Canadian Pair's Final Photos Show Tsunami

AP ^ | 2/23/5

[DC native]

LOL. You win. I'm a goner for sure.

[John Valentine]

The thing I noted is that the first photo seems to have been taken from an elevation of maybe 25 feet above beach level, but that the later ones are right on the beach.

It seems as if this couple went down to the beach to get a better look.

[maine-iac7]

Maine or Nova Scotia

wonder how Nova Scotia would know...

They have the highest tides on earth... 15 feet and 14 billion tons of water come in on them twice a day

[maine-iac7]

@100 years ago

[maine-iac7]

wonder how Nova Scotia would know... They have the highest tides on earth... 15 feet and 14 billion tons of water come in on them twice a day

sorry - typo

55 feet

[Beowulf9]

Wow squared!

Anyone who has ever been to the beach should have noticed the tide comes in and then it goes out. When it goes out farther it always comes back a bigger wave. So....if it goes waaaaaaaay out then it is going to come waaaaaaay back in an even bigger wave. NO?

Then again I now live in the desert of Phoenix where the tide has been out for millions of years. Still waiting for the beach to *evolve here.

[Daaave]

I remember people talking, when I was a rug rat in Hawaii, about a tidal wave. It hit the Big Island. Just recently, my father mentioned that his ship went to the Big Island, to help out. I hadn't heard that before. He said he saw a VW in a tree. This was in May 1960, Hilo, Hawaii.

"Some 61 people were killed, and 282 were injured."

[U S Army EOD]

Not if my wife had the camera.

[U S Army EOD]

I would suspect that, your husband while looking down on you, is very glad that you are alive.

[Yaelle]

#6 is the very first picture to truly show what the wave looked like to the people on the beach as it approached. How terrifying. It's like a nightmare. The jig is UP.

How horrible for those people, who must have thought the water wall was something ordinary and didn't move from their spot.

[Yaelle]

I agree. The 2nd photo was taken from somewhere up high; the hotel, maybe? How very sad that they then chose to go down to the beach.

[JSteff]

I actually think she credited the Discovery Channel or TLC or something she had seen on one of those type channels.

Maybe they saw it in school but I think it was one of those.

What does the PBS stations always say at the yearly beg-a-thon... (in spite of the $1B the gov gives them out of our taxes)... "If PBS doesn't show it who would?"

Or something like that.. but that is another rant all together.

[U S Army EOD]

I was fixing to correct you. I saw some high tides on my sailboat while in England. At high tide, I could step off on to the dock, at low tide, my keel of six feet would be on the bottom and it would be twenty feet up to the dock.

[Goodgirlinred]

Yes, but when I talk to him, if I can't have him here, I wish I were with him. It is very lonely without him.

[U S Army EOD]

I am sure there is still enough love left in your heart for someone else some other time. I have two movies for you to watch, "A Guy Named Joe" and "Always". If you can get them both, watch them one after another. Life goes on.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

I know if *I* didn't know what the tides were supposed to be like in an area, I might not figure it out until it's too late either. I suspect most of us would have the same problem.

So lemme get this straight....if the ocean just all of a sudden just began to recede and the beach shore was sucked dry....you arent going to get the idea to...oh I dunno.......run?

[Spktyr]

I would, if I happened to be on the beach at the time the water started leaving at a high rate of speed... However, the tsunami came in at a little before 0800 local; most people weren't awake to see the water recede.

So, you wake up in a hotel room at 0745, see the nice HUGE beach that you've never seen before in your life, and decide to go for a swim before breakfast. How, exactly, is a tourist supposed to know what a beach is supposed to look like when they've never been there before?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

BM

[SmithL]

I'm sorry.

[l00rk3r]

However, since most people can't run that fast for that far (IIRC, the "civilian reasonably fit" standard is about 8-9 minutes for a mile), you're probably only going to be about a mile inland or so, and the wave will engulf you within a couple of minutes, even if you keep running.

Unless either:

1) You grab your car keys and jump in your car [and don't get caught in traffic], or

2) You use your allocation of nine minutes to run to higher ground [such as the top floor of your hotel].