Sunday, January 02, 2005
Phuket Tsunami blogger
Check out this blog devoted to survivor's stories from Phuket, this post in particular:
And then, after the first small wave that was merely forceful enough to rip the clothes from your body:
Read the whole thing and other posts on the blog. Unbelievable.
UPDATE: You can see a slideshow of photos from Phuket here. Free Ofoto registration required. It's worth it.
At first - the ocean pulled back. It was as if somewhere way out at sea - a god pulled a giant plug on the bathtub. The water was sucked backwards - leaving only a muddy potholed ground - full of flopping fish - and small holes of water. All of the seniors and families (mostly the ones on the beach at 9:00 in the morning), decided it was a great time to explore this unique moment. They walked out and looked at the new landscape. They explored trinkets never seen before as this part of the ocean bed had never been exposed in 50 years. Children bounced along to little pools of water - newly created children's pools just perfect for jumping in. The turned their backs to the distance. And yet others slept on the beach - taking in the cool and pleasant morning air.
At first - you saw it. The horizon began to be blocked out - and you saw a blue-black dark wall spring to life. You could tell the water was coming back. And soon, all of your newly discovered play areas would be back to normal - covered once again by water. Sure, it felt odd. And you wondered, "why is this happening." But no logical reason came to mind. It was a full moon last night - and so perhaps the moon was creating an abnormal tide. Most of us didn't live by oceans - and so we had no clue as to how the ocean was really supposed to work.
And then, after the first small wave that was merely forceful enough to rip the clothes from your body:
The second - and most deadly SWELL came. And this one was the life taking swell. Larger. More fierce. Taller by 10 feet - this one just came so strongly - and pushed everything in its path towards the town. People were but leaves going under. This swell pushed all of the 200 cars on the beach forward. It pushed hundreds of parked motorcyles and tuk tuks. It pushed over the two busses parked in front of the dive shop - waiting to take divers out to their morning dive, after having collected them all morning from local hotels.
Read the whole thing and other posts on the blog. Unbelievable.
UPDATE: You can see a slideshow of photos from Phuket here. Free Ofoto registration required. It's worth it.
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