How I Survived Tsunami?

by George J Thaliath, Kochi, India

On 26th December 2004, I was in Kuzhupilly beach near our home with seven friends from Angamaly, a town 50 kms away, enjoying a holiday between Christmas and New Year. At 1pm when I was at home packing beach umbrellas and other things into car, my mother told me that there were TV news about earthquakes, storms etc. at the eastern coast of India. They were the first reports without any mention about tsunami. There was a phone call from my brother residing in Chennai also. I explained Mother that we are in the western coast and need not worry about these storms. In fact, I did not get time to watch TV. I was in a hurry to take my friends to beach.

On our way to beach, just 1200 meters from our home, the beach dwellers, mostly fishermen, warned us about possible storms that may hit the shore at any time. They too were ignorant about the killer Tsunami waves. The sea was very calm and there was no wind. The waves have gone noticeably away from the normal position and the beach was just like a foot ball ground with live mussels, seashells and crabs. It was a very strange scene indeed. I suggested others not to go to sea at that time and to wait for some time. Our normal routine was to jump into the waves first and take rest later.

We camped beneath the coconut trees just about 20 meters from beach. That place was a beautiful narrow piece of land between sea and backwaters full of coconut trees. From there we could hardly see the sea but hear the slight voice of the exceptionally calm waves. My friends included Janib and Seby who were readers of my email magazine, Monday Mail, since its inception. Others were Wimson, Binu, Jijo, Varghese and Finso. We had a nice time eating, drinking and chatting. They had brought delicious roasted Pork and tapioca from Angamally. I had taken a few prawns cutlets also. Every mobile phone with us was ringing with warnings and enquiries.

For a group of men with average age of 30 years, it was not easy to surrender before any challenge. At 2.40 pm we decided to go to beach neglecting all warnings. Seby and Wimson went to beach to take stock of the situation. They returned after five minutes and reported everything was calm and ok. They brought two small sea crabs which they caught from the beach. Suddenly we saw people running towards beach to see something strange happening there. Some fishermen were taking their country boats away from beach. We heard a very loud and strange voice. It was 2.50 pm. Before we can wink our eyes, we saw a huge wave about 50 ft high raised vertically at the beach and smashed the ground very close to the place we were. Faces of Seby and Wimson were turned pale as paper. Had they been at the beach at that time.... we could not think about that. They would probably never forget those two small crabs that saved their lives.

All vehicles parked near beach were covered with sand and water. Huts, small shops, fishing canoes all were damaged. Luckily, we were in a very safe place. We had nothing to do but pack everything into the two cars in which we came and flee from the place. It was very difficult to drive through one feet of water that covered the road. On our way we saw people running out of their houses in panic. We took an old lady grasping for breath and another lady with a 14 days old baby in our car. Some one placed a baby girl in my lap. She smiled innocently but held my hand tightly. Other car took three injured men. I do not know how we reached the nearby hospital driving 1200 meters in high speed with the headlights on. We were the first to inform about the disaster happened at beach to people at main centre. From there, we managed to send all vehicles available to beach. Almost all people residing near beach were evacuated within an hour. The tsunami had not repeated and it was the weakest in our place that caused only 6 deaths along 25 kms of beach.

When I reached home, all TV channels were showing the devastation caused by tsunami. Only at that time we realised how God held us in His hands and what a big tragedy we escaped. Tsunami was a new phenomenon at our place. It was unleashed by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, centered the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. One of the most-powerful earthquakes in years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into coastlines across Asia killing more than 280000 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Male and Thailand and leaving millions homeless.

Kuzhupilly is situated at almost middle of Vypin, 25 kms long and 5 kms average wide, an island having greatest population density in the world. It is very close to Kochi Port (previously Cochin Port). There are historical records showing that the entire Vypin island was raised from sea in the year 1341 AD after a heavy flood. The same flood caused the total destruction of ancient port called Musaris, north of Vypin and the formation of Vypin island facilitated Kochi as a natural sea port. Was it a tsunami that happened in 1341? Who knows? It is very clear that Vypin may not stand a stronger tsunami which may destroy the entire island as happened in Car Nicobar islands.

On 27th December at about 10 pm, there was warning in TV and radio that another tsunami is about to hit the shore in one hour. When I saw the news, my mother and younger brother were asleep. And my wife and children were at her house. I kept the volume of TV minimum and decided not to awake mother, aged 77 with an artificial knee joint and my brother, a mentally retarded. However I had to be awake till the ultimatum was over. Suddenly I heard voice of our neighbours at our gate. They thought we all were asleep without knowing the danger. I came out and saw our street full of people. Everyone rushed for safer places in panic. All vehicles were struggling towards north to leave the island as early as possible. When I returned home my mother was watching TV. TV people were showing clippings of tsunami devastation of 26th together with sub-titles that water level started raising in our beach. Many people mistook it as a live telecast. I switched off the TV. Our phone kept on ringing. There were calls from my brother, sisters and other relatives. Everyone asked us to leave the place. Many of our neighbours left the place in panic. Police started announcement asking people near beach to move to safer places. State Transport Corporation had sent buses to our place and many of the private bus operators offered free transportation to people who wished to leave the place. I charged my mobile phone, checked my purse and ATM cards and kept the car key ready. I was ready for any emergency, but did not showed this to my mother and brother and asked them to sleep. It was a sleepless night for me until TV people announced that warning time was over and everything was ok. By God's grace nothing happened.

Next havoc was at 11 am on 30th December. I was at Bank. We saw the long line of vehicles going towards Kochi. Later in TV we saw long lines of people leaving the island by foot. Many shops and offices were closed. Our branch near Vypin was closed by noon. There was no customers at Bank. We kept the strong room closed and got ready to meet any emergency. Again, no Tsunami but a marginal hike and fall of sea level.

New year was always a time for carnivals and festivities in our beach. This year, all celebrations were cancelled. On 8th January 2005 I visited our beach again with a family came from New Delhi. We found that the place we camped and parked our cars on 26th was the only safe place around. Near the main entry to beach everything was destroyed by the killer wave with in seconds. All huts, boats, bikes, bicycles and small shops in that area were thrown about 10 meters away. Floor of some houses have turned into big trenches. All people who rushed to beach to see the unusual waves were hit badly and injured. I met a man who happened to be the son of the old lady we had taken to hospital on that day. She was in hospital for 5 days and ok now.

All people who stayed in relief camps in main centre for six or seven days had returned to their houses. While some affected residents, mostly belonging to the fishermen community, were happy that they had something left to call their own, others were disappointed and disillusioned about the future. The main task was cleaning the houses, which were filled with seawater, fish, seaweeds and sand. It took almost a month to restore normal life at beach and now life goes on and on just like the waves that rub off anything we write on the sand.
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Tsunami attack in Indonesia

Arial view of Marina Beach, Chennai, India after Tsunami

Satellite pictures taken before and after Tsunami showing
devastation to the island of Sumatra (Indonesia)

Tsunami at Phuket (Thailand)

Tsunami strikes the coast of Sri Lanka

Damaged house in Kerala, India

Devastation in Nagapattanam, Tamilnadu, the most affected place in India

Above: Our beach after tsunami

Below: Damages caused in our beach

What is a Tsunami?

What is a Tsunami?
A tsunami (pronounced su-nah-me) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life.

What does "tsunami" mean?
Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." Represented by two characters, the top character, "tsu," means harbor, while the bottom character, "nami," means "wave." In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as "tidal waves" by the general public, and as "seismic sea waves" by the scientific community. The term "tidal wave" is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term "seismic sea wave" is also misleading. "Seismic" implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a non-seismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact.

How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?
Tsunamis are unlike wind- generated waves, which many of us may have observed on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterised as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wavelength in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour. As a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s) and the water depth. Let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses. The earthquake- generated 1960 Chilean tsunami, for instance, travelled across over 17,000 km across the Pacific to hit Japan. The wave crests bend as the tsunami travels. This is called refraction. Wave refraction is caused by segments of the wave moving at different speeds as the water depth along the crest varies.

How do earthquakes generate tsunamis?
Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the earth's crustal deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position. Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. When large areas of the sea floor elevate or subside, a tsunami can be created. Large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries. Plates interact along these boundaries called faults. Around the margins of the Pacific Ocean, for example, denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunamis.

How do landslides, volcanic eruptions, and cosmic collisions generate tsunamis?
A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium position. In the case of earthquake- generated tsunamis, the water column is disturbed by the uplift or subsidence of the sea floor. Submarine landslides, which often accompany large earthquakes, as well as collapses of volcanic edifices, can also disturb the overlying water column as sediment and rock slump downslope and are redistributed across the sea floor. Similarly, a violent submarine volcanic eruption can create an impulsive force that uplifts the water column and generates a tsunami. Conversely, supermarine landslides and cosmic-body impacts disturb the water from above, as momentum from falling debris is transferred to the water into which the debris falls. Generally speaking, tsuna-mis generated from these mechanisms, unlike the Pacific-wide tsunamis caused by some earthquakes, dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source area.

What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?
As a tsunami leaves the deep water of the open ocean and travels into the shallower water near the coast, it transforms. If you read the "How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?" section, you discovered that a tsunami travels at a speed that is related to the water depth - hence, as the water depth decreases, the tsunami slows. The tsunami's energy flux, which is dependent on both its wave speed and wave height, remains nearly constant. Consequently, as the tsunami's speed diminishes as it travels into shallower water, its height grows. Because of this shoaling effect, a tsunami, imperceptible at sea, may grow to be several meters or more in height near the coast. When it finally reaches the coast, a tsunami may appear as a rapidly rising or falling tide, a series of breaking waves, or even a bore.

What happens when a tsunami encounters land?
As a tsunami approaches shore, we've learned in the "What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?" section that it begins to slow and grow in height. Just like other water waves, tsunamis begin to lose energy as they rush onshore - part of the wave energy is reflected offshore, while the shoreward-propagating wave energy is dissipated through bottom friction and turbulence. Despite these losses, tsunamis still reach the coast with tremendous amounts of energy. Tsunamis have great erosional potential, stripping beaches of sand that may have taken years to accumulate and undermining trees and other coastal vegetation. Capable of inundating, or flooding, hundreds of meters inland past the typical high-water level, the fast-moving water associated with the inundating tsunami can crush homes and other coastal structures. Tsunamis may reach a maximum vertical height onshore above sea level, often called a run-up height, of 10, 20, and even 30 meters.

(Text from the Tsunami site hosted by the University of Washington's department of earth and space sciences. Photos from various New Paper sites.)

Radar imaging of the tsunami two hours after the earthquake

Check out this photo essay on a very similar story from
Cherai Beach, just 3 kms from Kuzhupilly
Tsunami effect at Cherai Beach

One of my friends in US posted my tsunami story
in her portal. Please visit:
South Asian Tsunami

Check out this link for amazing video clips (in FLV format) of
Tsunami live in Taiwan, Srilanka, Indonesia etc. Please allow
some time to load. But, it's worth waiting.
Tsunami Videos

Largest collection of Tsunami videos and photos
from around the world
tsunami-video-photos

Visit the following link for 14 sets of Satellite Images Before and After Tsunami,
which will give you an eye opening apprise on for the devastation that occurred.
Before and After Tsunami

Help our fellow brethren by visiting the official web site of
Prime Minister of India's Relief Fund

Page designed and published by
George J Thaliath
27 February 2005