Tsunami Woo-Woo

Since the mighty tsunami of December 26, 2004, woo-woo stories have circulated around the world in the international press and on the Internet—often scaring away the tourists.

Ghost stories abound in a disaster that took over 170,000 lives. The most famous story is the taxi driver who picked up a foreigner, his Thai girlfriend, and their luggage. Upon reaching the Phuket Airport, the driver freaked. His passengers and their luggage had completely vanished—and didn’t pay, to boot.

Thai locals tell stories of hearing laughter at beaches when no one can be seen. A security guard quit his hotel job after hearing a foreign woman's screams of “help me” echo all night long from around the debris piles. Another family is terrified by phantom phone calls where friends and relatives cry out to be rescued from the flames of the crematorium.

Stories like these have made for a jumpy bunch, especially among the superstitious. A Thai psychologist called these paranormal experiences "a type of mass hallucination" caused by the trauma of "missing so many dead people, seeing so many dead people, and only talking about dead people."

Someone familiar with ghosts sees it differently. “The foreigners didn't know what happened and they all think they are still on the beach, still on holiday." This explanation flies with people who are into soul rescue.

Among the problems locals face are widespread fears about the troubled spirits of dead tourists. Chinese monks performed exorcism rites and offered food sacrifices to appeal to a foreigner’s palate, namely pizza! Paper clothes and money were burned with incense to help the troubled spirits, who were urged to return home. (Thai custom dictates that relatives bless the souls of the dead to facilitate a safe passage onward.)

Meanwhile, thousands of locals rushed to mystics and psychics, something strictly forbidden by Muslim culture. Desperate to discover the fate of missing relatives, people broke with tradition and braved religious retribution to seek answers of the fate of loved ones. During the first few days after the disaster, psychics claimed to pinpoint the location of the missing person. After several weeks, this was reduced to a yes or no about survival.

The Internet is crawling with pundits speculating about the disaster. That includes many stories where shadowy religious leaders claim that the killer wave was a wrathful smack from Allah’s hand. One account even has a photo alleging to prove that Allah signed the tsunami with his signature in Arabic in the water. A Christian minister calls the tsunami God’s retribution for pleasure seekers breaking the Sabbath!

But there are positive spins, too, not so much on why it happened but in how people are recovering. Some people who lost everything are digging in with indomitable spirit, as if pursuing a great life review. Other pundits are reflecting on Tsunami Miracles and asking big-picture questions.

Stories of dreams, premonitions, and miracles also abound in the world media. An Israeli couple living in India built their beachside home, which they named Eternity, on 16-foot stilts because the wife had dreamt repeatedly of floods. It was the only house of its kind on the coast—and the only house that survived.

There are stories of miraculous survival, such as a man who floated for a week in the Indian Ocean on a raft of debris. He survived on rainwater and floating coconuts. Another man is reported to have slept through the tsunami only to wake up at sea floating on his mattress!

Then there was this miraculous fashion statement. "I was saved by a new Missoni orange Italian design swimsuit I had got especially for the trip. I was knocked unconscious as the wave picked me up and carried me off the beach but the strap snagged in the branches of a tree and when I came to I was hanging in this tree above the water."

Yet when it’s time to go, changing plans won’t help. A San Francisco man called off his plans to spend the Christmas holiday in Sri Lanka. Though the scuba diving enthusiast missed the deadly tsunami, he went off-trail snowboarding in the Austrian Alps instead and was killed in an avalanche.

By the same token, if you’re meant to stay, you stay. It took twenty-five days for someone to discover the lone survivor of a flattened island in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

Much has been made about the woo-woo of mosques and ancient shrines left standing. Although engineers believe that the “religious” buildings have better architectural resistance to tsunamis compared to conventional buildings, religious spokespeople claim divine protection.

The tsunami may have uncovered remains of an ancient port city off the coast in southern India near a famous beachfront temple. Archaeologists say that the six-feet-tall stone remains date back to 7th Century AD and have elaborate engravings of the kind that are found in the nearby Mahabalipuram temple.

Amid all the bad fortune and loss, some people took advantage of shifting fortunes from the sea. When a bank was swept away by the tidal wave, the action redistributed the wealth. Some people figured it would be okay with Allah to take the money they found scatterd everywhere; some didn’t because their religion forbids it.

Especially woo-wooey are accounts of animals who seemed to know that for them, December 26 was not a good day to die. They not only saved their hides but they saved a dozen tourists as well through precognition via elephant sensory perception. Then during rescue operations, elephants not only helped greatly in moving debris, but they located bodies buried under piles of debris. "What is unbelievable is that you could see tears welling up in the elephant's eyes," said one observer. "And every time they would find a body."

Curious to see what a tsunami can do? Here are some awesome before and after satellite photographs of Banda Aceh Shore, Indonesia. Note that there are multiple views reached by pressing “next” button as well as the before and after shots.

If you’re hungry for more stories of survival, check out this collection.