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that. That wasn’t the issue. The real problem was how people reacted. They acted like a hurricane was coming. People boarded up their homes before they left, for God’s sake!”
    I buried my face in my hands.
    â€œWhen the waves hit at daybreak traffic was a snarled mess on roads out of coastal areas. This probably would have been all right for the size waves they were expecting. I suppose you could say human error played a role here as well. Do you know how a tsunami is detected?”
    â€œDo they still use those buoys anchored to the sea floor?”
    â€œYes, the buoys measure wave height and pressure via a sensor anchored to the sea floor. The waves were so large that the buoys were ripped from their moorings. The data they sent to the satellites was absolute garbage. Then you had this anecdotal stuff coming in from areas the waves had reached and it was hard to believe, let alone understand. It was off the charts. When a fifty-foot wave moves into a coastal area, people can see it and observe its height. It will hit a building and, as long as it doesn’t destroy it, people can tell you the wave’s height based on what floor it reaches. But when a two- or three-thousand foot wave reaches the coastline it just obliterates it. The waves in North Africa and Western Europe carved a path of destruction that stretched a hundred and fifty miles inland in places. You had people who lived in the mountains a good two-hour drive from the coast reporting the high water mark at their doorstep. How do you calculate wave height from that?”
    â€œYou can’t.”
    â€œNot in the miniscule amount of time they had to work with. We had the greatest atmospheric scientists in the worldworking to determine what was headed our way, and they were handicapped. They were working blind. Human nature took over. They worked from the models they knew, and none of these models understood that a hundred and eighty foot wave could reach the East Coast.”
    â€œSo the people sitting in traffic were . . .”
    â€œThe waves reached seventeen miles inland in low-lying areas. They say a million vehicles were swept from the roadways in Florida alone.”
    â€œThat’s sickening.”
    â€œI wish it was the worst of it. Up here, we were in the midst of a massive nor’easter. Blizzard conditions stretched from Maine down into northern Virginia. The heavy snowfall and lack of visibility choked the roadways. People knew the waves were bearing down on them, but there was nowhere to go. They were trapped.”
    Tears welled in Alex’s eyes as he spoke.
    â€œHow many people died?”
    â€œNo one knows for sure. Ten million were living on Long Island alone, and the waves washed right over it and into the Sound. A very small fraction of coastal residents made it far enough inland. The bitter cold severely limited the chance of survival for the masses caught in the barrage of water. There was never a final death count because we soon faced an even greater problem.”
    â€œThe Chinese?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDon’t tell me they just came barreling in right behind the waves.”
    â€œNo, we let them in.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou have to realize, the tsunami created a crisis of gargantuan proportions. It was—”
    â€œBiblical.”
    â€œYes, indeed. From top to bottom, the East Coast looked like it had been littered with nuclear bombs. The disaster was more than our country—any country—was prepared to handle. There were massive throngs of displaced citizens who needed food and shelter. And the impact area—the impact area was beyond comprehension. The dead outnumbered the living by a wide margin, and still, there were more survivors scattered among the debris than rescue personnel.”
    â€œSo we let them in to help?”
    â€œYes, their offer appeared genuine and most generous. China is not the country you knew. Their