A tsunami striking the U.S. mainland might seem far-fetched, but scientists say preparation is crucial because it will happen — it’s just a matter of when.
An ocean wave pulls away from the shore and then, as expected, it moves toward land again. But it keeps moving farther and farther inland. The water pushes over unsuspecting beachgoers, backyards and entire cities with startling speed. It leaves a wake of destruction in Indonesia that includes an estimated 230,000 deaths.Several years later, a similar scene unfolds in Japan when ocean water flows onto land to submerge cars, homes and even a nuclear power plant that never again will return to functionality. That time, the flood waters claim approximately 16,000 lives.The mind-boggling force of a tsunami is a horrifying spectacle, as the world witnessed in 2004 and 2011. Those disasters ingrained heart-wrenching images of water-borne tragedy into people’s minds around the world. For many Americans, though, such images depict a rare occurrence in far-off countries and not a phenomenon in the continental United States. But the reality is that a tsunami could happen here, and it would be equally devastating.
