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

[Sunshine Sister]

Ping

[monday]

"Might work for normal waves.

Doubt it would work here."

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.

[BobS]

There is a way to survive these things. It's not by standing around gawking. You must hyperventilate your lungs and take a deep breath and dive directly underneath the wave, staying as close to the bottom as possible. After the energy passes above, you can swim up.

[atruelady]

Very nice!

[RobRoy]

All of the people in the third picture are most certainly dead. I suspect that most, if not all, of the people in all three pictures are dead, but if the photographer survived, some of them may have also.

A few feet can make a big difference in this sort of thing.

[Lokibob]

I suppose you could say that, and , of course, the guy isn't 6 foot but 5' 10".
If the distance from the camera to the people is 1/2 the distance from the camera to the waves, then the waves exceed 25 feet. If the distance is 4 times, then the wave height exceeds 50'. The truth is probably in between.
We need more information to really define the height, for example, is it a telephoto lens, the height of the photographer above sea level, and the height of the people in the pix below sea level. None of this takes away from the fact that it is one hell of a big wave.

[libravoter]

After the energy passes above ...

The energy never "passed". Watch some videos to see (link in post#109).

[two23]

Thanks: Tsunami Images are on link in the lower right on the page you posted. The site is jammed at times.

[Concentrate]

Tsunamis are underwater waves, waves that are caused by underwater disturbances, whereas the normal surf, and even storm waves are caused by the wind energy from the surface.

[hubno]

I was in a Typhoon off Kores and the waves broke over the bow of my carrier,at least 50-60- feet.
Don;t know what the wave height was in the pics but further out from shore near the islands they could have been 40 feet.
One thing for sure they were travelling at more than 90 mph.
Thye can reach 500 mph.

[Scythian]

There is a way to survive these things. It's not by standing around gawking. You must hyperventilate your lungs and take a deep breath and dive directly underneath the wave, staying as close to the bottom as possible. After the energy passes above, you can swim up.

You're kidding right, this wave was moving like a train and lasted for 20 minutes, flowing inland miles with such force that cars, trucks and even bull dozers were miles inland, these folks surely didn't survive, even scuba divers further out were tossed around underwater for 15 minutes such that they were unable to control their movements.

[SolutionsOnly]

It's called 'luck'.

[Connie Cardullo]

Does anyone know who took these? What is their story?

[monday]

"I suspect that most, if not all, of the people in all three pictures are dead, but if the photographer survived, some of them may have also. "

The ones that survived are most certainly the ones running away from the wave in the first pic. The three women are probably dead.

[oldcomputerguy]

"I was envisioning these 50 feet walls of water...."

If I recall, tsunamis are capped in the 30 foot range due to the mechanism by which they are caused. Or so I recall from a TV show on the subject. The difference is the speed and volume of the wave.

[RobRoy]

I've been caught in a fairly major wave while body surfing the southeastern coast of Oahu. It was like being in a giant washing machine. And letting the wave pass was almost not enough. Just as I was running out of air, I made the surface, only to be pushed down by another wave. I almost died that day. Don't believe me? You should have seen the look on the lifeguards face when he got to me. I was standing in a foot of water with my swimming trunks around one ankle.

That wave was a tiny fraction of the power in the waves - no, make that "WALL OF WATER" - in these pictures. These people don't have a chance, outside the grace of God.

[monday]

"It's called 'luck'."

Certainly lucky to be near enough to high ground to make it, but it isn't luck to recognize the danger and take action before it is too late. Many people died simply because they didn't recognize the danger until it was too late.

[oldcomputerguy]

"tsunamis do not appear threatening while over deeper water"

If you think about it, most waves are simply surface events caused by wind. The tsunami wave is a internal wave that goes from bottom to surface. It then becomes external as it compresses at the shore.

[monday]

'"even scuba divers further out were tossed around underwater for 15 minutes such that they were unable to control their movements."

Reports I have heard say those in deep water barely noticed it until after they had surfaced.

[oldcomputerguy]

"1700 ft tall in an Alaska Bay directly across from a earthquake induced mountain collapse."

This was purportedly caused by a landslide event i.e. a slosh. Undersea events cannot cause waves this high.