girl warns beach before tsunami

[Feisty Mouse]

From http://http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050103/od_uk_nm/oukoe_quake_briton_girl

Girl saved tourists thanks to school lesson

Mon Jan 3,12:18 AM ET





LONDON (Reuters) - A 10-year-old British girl saved 100 other tourists from the Asian tsunami having warned them a giant mass of water was on its way after learning about the phenomenon weeks earlier at school.


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"I was on the beach and the water started to go funny," Tilly Smith told the Sun at the weekend from Phuket, Thailand.



"There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden. I recognised what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami. I told mummy."



While other holidaymakers stood and stared as the disappearing waters left boats and fish stranded on the sands, Tilly recognised the danger signs because she had done a school project on giant waves caused by underwater earthquakes.



Quick action by Tilly's mother and Thai hotel staff meant Maikhao beach was quickly cleared, just minutes before a huge wave crashed ashore. The beach was one of the few on the Thai island of Phuket where no-one was killed.



Her teacher, Andrew Kearney, paid tribute to his quick-thinking student.



"Tilly is a very bright, level-headed girl ... it is an incredible coincidence that our class were learning about this type of tsunami just two weeks before Christmas," he told the newspaper.

On Sunday, the Foreign Office said 40 Britons were confirmed dead from the December 26 tsunami which claimed some 130,000 victims. The toll is expected to rise.

 

[BrandiJo]

thats so cool, see sometimes kids do pay attiton in school ...to bad i wasnt one of them

 

[raedyn]

I had wondered why more people didn't recognize the signs. I can understand the tourists not getting it, but I was surprized more locals didn't head for high ground when the water sucked back. But then, I guess the locals were probably going about their business, not just standing there staring out to sea for horus on end. You tend to take yr surroundings kinda for granted when you live there all yr life.

 

[Adept]

I had wondered why more people didn't recognize the signs. I can understand the tourists not getting it, but I was surprized more locals didn't head for high ground when the water sucked back. But then, I guess the locals were probably going about their business, not just standing there staring out to sea for horus on end. You tend to take yr surroundings kinda for granted when you live there all yr life.

I swung the other way. I figured, locals probably dont have the kind of education that western tourists do. I for one know that an earthquake under water will trigger massive tsunamis, and would have been heading for higher ground as soon as I could. I would have thought most tourists would have done the same thing.

 

[Lisa]

I swung the other way. I figured, locals probably dont have the kind of education that western tourists do. I for one know that an earthquake under water will trigger massive tsunamis, and would have been heading for higher ground as soon as I could. I would have thought most tourists would have done the same thing.

They were probably waiting for someone to tell them what to do. It astounds me sometimes how people wait around while fire alarms are going, etc. to see if there really is a fire. By the time you see the fire it is too late. It is just human nature, you don't believe it until you actually see it with your own eyes.