Thursday, March 4, 2010

Freak Waves kill two on Cruise Ship

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_mediterranean
_cruise_ship_accident

This incident of 30 foot high waves hitting a cruise ship and killing two on board makes me wonder if it is related in some way to the unusual groupings of earthquakes and tsunamis lately?

begin quote from above web article:

BARCELONA, Spain – Monstrous waves that smashed into a Mediterranean cruise ship flooded people's cabins, broke windows in a restaurant and sent terrified travelers screaming for doctors, passengers said Thursday.

Claude Cremex, 73, of Marseille, France said he was in his cabin resting because of rough seas when the walls of water hit the Cypriot-owned Louis Majesty, which was carrying 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members off the coast of northeastern Spain.

"A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded," said Cremex, who was traveling with his wife. "Many people were very frightened," he told The Associated Press.

Cremex said he did not see the waves himself but later viewed the damage. "It was spectacular," he said as the ship sat docked at Barcelona's port with passengers sunning themselves on deck the day after the accident.

Amateur video footage taken by a passenger and aired on Spanish television showed the instant when a huge, foamy wave hit what appeared to be a restaurant or lounge area, blowing out the window, triggering screams and sending shin-high water gushing along the floor. A woman is heard crying in the background.

The ship's owner and operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the vessel was struck Wednesday by three "abnormally high" waves more than 33 feet (10 meters) high that broke glass windshields in the forward section. Two people died and 14 were slightly hurt, the company said. end quote.

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