By Scott Longman
December 26, 2004. Mai Khao Beach, Phuket, Thailand. Facing the Andaman Sea, which adjoins the Indian Ocean.
Palm trees. 77 degrees. Endless white sands. Pleasantly scented breezes, just touched with a hint of a distant grill. Azure limitless skies. Gorgeous blue waters with breakers gently rolling in, the bass beats of music faintly wafting, beckoning hotels with world-class staff someplace at their nine o’clock. If not yet at Paradise, then at least it was on the adjacent topo map.
And so thought a huge number of tourists that fateful year, including the Smith family. They burned the Jet A fuel to hemi-circumnavigate the planet, landing the family of four there from their home in Dreary Upon Grey, Surrey, England. What neither parent had the slightest idea is that they’d brought a lifesaving leader with them, in the form of their 10-year-old daughter, Tillie.
As the family walked on the beach, Tillie noticed that there was something wrong with the water. It was frothing, and it was receding from the beach. In an instant, she knew what was about to happen.
What she could not have known was the horrific magnitude of just how right she was. About 90 minutes before, off the west coast of Sumatra, there had been an enormous earthquake about 30 miles beneath the seabed. It produced a 1000-mile-long fault line, buckling the seafloor upward more than 10 stories. In doing so, it released more than double the energy of all munitions expended in WWII, including the atomic bombs. The effect was so immense that it impacted the Earth’s rotation. With a rating of 9.1-9.3, it was among the most powerful quakes in history.
That biblical-level upheaval slammed into the waters above, producing an epic tsunami, which raced off at nearly 500 mph, bringing with it cataclysmic destructive force. It was so implacable that, 11 hours later, it would even kill people on the coast of South Africa, 5,000 miles away. In all, it would decimate parts of 14 countries and wipe out more than 220,000 souls.
Out in deep water, tsunami waves usually have immense lengths, sometimes over 300 miles between peaks. Counterintuitively, their amplitude, or height, in those circumstances is modest, often just a foot or two, mild enough that a ship encountering them would not experience anything alarming. It’s only when the waves enter shallow water that they build to terrifying heights. Some reports for this tsunami note heights of as much as 90 feet. One of the most insidious consequences of the ultra-long waves is that, sometimes, the first part to make landfall is the trough. In that instance, the natural waterline recedes, sometimes by as much as 500 yards, leaving an intriguing vista. People often go into that void, marveling at seashells and picking up still-flopping fish, apparently without consideration for why the water left or when it would be coming back.
Tillie immediately told Mom. Mom paid her no credence. Now, some 10-year-olds would have deferred to that and dropped the issue. Not Tillie. Tillie became more strident. “Look, not but two weeks past, Mr. Kearney taught us about tsunamis. He showed us a film of one in Hawaii. It looked just exactly like this.” No reaction from Mom. Her dad was starting to pay attention, but paying particular attention was Holly, her seven-year-old sister. As sometimes happens between siblings close in age, they apparently communicated very well. Holly, believing her sister, set a course inland, at full throttle. After a moment, Dad went after Holly. Tillie, no doubt realizing she’d gained some traction, continued pressing her mother, using a tone that Mom would later report as “hysterical.” Finally, Tillie played the last card she had: “Right, then, I’m going.” And she did.
Meanwhile, her dad and sister had approached a security guard at the hotel, where Dad is quoted as saying “You might think I’m bonkers, but my daughter is convinced there’s going to be a tsunami.” In a great piece of right-place-right-time, a nearby Japanese man overheard the Japanese word “tsunami,” and he weighed in. “There has just been an earthquake in Sumatra. I think the child is right.”
That did it.
The security guard and hotel staff called General Quarters and began the emergency clearing of those on the beach, including Mom. In all, there were more than 100 people out there, mostly families on Christmas vacation. Just as the last of them reached highground safety, it hit.
There were zero fatalities on Tillie’s beach. If only there had been Tillies stationed up and down Thailand’s west coast. In all, more than 5,300 people—about 2,000 of whom had come for a carefree tropical holiday—needlessly lost their lives in those places.
So if a 10-year-old girl ever tells you to get the hell off her beach, get off her beach.
