On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 19:06:59 -0800, "Brian Combs"
wrote:

I know that this is a little one sided but that is also the way I am feeling
right now.

I wasn't aware this situation had "sides". I, for one, appreciate
hearing unfiltered-by-media first-hand accounts. Some friends went to
Thailand last week to hook up with their buddies who narrowly avoided
getting killed at Phuket.

All they did was run like hell inland when they saw a crowd coming.
For a crucial half-minute, they let the reptile base of the brain make
their decisions and it's safe to say they didn't overanalyze. Sailors
in storms face the same situation...do I go with the Adlard
Coles-approved plan or go with my gut? The Smeetons attempting the
Horn (and nearly losing the yacht...TWICE) comes to mind.

In Sri Lanka, an uncaring universe took a mindless swipe at them. An
eighteen-wheeler-sized asteroid could land five miles from here...I
would be similarly dead.

The only thing that *might* have helped them would have been some kind
of Civil Defense-type siren system, because they were about two hours
from the tsunami's origin point. Such a system wouldn't have saved
that many Indonesians, but the islands where the folk tradition kept
alive the memories of a similar event in 1907 only lost a single
person. When the ground shook, the village headman yelled "Head up the
hill...now!" Hundreds did and they all lived, save one.

By contrast, when the sea receded for no reason, hundreds elsewhere
decided that stranded fish were a bounty...cool! free dinner! Now it's
a great season for crabbing.

In 1700, a magnitude 9 earthquake hit Juan de Fuca Strait in British
Columbia. Like Pacific Islands recalling Cook's visits, this villagers
still know what happened through stories passed down. They now know
via lore what to do. They know through science that another huge quake
is about due in Seattle/Vancouver. They want money to move their
villages up the hill. I say give it to them. They are obviously
brighter people than urbanized Canadians/Americans, who build condos
on landfill in fault-covered harbours.

R.