Girl's sea warning saved a hundred

From the Times of London (online) 1 January 2005

Girl's sea warning saved a hundred

A GIRL aged ten saved a hundred fellow tourists from the tsunami because of a geography lesson about the giant waves. Tilly Smith urged her family to get off Maikhao beach in Thailand after seeing the tide rush out and boats on the horizon begin to bob violently.

The youngster, recalling a recent school project on quakes, turned to her mother Penny and said: "Mummy, we must get off the beach now. I think there is going to be a tsunami." Penny and her husband Colin alerted others and they cleared the Phuket beach just in time. It was one of the few beaches where no one has been reported killed or seriously injured.

Last night Tilly, from Oxshott, Surrey, told The Sun that credit for her quick-thinking should go to Andrew Kearney, her geography teacher at Danes Hill Preparatory School.