Tsunami Stories

A year has passed since the great south-Asian Christmas tsunami, and the New York Times Magazine has published stories from some of the survivors in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, one of the hardest-hit places (since 9/11, the New York Times has made almost a specialty of the tales of disaster survivors).

Scary stuff! What do you do when your world is abruptly destroyed by titanic waves? Who lives, and who dies? I was impressed with the guy who, when he heard a big wave was coming, thought he was OK because his house was on 6-ft-tall stilts. He had no idea!