John Chroston
John Chroston of Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire, a biology teacher at Falkirk High School, Scotland, was one of the few tourists present during the Indian Ocean earthquake able to recognize tsunami warning signs and prompt a beach evacuation.[1][2]
Chroston, then 48 years old, was holidaying at Kamala Bay, near Phuket, Thailand, with his daughter Rebecca and his wife Sandra Adams, a professor at Stirling University. He was taking photographs on the beach when the sea receded, and instantly recognized the early-warning sign for a tsunami. He ran up the beach, sounding the alarm and gathering up his wife and daughter.[1][2] With the assistance of a Thai doctor, Harpreet Grover, Chroston persuaded a hotel shuttle bus driver to turn his bus around and take passengers to high ground. The bus stopped to pick up a few Thai women and children on the way. It was at one point engulfed by the wave, but he managed to pull through and reached high ground.[1][2]
Chroston and his family returned to Thailand six months after the tsunami, and as an adult his daughter returned in 2011 to volunteer at a Thai school where many of the students were orphaned by the tsunami.[3]
See also
[edit]- Tilly Smith, another foreigner who issued an alert, at Mai Khao Beach
- Smong, a folktale of the Simeulue people about past tsunamis and prepared them with lifesaving instructions on how to evacuate
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "Man tells of tsunami rescue drama". BBC. 5 January 2005. Archived from the original on 31 January 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Fast thinking father saved family and tourist bus". The Times. 5 January 2005. Archived from the original on 31 January 2026.
- ↑ "How living through tsunami 'changed our lives'". BBC. 26 December 2014. Archived from the original on 12 July 2024.
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