O'Brien was among a handful of CNN anchors sent to Phuket, Thailand to cover the aftermath of the tsunami disaster.

She shared her experience with about 450 people in Eisenhower Auditorium last night as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series.

"[The tsunami] is one of those rare stories where the world is watching and people are incredibly moved," O'Brien said. "It's nothing to see it on TV compared to in person -- the local community wiped off the map, people walking around in a dazed state."

O'Brien described, with great detail, how the tsunami swept through the island of "paradise" causing locals, foreigners and visitors to suffer a similar fate.

"There were hundreds of bodies laid out almost like cookie sheets," she said. "The stench was so horrible ... people were vomiting everywhere. People didn't necessarily die of drowning; bodies were crushed because of the force. Some people couldn't tell who was who."

Throughout her speech, O'Brien played three interviews she put together for CNN while in Thailand.

She said the aftermath of the tsunami was very similar to that of the World Trade Center disaster on Sept. 11, 2001.

"There were walls where people would hang pictures and photos of the missing," O'Brien said. "One picture I remember so clearly, it was a family photo with four children -- each one was circled. What do they do -- do they stay, or do they go?"

O'Brien, a mother of four children, couldn't help but show her softer side as she spoke of the Thai children she met in survivor camps.

"As a mother I wanted to reach out, touch them, make them feel secure," she said. "[Soon] the kids fought over who held my hand. It was a welcomed distraction."

O'Brien said her background of starting in small, local newsrooms and other odd jobs helped her report from Thailand.

"A photographer would run in from a shot and we'd hastily set up a live shot from the balcony," she said. "We were so desperate and time crunched; my background ... let me do what I was there to do -- report."

The experience she had in Thailand carried over with her when she came home, O'Brien said.

"When I picked up my daughter, she was so light ... it came to my head -- could I hold her, could I carry her if I had to? ... I thought of stories of people who couldn't hold their children [from the waves]."

During a question-answer session, a woman asked how O'Brien keeps her composure on television, since she admitted the material made her very emotional.

O'Brien replied by comparing a journalist to a surgeon.

"[When a surgeon] operates on someone, they see a vein, not a person," she said. "I focus on getting the story out. The goal is a good job on the story ... the story isn't about me and my personal reaction."

Erika Ridout (graduate-agriculture) said she enjoyed O'Brien's personal story.

"I thought the speech was excellent," she said. "Especially the part where she talked about reporting accurately -- even stories that are heartbreaking. Even though she doesn't show emotion [while reporting] she still shows that she cares."

Larissa Witmer (junior-recreation, park and tourism management) agreed and said since she hadn't followed the tsunami much before, the speech really made her see the impact it had.

"Seeing how she was calm and kept her emotions out of it during reporting, yet she showed her emotions tonight, showed how much significance the tsunami had," she said.