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December 28, 2004
TSUNAMI, TSUNAMYOU
For the record, there is no truth to the rumor that Sunday's earthquake and subsequent tsunami were caused when I did a cannonball into the Indian Ocean. I was nowhere near Australia or anywhere in South Asia.
(What, you expected sensitivity from me? Sure, it's a tragedy of biblical proportions... but when have I ever been sensitive to anything? Remember this general rule: the rawer the nerve, the more open it is for sarcastic comment.)
Actually, there was an amazing example of divine intervention during the tsunami: supermodel Petra Nemcova survived the tsunami by clinging to a tree for eight hours while the waters swirled around her.
Why am I citing this as an example of divine intervention? I don't know, really. I just like being able to include multiple links to Petra Nemcova on my blog. I figure between being a total hottie and this tsunami survival story, she's gotta be good for at least 100 new hits. Besides, it puts me in the holiday spirit to look at Petra Nemcova as much as possible in one post.
As for the tragic incident itself, I am in awe of what a 9.0 earthquake might have done had it occurred on land. I also can't believe the video and photographs that have come out of south Asia. In my mind, when I think of a "tidal wave," I picture some giant 30 foot high wave crashing ashore... but looking at everything I've seen since the disaster, it seems like it's less dramatic but more sudden -- one moment the ocean is 20 yards away, and the next it's 10 feet deep where you were standing.
I wonder -- and I know the Atlantic is less earthquake prone than any other ocean in the world -- how awful it would be if something like that were to happen in the Atlantic. It's something you think about when you're spending the holidays less than a half mile from the ocean. But I have to think, given how built up the US eastern seaboard is along the shoreline, that a tsunami in the Atlantic could easily kill 100,000. Sure, you'd think we might have more warning, given the science community in North America and Western Europe, but still...
Anyway, once again I would just like to remind you that Petra Nemcova lived through the tsunami. This is something to be very thankful for.
