It was a first in the port of Marseilles, France and may it be the last. Two passengers plunged to their deaths and others were hurt, when tsunami-like waves plowed into the bow of a Mediterranean cruise ship Tuesday.
What began as a regular voyage, scheduled to sail from Barcelona, Spain to Genoa, Italy, became a horrific disaster when waves of neatly 30-feet-high appeared out of nowhere and smashed in the windows of the public area on deck 5.
The Louis Majesty, a Cyprus-based ship owned by the Louis Cruise Line was carrying approximately 1,350 passengers and crew members. The ship returned to Spain following the accident.
A coast guard spokesman based in Marseilles said, “There were at least three abnormally high waves which broke windshields and cascaded along the decks and the waves may have been part of an isolated tsunami.”
A tsunami is a series of waves usually caused by the displacement of sea water. Numerous factors cause them, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and underwater explosions.
A report released last summer stated that millions of people living and visiting the Mediterranean area are at risk of being impacted by a tsunami. There is no tsunami early-warning alert system for the region, even though it’s considered more vulnerable than the Indian Ocean.
The study was issued by the Disaster Response for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), based in Geneva, Switzerland with Global responsibility to provide early warning, technical assessment and coordination teams and emergency response teams and emergency funding to international operations:
Peter Rees-Gildea, head of the agency said, “If you look at population density along the Mediterranean coast and the topography and what could happen with a major tsunami, the figures are self-evident. It would be absolutely catastrophic. This is a real serious problem where millions of lives could be lost.”
Now that this tragedy has hit, how long will it take to instigate a warning system to avoid these types of disasters? It’s climate change at its worst and is society going to have to undergo such tragedies before heeding scientific warnings?
Karen Fawcett is president of Bonjour Paris
Karen Fawcett loves to travel anywhere. Karen was a founder & president BonjourParis.com while living in Paris for more than 25 years. She has traveled across Europe and the rest of the world. She is now based in Washington, DC.
