Some facts on a tsunami, faster than the speed of sound

[Neil D]

Hmmmm....I saw a report from some american[or was it canadians?] divers who were diving when the tsunami came thru....They were in 20 meter water, and got sucked down to 40 meter water. They said that was the limit of thier diving requirements/instruction. IOWs, they didn't have the instruction to dive deeper than 40 meters and yet they were sucked down to it... Scary, in my humble opinion as I have done some diving and don't plan to go any further than 30 feet [10 meters].... :0

[Amelia]

You wouldnt catch me diving at all. Ive snorkled in the past and that was bad enough. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Bravus, being a teacher, dont you know someone who could give us a few clues cause we sure dont have any. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Amelia]

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In this satellite image provided by Space Imaging, the coastline of Khao Lak, Thailand before and after the tsunami.

[Amelia]

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In these satellite images provdied by Space Imaging, the Indonesian province of Aceh

[Amelia]

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Malaysians are busy packing foods supplies for the Tsunami victims across Asian countries at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004. Government officials in this mostly Muslim country banned firework displays and canceled public concerts and celebrations as a sign of mourning for special prayers nationwide to mark a somber New Year's Eve following the region's earthquake-tsunami disaster. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

[Amelia]

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Tsunami victims at a relief camp reach for rice packets being distributed in Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004. As the death toll from the earthquake-tsunami catastrophe soared to 121,000, nations donated US$500 million (euro370 million) toward the world's largest-ever relief effort. The death toll in India is above 7,700. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

[Amelia]

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Volunteers pack chappatis, or whole wheat flat bread, to send as relief supplies for tsunami victims in southern India, in Bangalore, India, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004.

[Amelia]

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A displaced man worriedly looks at the prospects of dinner as scores of people try to get a limited number of available food coupons, at a temporary shelter for the displaced at Nagappattinam, in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Friday Dec. 31, 2004

[Amelia]

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Indonesian Muslims pray at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the victims of deadly tsunami in Aceh and North Sumatra provinces Friday, Dec. 31, 2004. Indonesia's official death toll stood at about 80,000, but Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supadi said it could reach 100,000. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim

[Amelia]

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An aerial view of Phi Phi island in Krabi province, southern Thailand Friday, Dec. 31, 2004.

[Amelia]

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A boy eats food, donated by aid organizations, along with pet dog at Pattinapakkam, near Madras, India, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004.

[Amelia]

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Sri Lankan Muslims download aid boxes containing drinking water outside of Galle, in the southern Sri Lankan coast Friday Dec. 31, 2004. A German water purification team began checking the city's water supplies on Friday after arriving a day earlier. One of the team members, Florian Weber, confirmed the water was not safe to drink unless it was carefully cooked for over 30 minutes. WHO estimated it needs US$40 million (euro29 million) to supply 3-5 million people in the region with clean water, shelter, food, sanitation and health care.(AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)

[Amelia]

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A Thai soldier stacks coffins at the Yan Yao Buddhist temple in Takuapa in southern Thailand on Friday Dec.31,2004.

[Amelia]

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In this photo released by the World Food Programme is an aerial view of Xaafun District in the north of Somalia, Thursday, Dec.30, 2004, where 12 people died and some two hundred houses were destroyed by deadly tidal waves last Sunday. A total of 132 people are recorded dead in Somalia following the magnitude 9.0 quake off Indonesia. (AP Photo / Thomas Thomson / World Food Programme))

[Amelia]

Tsunami Kills Few Animals in Sri Lanka

By GEMUNU AMARASINGHE

Associated Press Writer

YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis - indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.

An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.

Floodwaters from Sunday's tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs - one red car even ended up on top of a huge tree - but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.

"This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was destroyed.

"Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense," Wijeyeratne said.

Yala, Sri Lanka's largest wildlife reserve, is home to 200 Asian Elephants, crocodile, wild boar, water buffalo and gray langur monkeys. The park also has Asia's highest concentration of leopards. The Yala reserve covers 391 square miles, but only 56 square miles are open to tourists.

[Amelia]

Nike pledges $1 million to help tsunami survivors

12/31/2004

Associated Press

Sneaker giant Nike Inc., Oregon's only Fortune 500 company, pledged $1 million to help survivors of the deadly tsunami in southeast Asia.

Nike will donate the money to four relief organizations through its philanthropic arm, the Nike Foundation, and will also match employee donations to the four aid groups. They include Portland-based Mercy Corps, World Vision in Federal Way, Wash., the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Tigard-based Northwest Medical teams.

Nike has factories in several of the affected countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and India.

Nike is one of several Northwest companies that is contributing to the humanitarian disaster. Microsoft Corp. has pledged $3 million, while Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. is giving $100,000, as well as $2 for every pound of Sumatra coffee bought in its stores.

[Amelia]

Cashmere native rode out tsunami on a jungle gym

01/01/2005

By JANIE McCAULEY / Associated Press

For Patrick Green, the terrifying wave came in a trickle.

He and friend Becky Johnson were in the elevator of a Phuket hotel, on their way to the beach, where they planned to get one last hour of Thai sun before heading to the airport.

Outside, a tsunami had crushed the shore, but in the elevator, the only sign that something was wrong came when the lights flickered and water — so slowly — began seeping through the doors. His confused mind raced to find an explanation as "inhuman, indescribable" screams pierced the walls from outside.

"Nothing that happened afterwards was nearly as scary as the 10 seconds in the elevator," the 28-year-old Cashmere, Wash., native would later write his family.

His answer came when the elevator thrust downward and the doors burst open, revealing a raging river through the hotel. Dirty water, waist-deep and rising, gushed into the elevator. He and Johnson swam to a door. Outside, people, cars, tables and trees floated by.

They swam perpendicular to the current, aiming for the structure that would save them: a jungle gym in a nearby play area. They pulled a few other people onto it, including a woman who clung furiously to her baby as she looked for her 5-year-old boy — they would be reunited five hours later.

The tsunamis that ravaged 3,000 miles of African and Asian coastline last Sunday have claimed upward of 120,000 lives.

Johnson asked one of the Thai men what had happened.

"Big wave!" was all he could muster with his limited English. (A day later, Green and Johnson would joke that he proved to be more informative than the Thai government.)

A few more waves hit, none strong enough to dislodge them. As Johnson shouted prayers, a thatched palm-leaf roof lodged against the play structure, helping shelter them from the last and biggest wave, one that swelled 10 feet over their heads.

After that the water calmed, and Green and Johnson swam 150 yards to the hotel's main entrance. The took stairs to the building's rooftop, where they spent the rest of the day taking pictures and listening to panicked shrieks warning of additional waves that never came.

The pair abandoned their plan to go to Sri Lanka for 10 days and managed to get a return flight the next day to Singapore, where they teach at Singapore American School. They had been traveling for the holidays.

"I think it's been good for me to talk about it over again," Green said in a telephone interview from Singapore on Thursday night. "I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I'm trying to do mind-numbing things like watch movies and read, because you start to think of all these people who didn't make it and these people whose lives were thrown into disarray and how many people are without water and sanitation."

Johnson, also 28, is from Oregon, having lived in eight places in the state. Both taught at Blaine, Wash., Middle School last year before accepting offers to teach in Singapore. Each made a two-year commitment and arrived in August. He teaches U.S. History, she fifth grade.

Green closed his note home with this:

"It was ugly and awful. There are some images I will never forget, and some that I might never acknowledge again. I am left with an immense respect for the power of nature."

___

The Web site of their travels:

http://homepage.mac.com/pgreensoup/PhotoAlbum18.html

http://homepage.mac.com/pgreensoup/iMovieTheater21.html#

[Amelia]

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Before and after view of Banda Aceh Shore in Indonesia.

http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html

[Amelia]

Briton Surfs Tsunami, Survives

Fri Dec 31, 2004 10:41 AM ET

HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - British surfer Martin Markwell had always dreamed of catching that perfect wave -- but when it finally came along, it was a nightmare.

Markwell was paddling on his surfboard Sunday off the popular Hikkaduwa beach resort on Sri Lanka's palm-fringed southern coast when he was swept up by a tsunami wave and sent crashing over a white sand beach and into a hotel restaurant.

"It was really terrible because I was surfing, I was really surfing on a wave I wasn't supposed to be on," he told Reuters.

"As an experienced surfer, when I saw the wave come I realized something was wrong, but I couldn't escape because my surfboard was tied to my ankle."

His wife Vicki and son Jake looked on in horror from a hotel balcony as he crashed toward the shore. Miraculously, he stayed atop his board until he reached the hotel, jumped off and waded to safety as the ocean rolled back to feed a much larger tsunami wave on its way.

The family regrouped and ran inland into jungle to safety just minutes before a giant tsunami wave 30 feet high crashed into Sri Lanka's coast, killing more than 28,500 people.

[Amelia]

FIRST PERSON SURVIVOR STORY

'An angel must have been watching'

American woman in Thailand eyewitness to devastation

Posted: December 31, 2004

12:14 p.m. Eastern

Editor's note: The following is a first-person account of survival from Lorna Schroeder, who has been living in Phuket, Thailand, with her husband, Curt, for over 15 years. Schroeder's brother is Dave Scholl, publisher of Dixon's Independent Voice in Dixon, Calif., who submitted this e-mail account.

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

What can I say, but an angel must have been watching over us on the morning of Dec. 26. To make a long story short, we are all OK – all the 15 Schroeders who are in Phuket are all OK.

Ten of us arose early that morning to go on our only planned day of scuba diving. We were looking forward to a beautiful day at the Similan Islands where diving is outstanding. We arrived at Patong Beach pier at 7:30 a.m. and were promptly met by the boat-charter manager. He came to tell us that the boat we had chartered couldn't go out that day because it needed some major repairs.

We were all so disappointed because we had arranged this outing four months ago. We grabbed all our scuba gear and had headed across the street to a beachfront diner for breakfast as we sorted out a plan B for the day.

While we were eating breakfast, one family member, my nephew, thought he felt a tremor. Being from California and working in the soil-evaluation industry, he is attuned to such events. He immediately called his wife who was still at our Phuket house. (She's pregnant and couldn't go diving.) She checked a geological website and reported to us that there had been a 8.1 earthquake in Sumatra.

Thinking not much of that, Sumatra being so far away, we kept to our plan B, which was to travel further south to Kata Beach and enjoy a different beach for the day.

We arrived at Kata Beach, paid for our lounges, sat down and immediately noticed the tide going out. We were sitting in front of a line of fishermen's boats. Suddenly, all the boats were lodged in the sand as the water receded 30 feet. The fishermen were perplexed, and we were curious. Then, the water trickled back in toward the beach.

All seemed OK, but then the water receded 150 feet in a few seconds. We immediately put two and two together – the earthquake and the unusual sea activity. We packed our things in seconds and ran off the beach.

Ten people jolting off the beach caused other sunbathers to take notice. We told everyone we saw that there had been an earthquake and there might be a big wave coming. A few people packed up but others ignored us.

We have a video of sunbathers following the receding water out for a swim. I keep picturing the mother and 2-year-old girl who were the last group that I warned as I climbed up the steps from the beach to the parking lot. Her comment was, "Oh, thanks. I'll watch for it."

We all climbed into the truck and headed up the hill. We noticed a sign for a viewtop restaurant, so we went there and found the highest lookout point. We were the first to arrive. The restaurant wasn't even open yet.

The next vehicle to arrive was a government car with a very concerned Thai looking out toward the bay. We all sat there in awe at the force of Mother Nature as we witnessed Kata Beach on the west coast and Chalong Bay on the east coast completely drain.

Chanlong Bay is where most small boats and dive boats anchor. There were hundreds of boats leaning on there sides and their hulls in the sand. Well, as one might suspect, if that much water is sucked out it must be going somewhere. Much of it surged back into the same bays, but some was redirected to other beaches and devastation was the result.

After breakfast, our nephew had decided to go back to the house to pick up his wife so they could both spend time at Kata Beach with us. As we were heading up the hill to the restaurant, we were able to contact the van driver and tell him of the suspected wave. The van was just yards away from Patong Beach. They made a quick U-turn and headed to high ground on the beach road. Two minutes later, with camera in hand, he captured a photo of the [destructive] first wave to hit Patong Beach.

Luckily, Curt's parents were at our hillside house at Surin Beach. They witnessed the waves that hit that beach. The wave was just as strong as Patong but it came through in a more parallel direction to the beach so it didn't go inland as much.

The next beach over, BangTao Beach, where our Sheraton villa sits, wasn't so lucky. They got hit hard. It took out all the vendors carts and huts on the beach. Our favorite beachside seafood restaurant was flattened (we had reservations for dinner for 15 people that night).

The water destroyed the beachside hotel rooms, but fortunately, there is a man-made lake between the beach and the main property of the hotel so there was no damage to the main structure or to our villa.

Curt's sister and boyfriend had stayed at our house because they planned on a 1 p.m. spa massage at the Banyan Tree Resort, which is also on BangTao Beach. They had planned to go early so they could enjoy the beach and a lunch before the massage. They could have been on the beach when the wave hit at 11 a.m., but for some reason they were running late that day and hadn't left the house yet.

So, essentially, we had four different groups of family members, all potentially in harms way and all who managed to survive this tragic force of nature.

We managed to get home via the inland route, and the rest of the day was spent glued to BBC News (CNN coverage was almost non-existent). All phone lines were out, cell phones were useless – and still are – Internet was out – all we had was the TV. We still haven't managed to get an English newspaper.

We all replayed the events of the day in our heads as we sat around in shock.

Yesterday, we went out to the village below us to survey the damage to the huts built along the estuary. They were damaged by both the wave and the subsequent outflow of water. We passed some bottles of fresh water to those families we could contact.

A team from Bumrungrad Hospital was sent down to help with the government hospital. An ambulance was driven down – took 13 hours to get here. On the day of the event, Curt was immediately on the phone to the hospital and put them on alert for incoming trauma patients. Luckily he got through before the telephone lines went down.

All in all, it was a much more exciting day than we had originally planned for our guests from the USA. I can't wait to read their comments in our guest book! All kidding aside, we are extremely grateful that we all survived and we are now turning our energies to helping others who were less fortunate.

[Amelia]

Volcano Erupts in Earthquake Area

31-Dec-2004

India's only active volcano, known as Barren-1, which is located in the Andaman Islands chain about 80 miles northeast of the capital, Port Blair, has begun erupting in the aftermath of last Sunday's mega-quake.

Lava is flowing down the sides of the volcano, and lava and steam are being emitted from the crater. While the volcano is not a threat to populated areas, its sudden eruption following the earthquake is another sign of just how profoundly the massive quake affected the region geologically.

Sumatra, as close to the quake's epicenter as Barren-1, has 35 active volcanoes, and the question of whether or not they will be affected by the earth movement is at present unanswered.

A second volcano in the Andaman chain, Narcondam, is located near Barren-1. It has not erupted since 1991.

Area scientists are attempting to keep an eye on all volcanoes in the region, but with communications severely disrupted due to the quake and tsunami, few volcanoes are being actively monitored.

For a list of area volcanoes, click here.

[Amelia]

Large python saves Riza and twins

National News - December 30, 2004

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A few survivors of Sunday's calamity have a snake to thank for being alive.

Riza, a 26-year-old clothes vendor, said that at about 8 a.m. she was enjoying the holiday in bed when suddenly she saw walls of water, mud, rocks and branches rushing into the neighborhood. People were screaming and running. Riza, who was living in a rented house near the coast in Banda Aceh with three friends, dashed up to the second floor of a neighbor's house and stood on top of a cupboard.

But as she told Antara from a makeshift shelter on Wednesday, the current swept her and her friends off their perch. As Riza was drifting, she saw her neighbors, two girls -- twins -- and their mother.

Riza, who can swim, managed to help the girls. She saw that their mother was badly injured.

"The mother shouted, 'please help save my children. Let me be, but please save my children,'" Riza recounted, in tears.

As she struggled for her own life and that of the twins, she said a large snake as long as a telephone pole approached her. She and the nine-year-olds rested on the reptile, which was drifting along with the current.

"Thank God, we landed on higher ground where the water level was only about a meter deep. The twins, who were badly injured, were safe." Riza then slapped her face to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

Riza, who is currently taking refuge in the Bandar Blang Bintang area, plans to go to her relatives' house in Medan, North Sumatra.

"God still loves me," she said, adding that she would never forget the tragedy.

[Amelia]

Elders' Sea Knowledge Spares Some Thais

Dec 31, 11:03 PM EST

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.

© 2004 The Associated Press

[Amelia]

British 'angel' saved hundreds from tsunami with classroom knowledge

Sat Jan 1, 5:13 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - A 10-year-old British schoolgirl saved the lives of hundreds of people in southern Asia by warning them a wall of water was about to strike, after learning about tsunamis in geography class, British media reported.

Tilly, who has been renamed the "angel of the beach" by the top-selling tabloid The Sun, was holidaying with her family on the Thai island of Phuket when she suddenly grasped what was taking place and alerted her mother.

"Last term Mr Kearney taught us about earthquakes and how they can cause tsunamis," Tilly was quoted as saying by The Sun.

"I was on the beach and the water started to go funny. There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden.

"I recognised what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami. I told mummy."

Her intuition was enough to raise the alert and prompt the evacuation of Phuket's Maikhao beach and a neighbouring hotel before the water came crashing in, saving hundreds of people from death and injury.

According to The Sun, no one on Maikhao beach was seriously hurt by the tsunamis that have left more than 125,000 dead and millions homeless around the shores of the Indian Ocean.

The girl's geography teacher, Andrew Kearnay from Surrey in northern England, told the paper he had explained to his class that there was about 10 minutes from the moment the ocean draws out before the tsunami strikes.

[Amelia]

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This combo photo taken 26 December 2004 shows (top-L) Phuket's Chedi resort staff preparing for the day as the first swell edges toward the lawn followed by the arrival of the second and third waves (top-R and bottom-L) respectively, which engulfed the hotel restaurant and its surrounding gardens and the final photo showing the water at its crest, flooding the whole area. Also in Phuket, a 10-year-old British schoolgirl saved the lives of hundreds of people by warning them a wall of water was about to strike, after learning about tsunamis in geography class, British media reported.(AFP/Joanne Davis)