Kata Noi

Kata Noi is a beach on the southwestern side of the island of Phuket in Thailand. It prolongs the Kata Beach to the south.

The beach is bordered to the north by the Mon Tri's Villa Royale resort, and most of the beachfront is occupied by the resort of Kata Thani.

2004 earthquake and tsunami

On December 26, 2004, the area felt a mild earthquake around 07:59 local time, which later turned out to be the repercussion of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurring at that time near Sumatra. Few people actually felt the earthquake, and no alarm was given, apart for casual radio broadcasts on the local Thai radio.

First tsunami

Around 09:30 AM, as about 20 people were playing on the beach or bathing, the sea started to retreat by about 100 meters within the space of about 5 minutes. A few people who were bathing, seeing the water retreating around them were left standing, puzzled. Asked about the phenomenon, Thai vendors on the beach were as puzzled as tourists, having never seen such a thing.

As the sea was staying at a very low level, quite far from the beach, people started to see that some fish had been left stranded in some pools of water, and started to play with the fish for possibly 5 to 10 minutes. Suddenly, without a warning and any visible sign of an approaching danger, the sea started to rise again, inducing everyone to run to the higher part of the beach. The water continued to rise swiftly, although not as fast as the people running. Eventually the sea...
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