A Tsunami!

Deep condolences to anyone here who has witness a tsunami. It is not easy, even watching it on tv gives shocks.

Can you share your experience, what was your greatest fear that day?

 

At 14yo I experienced my first and only real tsunami, no warning just some huge waves coming onshore, it was not a big tsunami as tsunamis go
but when you are body surfing smsll 3ft waves then they suddenly become huge 15 footers for a while and you get dumped head first into the sand at the bottom
only to drag yourself back topside and get dumped again and again!
Several years later I actually found out it was a tsunami from a chilian earthquake! supposed to have been a 40cm tsunami where I was!
At the time I just thought it was a few big freak sets! and I was happy to be walking home that arvo, never found my stuff from the beach
as the waves pushed everything up to and into the rocks at the back of the beach then back to the water so a 2km walk home in just my swimmers.

 

Wow, that was sad. Sorry to hear that and I guess it had taught you some lessons for future.

 

No it was not sad! I was a 14yo boy and it was an unexpected adventure no trauma no fear just an interesting afternoon event
I did learn from it though, I was so busy looking after myself in the big water that I missed most of the panic and pandemonium up the beach!
By the time I had dragged myself out of the water the beach was mostly deserted with most up in the carpark area!
And while walking home quite a few police and ambulance vehicles went screaming past!
My two older sisters were chasing boys at another beach facing a more northerly direction and had no idea anything happened!
A couple decades later when the internet came along I discovered that due to the underwater topography of the beach I surfed at
that it formed a funnel shape and amplified any swell from the ESE direction and the reason is was a popular surf beach!
But that was way back in the early 70's

 

Well, it is a good thing you came out unscathed. Your teenage mind was looking more to the adventurous side of the situation than the danger it presented.

 

My experience was not seeing the real thing but watching as it unfolded on the television and it was as if I was there in person, it was in a far away country and it was a horrific scene. I have never heard of this type of happening in my country at any time and I hope it won't happen even though we are in an earthquake and hurricane prone region.

 

I have never experienced a Tsumani or an earthquake. We don't have them in the part of the world where I live. But watching it on TV or movies is always so terrifying that I wonder how people who find themselves staring at a Tsunami feel or survive. I feel water and fire disasters are the worst kind of disasters because these two don't have any shape or form. You cannot control or contain them when they blow up.