Daughter warned dad of tsunami

2004-12-31 14:40

Phuket - A fisherman and his son survived Sunday's tsunami by heeding a pre-earthquake warning from his daughter, an employee of the country's Meteorological Department.

Prayoon Damrongsiri of the southern province of Phang Nga said his daughter called him at 05:30 and told him not to go out that day because a seismic monitoring station had detected a series of unusual seabed movements, the Nation newspaper reported on Friday.

The fisherman said his son insisted that they go out, so the daughter then advised him to head far out to sea if he felt irregular movements while fishing.

About 10:00, Prayoon noticed an unusual clearing of the water that allowed him to see the coral on the seabed, which had never happened before.

He felt waves under his boat and the sea level rising higher and higher.

He said: "That reminded me of my daughter's warning, so I headed out to sea and waited until the waves had gone."

'No equipment to detect tsunamis'

He said five other fishing boats of his neighbours rushed to shore to beat the waves, and he has seen no sign of them since.

The coastal areas of the Takua Pa district of Phang Nga province were completely devastated by the massive waves.

The province has recorded more than 4 000 deaths, with the toll expected to rise substantially.

Prayoon said he should not have been the only one to get some advance warning of danger.

He said: "I don't understand why the director-general of the Meteorological Department denied responsibility by saying the department had no equipment to detect tsunamis."

The warning from his daughter came about two hours before the earthquake struck off the western coast of Sumatra.

The killer waves hit Thailand's coast about two hours after the quake.

- SAPA