70: Aaron survived a tsunami

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2021

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

December 26, 2004. That was the day a huge earthquake happened. In fact, it’s the third-largest earthquake ever recorded, and it had the longest duration of faulting that has ever been observed – between eight and ten minutes. But there was something different about this earthquake. It happened underwater. It took place in the Indian Ocean. The epicenter was off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The result of this enormous earthquake happening under the ocean was that it created massive waves of water, up to 100 feet, or about 30 meters, high. These waves arrived without warning. More than 227,000 people woke up that morning and went through their normal routine, not realizing it was their last day to be alive. I remember when it happened. It was a Sunday, the day after Christmas. Of course it was the leading news story all over the world. I heard how the story unfolded, how the underwater earthquake happened, and the unbelievable numbers as the death toll kept rising. It was an incredible tragedy. But I was in the US, and that horrific scene was on the other side of the world. It didn’t seem real. But for my guest today, Aaron, that scene was very real. He was there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a Glass Fox Media Podcast.
0:15.0	December 26, 2004. That was the day a huge earthquake happened.
0:21.0	In fact, it's the third largest earthquake ever recorded, and it had the longest
0:26.5	duration of faulting that has ever been observed between 8 and 10 minutes.
0:31.9	But there was something different about this earthquake.
0:36.4	It happened underwater. It took place in the Indian Ocean.
0:42.1	The epicenter was off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia.
0:47.0	The result of this enormous earthquake happening under the ocean was that it created massive waves of
0:55.4	water up to a hundred feet or about 30 meters high. These waves arrived without warning.
1:04.0	More than 227,000 people woke up that morning and went through their normal routine,
1:12.0	not realizing it was their last day to be alive.
1:17.0	Good evening. More than 11,000 people are now thought to have been killed in southern Asia after an undersea earthquake sent enormous waves rolling across the Indian Ocean.
1:28.0	The quake measured 8.9 on the ricketer scale, the biggest in the world for 40 years.
1:34.4	Waves up to 10 meters high in gulf the coasts of many countries.
1:38.8	The Quakes epicenter was off the island of Sumatra in northwestern Indonesia where more than 4,000 people
1:45.5	are thought to have died.
1:47.3	In Sri Lanka, officials say more than 3,000 people have been killed and more than a million
1:52.4	affected. In southern India
1:54.6	3,000 people mostly fishermen are reported dead. At least 300 have been
2:00.0	killed in southern Thailand including some tourists and hundreds of people are missing.
2:06.3	And waves swamped the low-lying Maldive islands, leaving the capital Marley 2-thirds underwater. Gareth Fervey reports.
2:14.0	For many tourists in southern Thailand this was a paradise.
	...

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