One Brave Mom

[Pirate1974]

This amazing series of photos shows the first of six tsunamis that hit Hat Rai Lay Beach near Krabi in southern Thailand. The first wave was estimated to be at least 20 feet high.

As tourists first see the wave and start running for their lives, one person (far right) runs into the water, 37-year old Karin Svaerd, a policewoman from Sweden. She's going out to warn her children who are playing in the water and haven't noticed the wave yet. People who pass her, shout at her to get off the beach, but she keeps going.

Some people seem to be oblivious to the danger as the wave gets closer and Karin runs right into it to try to reach her children.

Just before Karin reaches her children (from left, Filip, 11, Anton, 14, and Viktor, 10) they, and other family members with them, see the wave coming and start to run. Seconds after this picture, the wave catches them all.

Karin Svaerd survives by hanging on to a palm tree, but she has no idea what happened to the rest of her family.

Amazingly, the wave swept them all to higher ground, where Karin's children, her husband Lars and her brother Per, were all unharmed.

"I had to try to save my children. Nothing was going to stop me," she said later, "Terror was coming up inside me but I was so focused I just started running to my family. I could see this white wall coming toward me - I did not care. I was looking at my children. I wanted to hold them and protect them."

Pretty incredible.

[oldiesman]

Wow. :)-->

[Shellon]

:)-->

[dmiller]

Wow is right.

[Frankee]

Wow is right! Thank God they all made it!

Is it safe to assume, or should I say presume, that this first tidal wave was of lesser size? The article mentioned that it was a twenty foot high wall of water, and not to belittle it's mammoth height, but I do know that there are thirty footers that crash on the beach at Wiamaeah(sp?)Bay on the North Shore of Oahu. Were other of these waves more devastating then the one in this pic? Or did this one wreak as much havoc as the others we've seen and read about, and these people received an out an out miracle?

[Pirate1974]

I always thought that a tidal wave or a tsunami was a giant wave that breaks on the beach like a normal wave, only bigger. Apparently, its not always like that.

The waves that hit Sumatra were up to thirty feet high but some of the ones that hit Thailand were 12 feet or less, but still did tremendous damage. Its not the height, but the tremendous volume of water and how far inland it comes, like a hurricane storm surge.

Here's some pictures taken from a hotel in Phuket, Thailand

Unbelievable.