An acquaintance of mine in Juneau was in Kodiak Island during the 1964 Alaska earthquake with its subsequent tsunami. She said the wave came in six different times. She said the people had retreated to the hills above the shore and were able to see it all.

I read once that the reason you can't outrun a tsnunami is that the wave can be traveling 150 milers per hour. Even then, with a proper system in place there can be quite a bit of warning.

Years ago I lived on the Oregon coast. Whenever there was a seismic event that could have caused a tsunami the police traveled slowly through the neighborhoods with a peculiar sounding siren, which told us to head for higher ground.

Here in Juneau Alaska, with the ocean right at our doorstep we really have only one place to run, and that is up the mountains behind us. Our land mass is severely limited. On the other hand, the hundreds of small islands out there break up normal ocean waves so that we get no wave action at all. A tsunami might bring a upswelling of water but no wave as such. In 1964, several boats tied up at the docks overturned with the swelling but there was no damage otherwise. Very different from 600 air miles away.

Some funny stories came out of that quake. One young couple in Anchorage found themselves flung to the ground outside their cabin, where they rode the earth, sometimes looking up at their cabin, sometimes down on it as the earth shrieked and roared with tremendous noise. The woman started praying out loud. Her husband yelled into her ear: "Louder! Louder!"