[extropy-chat] Putting the tsunami into context

[Hal Finney]

On a personal note, I learned yesterday from my niece, who is staying with
us for the holidays, that her uncle (my wife's sister's husband's brother)
was caught in the tsunami.  He was vacationing in the Indian Ocean
last week with his wife, and they were on the beach filming some large
waves, when suddenly an enormous swell came in and carried them away.
They were separated and he lost his video camera, but luckily the wave
deposited them about 30 feet inland and they were OK, although they had
to go to the hospital for some minor injuries.  He said afterwards that
he thought it was the end for him, and then he was even more frightened
when he wasn't able to find his wife at first.

What saved them is that they were vacationing in the Seychelle Islands,
a chain in the western part of the ocean, north of Madagascar.  This was
enough farther from the quake's epicenter that the tidal wave did not have
the destructive force that it did in other areas.  If they had chosen
some other vacation spot things might have gone much worse for them.
The Seychelles actually did receive a warning about the wave, and some
friends of theirs heard about it in time to avoid the beaches, but my
relatives were on an isolated island without electricity, and did not
hear the warning.

Hal