Akiko Iwasaki thought she was safe.
The hotel she owned was designed
to double as a tsunami
evacuation spot.
But when a 14.5 m (48 ft)
monster wave hit Japan
on March 11, 2011,
the lower levels of the building
were completely destroyed.
Iwasaki tried to run for higher ground,
but her efforts were futile.
She wasn't ready to give up,
but would her survival instincts
be enough to win a fight
against the rushing waters?
Tsunamis are powerful enough
to move enormous buildings,
uproot trees
and submerge entire
towns within seconds.
You can only imagine
what they can do to a person.
We’re about to tell you the stories
of three extraordinary people
whose incredible strength
and resilience
helped them survive these
unstoppable forces of nature.
In 2018 a devastating tsunami
hit Indonesia.
Muhlis Ipul lived in Petobo,
one of the regions affected
by the disaster.
He was home with his wife
and two daughters
when the ground started to shake.
They ran outside
and saw the asphalt breaking up.
Ipul became trapped as the road
crumbled underneath him,
causing him to lose hold
of one of his daughters.
The combination of raging water
and dirt
being pulled upward
created muddy, fast-moving quicksand.
He lay pinned in the darkness
until the flowing mud
knocked him loose.
Ipul managed to grab a cable
and use it as a safety line.
Finally, he was tossed
onto a higher spot
where he stayed and tried
to look for signs
of his wife and daughters,
but
they were never found.
Christine Lang was shopping in a store
on the island of Ko Phi Phi, Thailand,
when the 2004
Indonesian earthquake occurred.
Suddenly, people started to run inland
but Lang didn’t understand why.
Then she saw the massive
black wall of water
coming toward her.
She became tangled underwater
among the debris,
but another wave
pushed her out of the trap.
She was blasted toward the surface
after keeping her limbs close
to her body to avoid being hurt
by the objects hitting her.
Lang blacked out
and came to about
50 m (164 ft) underwater.
Through the darkness,
she saw a ring of light
and swam in that direction.
When she reached the surface,
she was pulled onto the roof
of a house.
After the water levels dropped,
she made her way
to a nearby hotel
where other survivors
were already gathering.
Let's take a moment to see
what we've learned from these
unbelievable stories.
Running inland,
just like Christine Lang
saw people do,
can keep you safe.
You should still try to be
at least 3.2 km (2 mi)
from the water's edge.
Get to higher ground
by any means necessary.
For that,
you can get a grasp of any object
that is stable enough to pull you up.
If you are caught up in a wave,
wrap your arms around yourself,
fold your knees in
and cover your face.
There's no swimming through
waves like this,
and it will protect your vital organs
from debris that is guaranteed
to hit you.
Now, back to Iwasaki’s story.
After her hotel was flooded,
Iwasaki’s daughter saw her
disappear into the water.
She watched in horror
as her mother was sucked
into a whirlpool
fill with everything
the wave had bulldozed,
including cars
and debris from surrounding buildings.
When she did see the surface,
a boat was blocking her way.
With the last of her strength,
she pushed it aside
and was able to gasp for air.
Iwasaki emerged on a hillside
about 15 m (49 ft) away
from where the water
first swallowed her.
She lost friends and co-workers
but was eventually reunited
with her daughter.
Hopefully, these stories have shown you
that no matter how bad things
might be during a natural disaster,
there's always a way
to make it out alive.
Including hurricanes,
one of the most destructive forces
of nature.
Think you can get through one?
We have just the video for that
here,
on How to Survive.