Posted on 12/31/2004 9:06:24 PM PST by Pharmboy
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Knowledge of the ocean and its currents passed down from generation to generation of a group of Thai fishermen known as the Morgan sea gypsies saved an entire village from the Asian tsunami, a newspaper said Saturday. By the time killer waves crashed over southern Thailand last Sunday the entire 181 population of their fishing village had fled to a temple in the mountains of South Surin Island, English language Thai daily The Nation reported.
"The elders told us that if the water recedes fast it will reappear in the same quantity in which it disappeared," 65-year-old village chief Sarmao Kathalay told the paper.
So while in some places along the southern coast, Thais headed to the beach when the sea drained out of beaches - the first sign of the impending tsunami - to pick up fish left flapping on the sand, the gypsies headed for the hills.
Few people in Thailand have a closer relationship with the sea than the Morgan sea gypsies, who spend each monsoon season on their boats plying the waters of the Andaman Sea from India to Indonesia and back to Thailand.
Between April and December, they live in shelters on the shore surviving by catching shrimp and spear fishing. At boat launching festivals each May, they ask the sea for forgiveness.
AP-ES-12-31-04 2245EST
bump
and good night.
Happy New Year a hour or two early BigLook.
NOAA issued the report. It is posted here. I'm done. good night.
I was only six or seven at that time, in Cambria (near Hearst Castle) in California. I remember so well seeing all the pick-ups crammed with belongings and kids, and being driven to higher ground. My family and I lived literally across the street from the ocean, but it wasn't beach, it was cliffs and tidepools, and thus it would have to have been a mighty large surge to have reached us. I remember my brothers and me lounging over the fence "waiting" for the tidal wave, and one of my brothers jokingly raising his arms protectively over his head, as if to protect himself from something crashing down on him.
Nothing of much significance happened in our part of Cambria, but down the coast in Morro Bay, the tidal wave (more like a big surge, I think) tore up some docks pretty good. Ah, the memories!
If you check the timeline here, http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2358.htm,
it appears that NOAA's Pacific Tsunami warning system neither detected nor predicted the Tsunami. In fact, the "warning" they issued was essentially an "all clear" notice to the nations on the Pacific Rim. Two of the countries which received this notice were Indonesia and Thailand which were hit on their Indian Ocean coasts.
The tribe in question was taught to run for the hill after a earth quake, as I recall lot's of freeper were posting "surfs up" when news of a big earth quake in the Indian Ocean hit FR. Not rocket science but alot of people never listen to the news and a big low tide in and of itself doesn't alway mean a 25' tsunami.
Did a big tidal wave hit the Pacific Rim?
Noah told the people and they laught at him!!
True, but a low tide is one thing -- it's predicted in the tidebooks! And it happens slowly, surprising no one. Thank God I have never experienced a tsunami, though I had enough dreams about them as a kid. In one dream, the tsunami killed me, and was flying over the remains of my town looking down at the damage. No ... I still think that if I saw all the water drain out of the bay, I'd head for the hills, just on instict. I guess I'd better not move to Texas! (did you see that post from the guy who said the water drained out of his bay several times a year?! Wow!)
No, but my point is that the NOAA press release cited by Calpernia appears, at first glance, to indicate that NOAA warned the Indian Ocean nations in advance of the Tsunami.
The timeline makes it clear that they didn't.
I think that the press release is misleading.
Those are the most heart breaking pictures I have seen, the mother running to her family and her death just breaks my heart.
That was me, I'll post a pic next time.
Oh, that was you! Sheesh. By the way, happy new year (you should hear all the sound of firecrackers and probable gunfire going off in So Cal right about now). Does the bay drain because of low tide? Or is it just ... by God's whim? I gotta tell you, if I saw that, it'd scare the bejeezus out of me if I didn't know it was "normal"!
Warning .........Graphic !...........WARNING !
http://img138.exs.cx/img138/18/tsunamiaftermath0wf.jpg
North wind, shallow bay, but I have seen the long Islang sound empty one or twice too.
North wind & shallow bay? Sorry, no capiche the significance ... a north wind makes a shallow bay's water recede? And the Long Island Sound ... was it just an extra low tide that drained it? Or some weird stuff going on further out at sea that one would not see "scheduled" in a tidebook? The Atlantic is so different than the Pacific -- I wouldn't know what to expect!
How did the film survive?
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