hours. We’re not quite sure yet when we can move her.”

In an exclusive interview with the Daily News the day after the calamity, Nemcova described a horrifying scene as bodies floated past her, children drowned around her and she willed herself to grip a palm tree until she could be rescued.

“I don’t know that anyone can process this. This is something that is a life-altering experience,” Kates said yesterday. “I don’t know that Petra’s ever going to be able to put what she saw into words.”

Meanwhile, Kates’ and Nemcova’s friends are spreading Atlee’s photographs and description through the hospitals and makeshift shelters of Khao Lak.

“We know that he was with Petra, but there’s still no further information on him,” said Jill Keen, a British consular officer.