Legacy Matters

More Tsunami stories

"She looked like a simple housewife when she checked in," recalled Ravi Singh, the hotel manager in Port Blair. "But now I marvel at the courage she has shown."

For 17 years, Theresa Prasad, the 46 year old mother of two, petitioned Indian authorities to allow her to go to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to set up a ham radio station.  Because the islands are considered a very sensitive area, no ham radio operator had been allowed since 1987 when Prasad was last there.  Arriving at Port Blair a month ago, she set up a station in her hotel room.  With the tsunamis, Prasad became a lifeline to the outside world. and the hub for relief comunications for officials on the islands.  Washington Post story, Wave of Destruction, Wave of Salvation

A ten year British girl who paid attention in her geography class is credited with saving the lives of hundreds. saved the lives of hundreds of people in southern Asia by warning them a wall of water was about to strike, after learning about tsunamis in geography class, British media reported.

Tilly, who has been renamed the "angel of the beach" by the top-selling tabloid The Sun, was holidaying with her family on the Thai island of Phuket when she suddenly grasped what was taking place and alerted her mother.

"Last term Mr Kearney taught us about earthquakes and how they can cause tsunamis.  I was on the beach and the water started to go funny. There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden."

Her intuition was enough to raise the alert and prompt the evacuation of Phuket's Maikhao beach and a neighbouring hotel before the water came crashing in, saving hundreds of people from death and injury.According to The Sun, no one on Maikhao beach was seriously hurt by the tsunamis that have left more than 125,000 dead and millions homeless around the shores of the Indian Ocean.