One California Man Swept Away By Tsunami
Entry posted by xccj
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Okay, I don't know all the details, but it looks like the only fatality on the US side of this natural disaster sparked by the 8.9 Japanese quake is some guy who got washed away on the Californian coast by the incoming tsunami.
Yeah, it's sad, but it also shows that he was STUPID. I was watching the news this morning when the first couple of wave rounds struck the Oregon coast. There was a tot of effort put into evacuating people to higher ground, and the news people show many police officers patrolling the beach to keep everybody out of harms way. And then, minutes after what was considered the first wave washed on shore, there were people walking down to the wet sand on the beach. I changed the channel, and when I went back, the people were gone (likely were called back to shore) and an even larger wave was washing up the beach. And I guess the waves got even larger as the morning went on. So it wouldn't surprise me if the people who continued to hang out on the beach did get washed away.
I don't speak about this as some annoying blogger with no experience with ocean waves on the Oregon coast. I HAVE been struck by a sneaker wave; I was playing chicken with the waves with a couple of friends, and we jumped on top of a log as one came in. What I remember is falling forward into the surging water, and when I resurfaced I was on the other side of the log, and have to resist the pullback as the waters receded. My friends and I were extremely lucky we survive that. We could've been swept all the way out to see, or we could've been pinned under the log we were climbing on, since that was also shifting in the water. The only reason we escaped that fate was because it was huge and we were next to the root-ball, which was anchored securely into the beach. But we could see other logs really tumbling in the waters.
And that near death experience was caused by a sneaker wave, which is actually a common occurrence on the Oregon coast; lots of people get caught by those each year and there are fatalities. So when one hears that a tsunami wave is heading in, even if it's not estimated to be huge or anything, then they should have the smarts to not hang out on the beach.
I am sad that the one guy got washed away, and my heart goes out to all the people in Japan who endured a far worst disaster. After seeing the footage of the tsunami over there, I can hardly think of a way some people could've escaped that wave, especially if they only had 10 minutes to flee after the quake hit. But, come on, those of us over hear had at least 10 hours of warning. We should know better than to play chicken with the Pacific Ocean. Because it usually wins.
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