NationStates Jolt Archive

Education saving lives - I ran across this article in Joanne Jacobs' blog:

Ten-year-old Tilly Smith was paying attention in geography class when her teacher explained that an earthquake can cause a tsunami. As a result, Tilly and her family, and dozens of other on the beach at their Thai resort, survived the massive tidal wave. Jim Miller links to the story:

Tilly's family, from Surrey, England, was enjoying a day at Maikhao Beach last Sunday when the sea rushed out and began to bubble.

The adults were curious, but Tilly froze in horror.

"Mummy, we must get off the beach now!" she told her mother. "I think there's going to be a tsunami."

The adults didn't understand until Tilly added the magic words: "A tidal wave."

Her warning spread like wildfire. Within seconds, the beach was deserted — and it turned out to be one of the only places along the shores of Phuket where no one was killed or seriously injured.

. .. "When the water went back, I was like most people on the beach. I wanted to walk down and look at what was going on," she recalled. "It was only when Tilly explained what she thought was going to happen that I had second thoughts.

"We ran off the beach as fast as we could and went to the first floor of the hotel where it would be safe. Minutes later the water surged right over the beach and demolished everything in its path.

Tilly didn't just have the knowledge; she had the moxie to make her parents listen to her warning.

They should make it into an educational telly information ad and show it in any area prone to tsunami's.
Maybe if there had been a better early warning system more lives could have been saved.
I was listening to the radio the other day and some guy in the place that records earthquakes and where they happen said it "wasn't my job to warn people of the possibility of disaster". He had a pretty good idea that tidal waves would hit Indonesia but left it to (the non -existant) early warning systems of the various asian governments.

Wow, that's a really touching story. Thanks for posting it...

Read in the news today,

That there were some scuba-divers off the island of Phuket. While they were scuba diving quite far into the sea, they felt a movement and a big wave moved above them.

When they surfaced and reached the boat, they had a Japanese tourist who was scuba-diving with them as well with them as well, he said it was probably a tell-tale of a tsunami. And they better not go back to shore just yet. So they waited it out.

It was true, hours later when they finally got back, they saw the coast in ruins.