Today I wanted to follow up on an excellent post by my colleague, Bryan Katz, which brought back a flood of memories from a powerful experience I had a few years ago. In 2004 I was rock climbing with a buddy on the coast of Thailand in the Krabi Province in southern Thailand, in the pathway of the Sumatra Tsunami that is estimated to have killed well over 200,000 people. I was right on the coast and watched the waves come ashore, without any alerts or notifications or information. As a result, know first hand the importance of such systems when they can be employed to save lives.

Here is what I wrote about this confusion in a letter to concerned family and friends (I am including most of that letter below to share my experience, you can also check out pictures I took here.)

During this time I was quite confused, this event was so out of the realm of expectations that I was unsure how to proceed. Also there was no way I could find out what exactly had happened and all sorts of rumors where rippling through the group of foreigners trapped in the same locations as me. There was talk of more waves on the way and bigger ones, a theme of talk around the beach for the next day or so.

In Bryan's blog post, "Watson, Come Here!" outlines how these systems can work. My hope is that these high-tech systems can be deployed globally and save lives as best as possible.

To let lots of people know immediately that something's happening (e.g, a large wave is heading in to shore), you'd like a system that can quickly contact everyone who might be affected...When you need a specialist to work an issue right away, there are several factors in deciding who to call. If an emergency happened in a remote place, perhaps the right thing to do is to find someone who can get there quickly instead of finding the smartest expert.

The solution?
(A automated notification system) leads to a sophisticated layer of automation. In techno-nerdy terms, I'd like a single connected session for my incident - one that brought together whatever information was available with communications among the folks working on the incident and allowed an unambiguous response if needed.

My tsunami experience
We went to a province called Krabi, on the coast, where there are tons of huge rock-faces bordering the beach. These walls look out on (normally) placid tropical blue waters, which combined with the lush green forest and white beaches, make for an idyllic spot. There are no roads to the small beach where I stayed, the only way to get there is to take these small long tailed boats that are basically larger canoes with engines. We arrived on the coast and spent about 2 weeks leading up to Christmas climbing everyday. The routes are tough and steep but the life was great, wake up climb until tired then go eat some food, swim and relax until it cooled down and then another climbing session. Christmas came and it felt far from the familial traditions I cherish back home.

On Boxing Day we woke up and headed out to climb, choosing between some beachfront climbing and two routes a few meters up a path from the beach, luckily deciding on the latter. After we had climbing one route a piece we were sitting around catching our breath before another climb when I heard a massive roar, akin to a jet. Turing around I saw three walls of white water bearing down on the point where we were standing. It took a few seconds to register what exactly these walls were, and hours to really understanding their international scope. These waves moved steadily and powerfully across the see. The sailboats anchored in the cove got rocked around like a jubilant child's toys in a bath, some rotating over 90 degrees and one ending up smashed on the rocks. The waves came in but broke no long after I saw them, probably 200 meters out from the beach. Then a secondary wave/surge came towards the beach, it was unlike any other waves I have ever seen in that it was more a wall of water. I have heard it described as a large tidal surge more than a wave and that seems to fit.

The wavers came in a hit the rock faces with a deep crash that resonated on a guttural level. After one hit the next broke and I remember being transfixed in fascination at the sight. There were people on the ground below and one-woman rode the waves in after here kayak was pulverized or flipped in the wave. It seemed quite surreal and beautiful at the same time, before learning of the devastation throughout the region. Nature at its extremes, such as a tsunami or avalanche, is terrifyingly beautiful and this proved true. After the initial three waves came in a lull of a few minutes took place and people started to deal with the aftermath. During this time the water in the cove was acting very weird, draining out and then filling back in every couple of minutes. There were several people with bad scrapes and cuts from where the wave drove them into the sharp rocks. In addition there was one woman who had been on a sailboat that was hurting pretty bad.

After a few minutes more waves came, form a slightly different direction and a bit smaller but powerful nonetheless. In fact one of these waves broke around a point and then tubed up and broke for several hundred meters. It was probably the most beautiful single wave I have ever seen. These waves were a bit smaller but they still washed several meters high over the beach. One woman who had been kayak (by far the most dangerous activity in my area when the waves came) rode the waves in through the turbulent waters and managed to get in safely. These smaller waves probably came in for about an hour, but time is quite fuzzy during the whole thing (exasperated by the complete lack of care for time during my entire vacation). During this time I was quite confused, this event was so out of the realm of expectations that I was unsure how to proceed. Also there was no way I could find out what exactly had happened and all sorts of rumors where rippling through the group of foreigners trapped in the same locations as me. There was talk of more waves on the way and bigger ones, a theme of talk around the beach for the next day or so.

Once it seemed stable my friend and I ran across the several hundred meters of beach, feeling quite vulnerable, to our cabins. We packed backpacks in a few minutes with the expectation of leaving the location forever, putting ourselves on fifteen second notice ready to go overland from ton sai at a moments notice. Luckily this never became necessary. With our bags we went up the hill behind ton sai and sat in a restaurant and watch coverage of the waves on BCC. At this time and for several days after the scope fo the disaster was not understood by anyone in the media but the coverage made me understand the global nature of my experience. I was lucky enough to call my home, waking mom up at 4:30 but saving immeasurable worry and grief, for a quick one-minute conversation to warn about the news and to let them know I was okay. After an hour of the coverage I started wandering around the beach and other areas destroyed by the waves. In terms of helping out I did a bit of first aid and cleaning up but not as much as I wish I had I done in hindsight.

On the beach the destruction was uneven, at some places total and others relatively unscathed, with the places escaping serious damage primarily protected by concrete patios. The waves had flipped boats and separated them from their engines, effectively eliminating the transportation network. They had smashed buildings, destroyed walls made of wood and concrete, leaving roofs as the only reminder of the previous structure. The waves had washed up massive, multi ton rocks, into the area with the bars and restaurants. The entire beach was now covered with little rocks and debris. On other near by beaches sailboats where flipped and buried deep in the mud, one large boat was a hundred meters from the shoreline, smashed against a rock face and upside down. The images from this time are unlike any I had ever seen in my life. My heart went out to the Thais who had lost so much effort and work and now had to begin rebuilding without any insurance or support. I also felt very guilty because in a few days I would be leaving on a jet plane for my life back in the States, where my house was still standing and my life intact.