Tsunami in Thailand. The story of a Russian survivor in Thailand: "I swam, bumping into glass and various debris" Procedure in case of a natural disaster

Tsunamis are giant and long ocean waves that are generated by an underwater volcanic eruption or earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7. During an underwater earthquake, sections of the ocean floor are shifted, which forms a series of destructive waves. Their speed can reach 1000 km / h, and the height - up to 50 m and above. About 80% of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean.

Tsunami in Thailand (2004), Phuket December 26, 2004 - this day went down in history as the day of a tragedy of gigantic proportions that took a huge number of lives. At this time, the tsunami occurred in Phuket (2004). Patong, Karon, other beaches suffered the most. At 07:58 local time, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of up to 9.3 occurred at the bottom of the Indian Ocean near Simelue Island. It set off a large series of giant waves that people around the world still remember with fear and regret. Water killers in a few hours took the lives of about 300 thousand people and caused terrible destruction on the shores of Asia.

Today, many tourists are interested in which beaches in Phuket had a tsunami. These tourists hope that the answer to this question will allow them to choose Phuket's tsunami-safe beaches. But in fact, there are no beaches in Phuket that are safe in this regard. Although the beaches in the east of the island are, in principle, safe from tsunamis (a destructive tsunami is impossible in the shallow Phang Nga Bay), a few tourists from Russia rest on these beaches.

There are different opinions about how high the tsunami wave was in Phuket in 2004. Some sources say that the wave height was about 30 meters. But if the wave had been that high, the death toll would have been much higher. In fact, the height of the wave is on average “only” 5 meters, but the fact is that this wave moved at a very high speed, which was approximately 600 km / h. Imagine what kind of impact force such a wave has. Due to the high speed of this wave, many tourists simply did not have time to escape, but the damage on these beaches was noticeably lower than on Patong and Karon.

Arriving the night before in Phuket and spending the night looking for surviving Russians in hospitals in Phuket and five surrounding provinces, on the morning of December 27, driving along a relatively intact section of the embankment in the Patong Beach area, we first saw in the light of day and realized the extent of the destruction. Completely collapsed and dilapidated houses of the first line, cars half sticking out of the windows of the third floor, and a small car wrapped around a cracked concrete pillar so that the front bumper was in contact with the rear. The bodies of the dead were no longer on the streets, there was only debris from the wooden buildings demolished by the wave and mangled cars and motorcycles, and this made the picture even more terrible: the imagination completed the missing ones. In Patong, the wave was “only” up to three to five meters high, but its speed at the moment of impact reached 500 kilometers per hour. Palm trees stood on the embankment, bare as lampposts, not broken by the wave, but completely devoid of leaves.

How were the victims of the tsunami buried in Phuket?

The story of how the victims of the tsunami in Phuket were buried deserves special mention. Phuket after the tsunami became the main gathering place for all the dead, who were brought here from other parts of Thailand. Over time, the death toll became so huge that there was nowhere to store them, as morgues, hospital basements and refrigerators were completely packed. Then it was decided to temporarily bury the unidentified bodies that were literally rotting in the sun. In the 2006 movie Tsunami: The Aftermath, there was footage of the bodies of the dead being burned in furnaces, but as far as we know, there was nothing like that. Although some of the bodies were indeed burned in ovens, these were the bodies of Thais and other Asians who practiced Buddhism. That is, these were ordinary cremation ceremonies, and not disposal of corpses.

Today there was information that the list of those who died from the tsunami included eight people with Slavic names. The Russian consul in Thailand said that all this is a confusion. For details, contact NTV correspondent Alexei Veselovsky.

The list was studied all day. And this is what Russian Consul in Thailand Vladimir Pronin said: “We carefully checked this information and came to the conclusion that it was about eight Russian citizens who were hospitalized on the first day after the tsunami struck. After all the necessary medical care was received, the Russians went to their hotels and may now be in Moscow.” The consul stressed that we are not talking about the dead. 16+

Today there was information that the list of those who died from the tsunami included eight people with Slavic names. The Russian consul in Thailand said that all this is a confusion. All the details with NTV correspondent Alexei Veselovsky.

The Russian Consul in Thailand, who is now in Phuket, said that this list was received today by the Russian Embassy. He was checked all day. And this is what the consul said: “We carefully checked this information and came to the conclusion that it was about eight Russian citizens who were hospitalized on the first day after the tsunami struck.” After all the necessary medical care was received, the Russians went to their hotels and may already be in Moscow now. The consul stressed that we are not talking about the dead. Obviously there has been some confusion.

By the way, there is a lot of confusion. Information came this morning that the names of three Russian citizens were included in the list of missing persons. A little later it turned out that these were citizens of Kazakhstan, whose surnames simply sounded like Russians. Here, in Thailand, many citizens from the CIS countries are also called Russians. So maybe that's where the confusion comes from.

Hundreds of hospitals and relief centers now operating across Southeast Asia not only treat the wounded, but also help people find their missing loved ones. As the death toll continues to rise, so does the number of missing persons, and this number also goes into the thousands.

Almost 2,700 people are officially considered missing in Thailand. Thai authorities said today that they are still unable to find out the whereabouts of almost 1,500 vacationing Swedish citizens: most of them were on the islands where the main impact of the tsunami wave fell.

Among the Russians, who this year came to the resorts of Thailand significantly less than before, the fate of 50 people remains unclear.

The fact that it is impossible to establish the exact number of people affected by the elements is not so much the fault of the local authorities as a feature of local life. In India, often a child is not registered until the age of four, and in Sri Lanka, in some areas, there has never been a census at all. This applies equally to Thailand there is no such thing as registration and propiska.

Thousands of people come from villages to popular tourist destinations to earn money, and the tourists themselves often do not need a visa or anything else when crossing the border. Considering that many people travel here alone, without relying on travel agencies, the search for such people, they believe, can take a very long time.

The region is currently undergoing the largest search and rescue operation in terms of the number of people involved and the cost. Army forces, police, rescuers, volunteers from different countries work at sea and on land.

In Phuket, a helicopter of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations is also looking for people. The difficulties are the same for everyone: the territory is huge, the roads are often destroyed, and some places can only be reached either by water or by air. Until now, rescuers are clearing the rubble in the hotels of densely populated Phuket, and hundreds of bodies were simply washed away by the ocean wave from the shore.

In Thailand, direct damage from the elements amounted to about $500 million. Due to the refusal of tourists from vouchers another 750 million. Experts believe that the total damage to the country could exceed several billion dollars.

According to UN officials, about 100,000 people became victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. Today, there have been new tremors near India, more than fifty of them since Sunday's tragedy.

The tsunami in Thailand was one of the largest natural disasters in modern history, which claimed the lives of more than 200 thousand people. In Thailand, 5,395 people died, most of them foreign tourists.

December 26, 2004 at 00:58 UTC, in the depths of the Indian Ocean, near the island of Simeulue in Indonesia, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 - 9.3 on the Richter scale.

This earthquake led to a vertical displacement of astronomically large volumes of water on the bottom line, hundreds and thousands of kilometers long. It spawned a series of waves that, within hours, brought monstrous destruction to the coasts of Asia - it was the worst natural disaster in the resort country of Thailand, resulting in serious damage to property, the environment and the economy.

How often do tsunamis happen in Thailand

Not often in Thailand. The fact is that in order for the resulting waves to become rampant, a number of conditions must match:

earthquake more than 7 points;
the epicenter of the earthquake is close to the bottom surface;
significant vertical displacement of bottom parts relative to each other;
the shock caused by the earthquake must resonate with the vibration of the water.

Often, traces of a tsunami are fixed only with special equipment: the waves generated as a result of an earthquake are several centimeters high and are invisible to people.

For example, this was the case in 2012, when an earthquake was recorded near the western coast of Thailand, namely near Sumatra, the Indian Ocean. An alarm was declared and an evacuation was carried out in Phuket.

The wave that reached was only 10 cm high: fortunately, the disaster did not happen.

On the other hand, the force of nature rebounded at the height of the 2004 tourist season, causing the so-called Great Indian Ocean Tsunami. The first wave reached the western coast 2 hours after the earthquake.

Unlike Sumatra, Thailand is lucky because the shallowness of the Andaman Sea slowed down the movement of the wave.

If the response system to such situations were debugged, it would be possible to notify of the approaching danger in advance and, if not to start an evacuation, then at least to make people rise to the hills, and not walk along the coast. The video shows in detail what kind of expansion this led to.

Thailand in its modern history did not know such large-scale natural disasters. The previous one, which was recorded in the sources, occurred more than 700 years ago.

Does the tsunami rescue system work in Thailand

The rescue system in Thailand began to be created after the events of 2004. It consists of two parts:

wave warning;
evacuation of the population and tourists.

In 2012, the opportunity presented itself to test the operation of the rescue system. According to the reviews of tourists who were at that time in Thailand in Phuket, not everyone managed to evacuate.

However, the warning system worked: tourists and hotel employees climbed to the roofs of buildings, those who managed to leave on a hill. That carefree and curious wandering along the coast, which was observed in 2004 (see video), was not.

What to do if there is a tsunami

1. Be calm. Even if there was an official tsunami alert in Thailand, no one knows how strong the wave will reach the coast. The likelihood of a repeat of the 2004 scenario is low. In addition, today, Thailand has one of the most powerful tsunami early warning systems in the world.

2. If there was no warning, and the sea suddenly "departed", then the rescue system in Thailand is not working again - it is unlikely. Drop everything and run away, following the signs.

4. There are always several waves. Between them there may be a break of more than an hour.

5. Going down to the shore is dangerous, even if everything seems to have calmed down.

This year will be 15 years since the tragedy that occurred on December 26th. 230,000 dead in fourteen countries, one of the deadliest natural disasters ever.
The tsunami in Thailand in 2004 is impossible to forget, but there are so many distortions of facts and fiction around this tragedy that it is worth figuring out what is true and what is outright falsehood. How many people died and why did the tsunami happen in Thailand? Can this happen again? How dangerous is it to go on vacation to Thailand?

What caused the tsunami in Thailand in 2004?

The tsunami in 20014 in Thailand was indeed caused by the largest and deadliest earthquake in history.
The power of the earthquake was estimated at 9.3 on the Richter scale. The cause of the earthquake, which caused a tsunami in several countries, is the collision of two tectonic plates: Burmese and Indian off the coast of Sumatra.
An underwater-mega-perspective-earthquake caused a rupture of the plates and the appearance of waves with a height of 5-10 storey buildings.

Could it have been predicted? It is possible, but in those parts there was no warning technology yet, and it is quite possible to assume that the number of deaths, subject to the rules, could be reduced several times.

Tectonic plates rested against each other for many years and one had to pass over the other, but instead it moved head-on and the plate shifted 19 meters, which caused a break and displacement of millions of tons of water, which caused a tsunami.

Tsunami of “Christmas Gifts”

“Christmas Tsunami” is how the public called the tragedy, which happened exactly on the Catholic Christmas holidays.

Within a few hours from the beginning of the earthquake, a series of waves up to 30 meters high caused a tsunami, which seriously affected the inhabitants of 7 countries: India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Malaysia, Thailand.

Death toll from the 2004 tsunami:

India - 730,000 people
Indonesia - 572,926 people
Sri Lanka - 516,150 people
Maldives - 11,231 people
Malaysia - 8000 people
Thailand - 8000 people
Myanmar - 3200 people

And that's not counting the people who are still missing. Due to the fact that the dead spent a long time in the water, many simply could not be identified.

In the scientific community, the event that we know as the tsunami in Thailand was named the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake.

Tsunami in Thailand 2004 - how it was

December 26, 2004 in Thailand began as the most ordinary morning. Someone was in a hurry to work, someone was going to the beach, nothing foreshadowed trouble. According to eyewitnesses of that day, around 7 am people felt tremors, it became clear that an earthquake had occurred. But since it was short-lived, no one really attached any importance to it.

The most powerful waves in history took about two hours to reach the shores of Thailand and hit the western coast of the country.

The first was the Similan Islands. A famous diving spot where divers from all over the world gather. Eyewitness divers were the first to know about the tsunami, because at depth the waves behaved in such a way that a person was as if inside a huge washing centrifuge.

Khao Lak Island took the biggest blow. It was the largest wave blow, which literally swept away all the bungalows and hotels standing on the shore. Due to the topography of the seabed, coastline and offshore reefs, the tsunami waves depicted the infamous "vanishing sea effect" that seduced many tourists and led them to their deaths.

The tsunami looked like this: the water abruptly went far inland and exposed the seabed. Many tourists ran to look at fish, marine life and collect outlandish shells.
By the time the waves were visible, it was already too late. There were only 1-3 minutes left before they fell, it was impossible to escape.

Among the dead on Khao Lak was the grandson of the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadetta, which once again confirms the fact that even the Thai authorities were not aware of the impending tragedy. Hundreds of people were simply washed away into the sea, and after a powerful blow they were thrown onto the nearest houses, hotels, barriers.

Photo and video of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand

Video dedicated to the tsunami in Thailand 2004

Photos of eyewitnesses of the tsunami in Thailand:

People run as a tsunami hits the shores of Koh Raya, part of Thailand's Andaman Islands, 23 kilometers from Phuket Island, southern Thailand December 26, 2004. The photographer who took this picture escaped uninjured, but retreated into the first wave and watched as the second wave ripped apart the wooden buildings, while the third and biggest wave came forward and "teared through the cement buildings like they were made of balsa wood."

On December 26, 2004, waves break in Maddampegam, 60 kilometers (38 miles) south of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Tsunami waves triggered by earthquakes hit villages along Sri Lanka's broad coastline, killing more than 35,300 people

Aerial view of Marina Beach after the tsunami caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake hit the southern part of the Indian city of Madras on December 26, 2004

File photo taken on January 5, 2005 in the devastated Banda Aceh area in Aceh province, located on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, after a powerful tsunam on December 26, 2004

Tsunami in Thailand 2004 in Phuket

Contrary to popular rumors, Phuket was the least affected of all the provinces in Thailand. Less destruction, fewer deaths. There were seaside villages in Thailand where 80% of the inhabitants died, but Phuket was not one of them.

About 250 people were officially killed by the tsunami in Phuket, including foreign tourists. Of course, there were many more victims. Many received lacerated wounds in which mud and branches were packed. Residents suffered from a lack of water, medicines and timely medical care.

Approximately east of Phuket, 80 km, the consequences were much more serious: 3950 deaths were confirmed, and more than 4500 on Khao Lak. This is due to the fact that, unlike the highlands of Phuket, there are almost no hills in Khao Lak hide from the elements.

Why did so many fail to evacuate?

The fact is that a tsunami of this magnitude has not happened in Thailand in modern history. 30-meter waves that went ashore at speeds up to 1000 km / h merged with the horizon line and they simply could not be seen, since they were without a white crest.

People simply did not understand what happened, and during the impact of the wave, units managed to escape.

There were several wave impacts, and the ebb tide also caused huge damage, which dragged everything into the sea: concrete structures, reinforcement, cars and houses. All this, mixed up, created a mortal threat to the people who got into this mess.

The waves that did the most damage were slow, steep, and dense. This is because the sea around Thailand's west coast is relatively shallow, which has slowed the waves considerably.

The tsunami hit six provinces in Thailand. The final death toll was 5,395, of which 1,953 were considered foreigners. Another 2,929 people were listed as missing. It is estimated that around 2,000 people were killed in the fishing village of Ban Nam Khem. The village has lost half of its inhabitants.

Thailand was in the middle of the tourist season. There were hundreds of thousands of foreigners in the country. The hotels were filled with foreigners. In many places the sea receded a great distance before the biggest waves hit. When the water came out, many thought it had something to do with the moon.

Bill O'Leary, an employee at the Amanuri Resort, knew it was a sign of a tsunami. He is credited with saving dozens of lives by warning people to flee inland before the waves arrive. But others were killed because they had no idea what was going on.

Here is what the New York Times reported in those days: “Once crowded beach resorts are littered with bodies. Near the devastated beach and spa resort of Similan, where German tourists mostly stayed, a naked corpse is suspended from a tree, as if crucified.”

Many coral reefs were destroyed by the tsunami. Powerful waves hit hundreds of sea reefs. The wreckage of the tsunami littered natural areas. The green turtle was washed up almost a mile from shore and deposited in a pond north of Phuket. Some people in boats rescued survivors who had been thrown into the sea.

What happened after?

In Thailand, the whole country came to the aid of the victims by raking garbage, evacuating those who were left homeless and helping the wounded.

To clear large blockages, royal elephants were attracted, 6 of which were filmed in the Hollywood film "Alexander".
An interesting fact is that during the tsunami the elephant saved the life of a girl who rode it on the shore. The animal sensed danger and flew towards the mountains, which saved the life of a tourist.

There was no looting either.

Inhumans (they cannot be called otherwise), taking advantage of the general panic and confusion, stole children who were disoriented and could not find loved ones. Known facts of the sale of babies abroad and the recruitment of children into sexual slavery.

They plundered houses, hotels, hotels and what could be stolen taking advantage of the opportunity. Unfortunately, tragedy not only unites but also divides people. "Nobody's" property intoxicates the head.

The consequences of the tsunami in Thailand

The consequences of the tsunami were simply catastrophic not only for Indonesia, India, Myanmar and Malaysia, but also for Thailand.

Tourists threw things and flew away on the very first flight, trust in Thai resorts was completely undermined, and given that the tsunami happened at the height of the tourist season, in December, Thailand suffered billions in losses.

It took years to restore confidence and many actions to bring tourists back to the islands.

The first thing the authorities did was to install the most powerful deep-sea tsunami warning system. The siren begins to howl and announce the approach of waves 1-2 hours before the incident. It was already tested on April 11, 2012, when absolutely all the inhabitants of Phuket were evacuated to the mountains in just an hour.
Residents of smaller islands like Phi Phi don't have to worry either. And there everything is prepared for evacuation, since the mountains are of such a size that no waves are terrible.

Thousands of Thais dependent on tourism-related industries have lost their jobs not only in the south, but also in the poorest part of Thailand, Isan in the northeast, where many of the tourism industry workers come from.

By January 12, some of the affected resorts in the south had reopened and the Thai government launched a publicity campaign to bring tourists back to the area as soon as possible, although everyone knew it would be quite a while before Thailand was back to normal. (it took almost 5 years).

Damage and loss from the 2004 tsunami in Thailand

The fishing industry was hit by extensive destruction of fishing boats and gear that individual fishing families could not afford to replace, especially as many also lost their homes.
According to the information, more than 500 fishing boats and ten trawlers were destroyed, as well as many piers and fish processing plants. Again, grants or loans from the government were needed to allow the industry to retool itself.
Ridiculous losses

Another issue was the public aversion in Thailand to eating locally caught fish, out of fear that the fish were eating human corpses that had been thrown into the sea by the tsunami.
The Thais found this possibility offensive both for health reasons and for religious reasons.
Fishery distributors refused to buy fish and shellfish from Andaman Sea ports and preferred to buy from ports in the Gulf of Thailand or even Malaysia or Vietnam so they could reassure consumers that there was no possibility of such contamination.
As a result, even those fishing families who could fish could not sell their catch.
It got better after World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-wook went on Thai television to reveal that he eats fish every day.

About a month after the tsunami, Thailand's cabinet approved a $1.79 billion tsunami relief bill.

Most of the money was in the form of soft loans to rebuild the business. Part of the money was in the form of grants to people who lost relatives and property in the disaster.

Could there be another tsunami in Thailand?

Maybe. Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Malaysia closest to Thailand are shaking almost constantly.

Modern warning systems will prevent deaths and casualties, as people will be evacuated in time. But! If, in principle, the idea is not close to you in order to relax on the coast with high seismic activity, then you should choose resorts located in the Gulf of Thailand, for example: Pattaya, Rayong, Samet Island, Hua Hin, Cha Am or Koh Lan Island.
They are closed from the tsunami by the Malay Peninsula and Vietnam and Cambodia.
The maximum that can happen here is the exit of the Mekong or Chao Phraya rivers from the banks, which does not pose a mortal danger.

How to act during a natural disaster?

1 - Gather all the necessary things, documents, drinking water, keep children nearby

3 - do not go down until the cataclysm has completely passed, since the first wave is not always the strongest

12.12.2016

More than 10 years have passed since a terrible disaster happened - a tsunami in Thailand. What people had to endure on December 26, 2004 (it was on this day that this terrible event took place) cannot be expressed in words. Waves of monstrous height, rushing at great speed to the shores of Asia, swept away everything in their path: people, animals, houses, cars, trees and everything else. The element brought a lot of grief and victims: more than 300 thousand people died, of which 8,500 people were in Thailand.

World history and those people who managed to survive then keep in their memory the tragic events of that day. Let's remember how it was.

How did the global tragedy happen?

To the question about when there was a tsunami in Thailand, which brought a lot of trouble not only to local residents, but also to numerous vacationers in this country, the events of 2004 will immediately come to mind. It was the worst catastrophe in the modern history of the country.. A similar one was recorded on the territory of this state more than 700 years ago.

How did it all begin and what caused this global tragedy?

The usual morning of the December day did not portend any trouble. Everything was as usual. People were doing their usual things: someone else was sleeping, someone was already working, and someone decided to go to the coast. Meanwhile, at 00:58 UTC and 7:58 local in the Indian Ocean near the Indonesian island of Simeulue an earthquake of unprecedented magnitude. Its magnitude was 9.1-9.3 points! Tremors provoked the emergence of a series of incredibly high, powerful and fast waves, which a few hours later rushed ferociously to the shores of Asian countries (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Somalia), including Thailand.

It's scary to imagine, but the speed at which the waves rushed was about 1000 km / h . Approaching shallow water, they slowed down a little, as if gaining strength before delivering a cruel blow, and acquired simply monstrous dimensions - sometimes even up to 40 meters in height!

The photo shows that some eyewitnesses on the beach understood the approach of the disaster.

The earthquake in Thailand was practically not felt, so people did not even suspect that an angry element would soon fall on the coastal lands. No one knew that soon the west coast, where Phuket, Krabi province and the small islands adjacent to them, would soon face an unstoppable natural disaster. Since there were no phenomena of such monstrous proportions here before, the tsunami rescue system did not actually work.

About an hour later, after the fatal earthquake in the Indian Ocean, something inexplicable began to happen. The birds began to fly away from the shore, the animals also scattered in anxiety away from the sea. Even the sound of the surf is silent. When the water “left” and the seabed was exposed, even then people could not think that this was a harbinger of impending disaster.. Interested in beautiful shells and fish left on land, they began to go to the shallow bottom.

Even at the moment when a huge 15-meter wave rushed to the shore, no one saw it, since it did not have a characteristic white crest, which is why it simply merged with the horizon. Only when she came close to the coast did the panic begin. But, it was already too late, because no one could surpass the speed of the moving wall of water and have time to escape.

The wave easily swept away everything that stood in its way: people, animals, cars, houses, uprooted trees, pulled out metal fittings, tore off electrical wires under voltage, crushed concrete. And more misfortune was created not so much by water, but by what was in it.

Ocean waters affected hundreds of meters of land, and in some places - up to 2 kilometers.

The terrible consequences of the tsunami

What the raging water element did was terrible. The consequences of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand are incredibly tragic, but Thailand was much more fortunate due to the shallower Andaman Sea than, for example, the island of Sumatra. Those who were farther from the coast and were able to survive this nightmare saw a shocking picture when the water left.

Various huge objects were in the most unexpected places: giant trees in the houses, motor boats on the roofs, cars in the spacious lobby of the hotel ... There were no streets as such. Everything became like a dump of fragments of furniture, cars, bricks, trees. You can look at the video that then appeared to the eyes of people.

But, the worst thing is the many bodies of dead people and animals. According to official figures, 8,500 people died in Thailand as a result of the tsunami. 5400 are tourists from around the world, of which about half are children.

It is surprising that an earthquake of monstrous force literally pierced the planet through and through. The vibration energy was so powerful that some small islands near Sumatra moved to the southwest by about 20 meters, and the planet itself changed its rotation.

The government of the state, concerned about possible outbreaks of infections, urgently sent forces to search for the bodies in order to identify them and bury them.

What grief the tsunami in Thailand brought to Phuket in 2004 cannot be measured in words or numbers. It will forever remain in the memory of those who lost their loved ones.

Let's not talk about the fact that many survivors lost their shelter, clothing, food and any means of subsistence. Many countries of the world began to send humanitarian aid.

Today, Thailand has fully recovered from the tragedy. According to special requirements, new housing was built on the coast, additional measures were introduced to prevent devastating consequences, if suddenly the population had to survive the tsunami. And only the memory of people keeps the events of that day - December 26, 2004.

How high is the risk of a tsunami

In Thailand, tsunamis are rare events. In order for a monstrous force and wave height to form, several conditions must simultaneously coincide:

the epicenter of the earthquake is located close to the bottom surface;
the magnitude of the earthquake is more than 7 points;
the shock from the earthquake entered into resonance with the vibrations of the water;
perceptible vertical displacement relative to each other of the bottom parts.

Often, tsunamis are not even felt by people, but are simply recorded by special devices.

rescue system

In 2004, in Thailand and neighboring countries that were attacked by killer waves, the danger alert system was not properly debugged. But, after those events, increased attention was paid to this issue.

Today, the rescue system in Thailand consists of two parts. This is a warning of impending danger and the evacuation of the population and tourists. In 2012, the system was tested in Phuket. The alert went off, most of the people went up to the high ground. At least no one wandered along the shore.

What to do in the event of a tsunami

Of course, it is better not to get into such situations at all, but the element is the element and you need to be on the alert. While in Thailand and having heard a warning about a possible tsunami, you should do the following:

Don't panic by any means. The state has a well-established tsunami early warning system. And the probability that a repetition of the 2004 scenario is possible is negligible.
If it is suddenly noticed that the sea has “receded”, and there was no warning of danger, leave the coastal zones immediately, following the signs.
It is necessary to go as far as possible from the sea and climb higher ground - for example, on the roofs of multi-storey buildings.
It should be remembered that there are always several waves, and do not go down ahead of time. Sometimes the break between waves can be more than an hour.
Even if everything has calmed down, you should not approach the coastal zones for as long as possible.

The 2004 tsunami once again proved to mankind that, despite its inflated sense of superiority and scientific and technological progress, it can be completely defenseless against the majesty of the elements. Perhaps more attention should be paid to the safety and protection of humans from various natural hazards. than to develop another "important", absolutely useless invention?

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