Traveling by Grace: Phuket, Earthquake and Tsunami Sirens

Wow, what a week. And it went by so fast! We arrived in Phuket the night before Easter. Easter morning we met out at the beach at 7:30, had a little service, and enjoyed some beach time(well, most of us did, if you read my previous post you'll know Bee hated the beach after this day). We listened to David remind us of the beauty of the ocean, the waves crashing, and quesadillas (he meant cicadas) =)
Monday morning we attempted the ocean again, and again Bee and I were knocked down.
Tuesday morning was our last try at the ocean. After having waves so high they were splashing us in the water, I decided we were now done with all things beach and ocean.
The rest of the week Bee and I went back and forth between our room, the pool, and the minimart (for ice cream treats).
Laying watching cartoons on Wednesday afternoon the bed starts shaking, water in the glasses are splashing, and the empty pool outside my window is as choppy as the lake on a windy day. After about 30 seconds I realized I wasn't crazy and this was an earthquake.
I quickly called my uncle next door and asked if earthquakes are common here, he said they do have them on occasion and he would check into it. Ten minutes later he let's me know to pack up quickly because we are heading to the top floor. By the time we were heading up there was a mass exit of people fron the beach following the Tsunami evacuation signs and the sirens were going off.
A little before 4 pm an 8.7 earthquake hit just off Indonesia. At 5:45 an aftershock of 8.1 shook us again. And yes, I was praying the whole time. Seeing frantic faces, sirens going off, and people standing on tops of buildings looking out at the water will get your heart pumping pretty quick. A few hours after the last aftershock, the danger had passed. We were very thankful that the earthquake had been a horizontal earthquake which doesn't displace the water like a vertical earthquake does.
And people remembered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which was a 9.0 magnitude also off the coast of Indonesia. That tsunami killed 283,000 people. So we were not taking any chances when we ran to the top floor of the hotel.
We arrived back late last night and are thankful for a great and safe week in Phuket, Thailand.
This means we now have 1 week and 3 days before we fly back to the states!