And remember that it’s important to not stop running, because the likelihood is the wave, when it starts in, will outrun you, even with a head start. If there’s a tall building with an elevator available, heading to a higher floor could be the best bet. Just a couple years ago I saw one of those alleged eyewitness vids of the Boxing Day tsunami, and it wasn’t the big grand sweep, it showed the rising water pnning people against railings and each other as they tried to climb the stairs, and was taken from a vantage point perhaps ten or fifteen feet above the stricken. Didn’t enjoy watching that very much.
The line between life and death in Puket was often just one story. People on the second story of Puket hotels took pictures of people trapped in the wave being swept away. We were in Chiang Mai on Boxing Day and watched horrified as the pictures came in over Thai TV.