Over on Digby's site. Wow. One thing I guess people don't understand about tsunamis and other floods is that they're not just giant monolithic huge waves ala The Abyss and Deep Impact.
Floods are sneakier than that. The waves break and then flow into everything and break up your stuff. Watching all that footage of giant messes of debris which were houses and furniture and cars smashed to matchsticks and people struggling to stay afloat on top of it, well.........heartbreaking. Go watch those videos.
I have only had one such experience. A relatively minor one. A few summers ago, here in Minneapolis, it rained enough to flood my neighborhood. I made the mistake of trying to drive my car to work over what looked like a little water slick on Foss Road, which was on my commute. OMFG. I drove into this (very VERY foolish decision) and then noticed lots of gawkers out wading on the street - well when I say wading, I mean SWIMMING - the water was up to their shoulders. And suddenly my car started sorta floating. I managed to drive through it, don't ask me how. I just kept my foot on the gas and kept pressing forward (which a mechanic told that's how I saved my car from being destroyed by the flood - didn't let any water in through the tailpipe).
I drove out of it, got to the corner, and as I drove off, saw a huge cloud of steam come out of the tailpipe. I can't believe my car survived that, I still have the car. The gods, goddesses, and FSM were with me that day.
I had a friend I was working with, from India, her father lived right in the path of the tsunami. She quit the very day of that tsunami, said she was going home posthaste to find out what happened to her Dad. Never heard from her again. I liked her. She was a nice lady. I hope it turned out all right for her.