Serai Village

Serai Village from the helicopter. Sissano Village probably looked like this before the tsunami...

Serai Village lies 10 km west of the Arnold River. This was the furthest west that we surveyed during the trip. About 3 km west of Serai, the coastline changes drastically. Wide flat beaches are replaced by steep rocky cliffs hundreds of feet high. At the transition area, there is a deep area offshore that is used by a timber company for loading of logs onto barges. Runup in Serai Village was measured at 3.4 m. At the mouth of the Serai River there was a large scarp which was eroded by the tsunami. The locals said the wave rushed over the bar, up the river mouth then eroded the scarp while receding. At the timber loading area, a runup of 1.6 m.was measured. There were also two small rock slides. One occurred on July 17th during the main shock. the other occurred a few days later in a strong aftershock.

	A rock slide that was caused by an aftershock.
	A rock slide caused by the main shock.
	The scarp formed by the escape of the tsunami.

A composite view of the erosional scarp. Note, this is made from three stills taken from continuous video shot while doing a helicopter flyby. That is why part of the background is repeated.