I almost lost my brother on Dec. 26, 2004 when a 9.3 earthquake hit near Sumatra, Indonesia. That quake and resulting Tsunami killed over 230,000 people. My brother was one of the lucky ones.
Tom was living in Patong Beach, Thailand on the island of Phuket (Foo-ket). It was just before 9:00AM, he and his wife were eating breakfast.
They had plans that morning, Tom was going to walk with Chom (rhymes with home) to her hair salon, then he was going to shop for groceries. The grocery was underground, literally a basement.
For some reason, one bowl of Cheerios wasn't enough for Tom that morning. He decided to have another bowl. When they left the house to walk into town, locals were running up their hill screaming BIG WAVE!! BIG WAVE!! My brother and sister-in-law joined the group and ran to higher ground.
Everyone in the grocery store died. The water poured in and trapped them. I didn't hear this story until I went to visit my brother in 2006. I knew he had lost a friend, but I had not known how close he came to dying that day. The way he tells it, a bowl of Cheerios saved his life. Thank you, Cheerios.
* This post was written out of worry for those living in Japan. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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