Panic before the storm (a terribly sad series of three pictures taken as the tsunami approaches)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | 12/30/04

[dead]

Tourists run for their lives as the first of six tsunamis starts to roll towards Hat Rai
Lay Beach, near Krabi in southern Thailand. One woman runs towards the waves.
Photo: AFP

The woman continues to run as the wave advances.
Photo: AFP

With the waves engulfing boats, the woman makes contact with her group. It is not known if they survived.
Photo: AFP

[Red Sea Swimmer]

You should write a book.

"How to Survive a Tsunami in Five Easy Steps"

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Why do you want "it" to have a name ?

Do you think every natural disaster event needs a tag or a logo ?

Would doing so make it more easy for you to understand ?

Maybe you could arrange a profitable sponsorship/naming rights deal with some corporaste entity for the next tsunami disaster. e.g. "The Starbucks Tsunami of 2006"

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Redheadtoo's mother speaking when redheadtoo was a child...

"I've told you a million times not to exaggerate !"

[Red Sea Swimmer]

You wrote...

"This is like saying since I have survived a bite from a poodle, I know the trick to surviving a mauling by 100 starving hyenas."

Excellent comparison.

[Fester Chugabrew]

What kind of logic says when the water runs out it is never coming back??

It never comes back when I pull the drain plug on my bathtub. I'd been a sucker for this one, too. "Oooh! Look at that! The water has gone way down. I'm gonna get some sea shells." The size and speed of the waves would have been of little concern to me, too, because the ocean has always behaved itself. Sure, maybe one or two waves went higher than expected to wipe out my sand castle, but by and large it stayed in its place. The danger from this surge would not have been apparent to me until it was too late. Glad I wasn't there.

By the way, there is a big drain plug for the ocean out there somewhere.

[FITZ]

Yes --- very stunning.

[shellshocked]

"By the way, there is a big drain plug for the ocean out there somewhere.
"

I heard that once. As a diver I kept looking for it.

[Rumierules]

The third picture that appears in this post was cropped. Here is a link to a thread with another version of the picture.

In the other version, you can see a man running toward the family and another man observing (too long).

[Rumierules]

Oops. Here is the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1311907/posts

[First_Salute]

See: Three Tsunami Photos - They Lived!! - posted to Free Republic, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005

[holyscroller]

This is a dumb question, but if you were out in the open ocean as it came by, and you were in the water beside your boat, would it carry you 500 miles from your boat, take the boat 500 miles too, or just drown you and sink the boat?

[fso301]

Too much force in the tsunami wave/s even for that maneuver. I've done the same maneuver in big surf, but if you are submerged for more than a minute or so and the waves keep rolling over you with no stop you will not make it to the surface for air. It would be like being in a huge, chaotic, diabolical washing machine.

You may be correct but if faced with such situation as those people out on the seabed, I'll fill my lungs with air and flatten out on the bottom and try to ride out the initial front wall surge.

[Travis McGee]

Thanks.

[FBD]

>"All the water, with you in it, is surging toward land. As it hits land it slows and then begins to reverse. You are fine. There are no currents or dangerous objects thrashing about in the water yet."<


-Your assumption is incorrect.
I surf and kayak, (see my FR page) and a big wave like that; would put you into something akin to the spin cycle of a washing machine.

I've seen some interviews of scuba divers who said they were out in 20 meters of water, when the water got sucked out by the incoming tsunami. They got sucked out also, the gal said to about 40 meters deep, in an instant. Some of the divers died, from getting slammed on the bottom. Huge waves like this create one hell of an undertow.

[RayBob]

I stand corrected. Mea cupla.

Not being a smart-ass, mind you, just sincere in admitting I was wrong.

[monday]

"-Your assumption is incorrect.
I surf and kayak, (see my FR page) and a big wave like that; would put you into something akin to the spin cycle of a washing machine."

You didn't read the post I was referring to. If you had you would see that too referred to being caught in the breaking edge of the wave as being caught in a spin cycle too.

It is very tedious to repost everything over and over again so people who didn't read the thread from the beginning can keep up. At this point if you disagree with me fine, I don't care anymore.

[FBD]

>"You didn't read the post I was referring to. If you had you would see that too referred to being caught in the breaking edge of the wave as being caught in a spin cycle too."<



-well actually I did read your posts, and I was to this post of yours:

(#162) >"It did work. Many people who were scuba diving were hardly aware of the wave until after they surfaced and tried to go back to shore. Others who were snorkeling dove and held onto the coral until it passed over. The secret is getting into deep enough water before it hits. If the water is only a few feet deep it doesn't work. <

And I said that was incorrect.
Many of the scuba divers got killed, when they got sucked out, (BEFORE THE FIRST WAVE) from "twenty meters out to 40 meters, and they got dragged on the bottom."

That was on the news, and a scuba diver couple related the story. Several of their friends died, and they were in 60 ft of water at the time.

>"At this point if you disagree with me fine, I don't care anymore."<

ok. Have a good Monday, monday!
;^D

[Space Wrangler]

Miraculously, this woman and her entire family lived. She was interviewed on Fox over the weekend, and said that the first wave was not as strong as the ensuing waves, and served to push her and her family inland before the second and most devastating wave hit. She said that the entire family was actually re-united between the first and second wave. Amazing.

[b4its2late]

You probably know already. They (the woman and her kids) lived.

[traumer]

And a picture taken AFTER the storm...