My sleep patterns have been off recently. I put it down to Jeff not being here right now. I miss him. I miss having someone to curl up to going asleep. It was 11:45pm and I still coudn't sleep when a call came from Pa (number 1 daughter). Surprised at the lateness of the call I answered wondering what could be up. "Had I heard there'd been an 7.2 earthquake in Sumatra?" Pa asked. No, I hadn't. And the Thai Government had given a tsunami warning.
Pulling on my clothes I headed downstairs to talk with the security guard and Ot. I knew Ot would still be up and sufing the internet. It took me a couple of moments to explain in my little bits of Thai that we were going to have to wake Wassana and start a tsunami watch.
Heading back up stairs to get my backpack, which holds my life, Ot headed off to wake Wassana and get his bag.
Neither Ot nor Wassana are comfortable speaking the little English they know. As the News was in Thai, it was going to be an interesting translation night.
Japan had warned Thailand to expect a tsunami. A 50 - 50 chance. Looking at the USGS earthquake page, talking to Jeff in the US and seeing the earthquake was on the West side, not where the December earthqake had been, I figured the chances were pretty slim of a large tsunami. There would be small tsunami waves, but nothing damaging or serious. In any case our little hotel is 2 roads back from the beach. The December tsunami had washed over the lower floor, up to a couple of inches, but nothing damaging.
That didn't matter, Ot, Wassana and the Security Guard were believing the news and looked worried. Attempting to explain the logistics of what is necessary for a tsunami, they finally got it that it was really not likely this time.
Many people in Patong were heading for the hills. The Tsunami warning system had been set off, and there some sort official car announcing something in Thai drove along our road. I hope they said something in English for the non-Thai speaking Farang. But it probably didn't matter, the sound quality was so bad it was difficult to make out whether it was Thai or English in the first place.
My friends and colleagues at North Andaman Tsunami Relief kept me up to date with any new information they got. Most of the coastla villages in and around Kuraburi, Phang Nga province, had evacuated.
Thai news warned us that it would be 2 hours before the danger was over. By 2:00am I was bored and tired. Finally we got the all clear, no tsunami this time. Everyone headed off to bed.
I guess I shouldn't sigh about a good tsunami warning and exercise, but this is the fourth since March, and the edge is gone off the initial adrenalin rush of the past.
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