Pacific Tsunami

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Big turn-out in NZ to watch apocalyptic tsunami

by Paul Colgan

30 Sep 03:02pm

Filed under: Pacific Tsunami, Samoa, Tsunami

4 comments

There’s a tsunami warning. What do you do? In New Zealand, people go to the beach.

Heiko Wiedemann holds his son Maxim next to his wife Stefanie

Okay so the family above are Germans. But others in the photos below are locals, pictured this morning at the North Shore beach of Takapuna in New Zealand. The shots were taken as a tragedy was unfolding in Samoa, where the tsunami generated by an earthquake crashed ashore, flattening whole villages and killing dozens of people, including a 50-year-old Tasmanian woman.

It has been almost five years since the Boxing Day tsunami that killed some 230,000 people across 11 countries. Since then tsunami warning systems have become much more sophisticated and are reported with urgency. As I write another warning has just been issued for Samoa, where you can bet people will be seeking high ground with some alacrity given what has already happened.

Continue reading "Big turn-out in NZ to watch apocalyptic tsunami" »

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Russell says:

11:56pm | 01/10/09

I remember one day in Timaru (South Island) when everyone at my school went an sat the whole day up on the cliffs near the coast waiting for a tidal wave from Chile. All normal classes were suspended so we could watch the impending tragedy – the complete destruction of… Read more »
comeonreally says:

08:36pm | 01/10/09

ummm this is idiotic, not the behaviour of the people but this actual article. Locals were warned that the “wall of water” as you called it would be 40 cm high… and at most 1 mt. This was the state of matters from the first warning, people went down to… Read more »

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