Tsunami

  Here's a gripping account of a sailor riding out a Tsunami

http://www.sail-world.com/Cruising/Gripping-sailors-tale-of-the-Samoa-Tsunami---and-the-lessons/61866

   I'd read a little about that event in Latitude 38, the free sailing magazine you can find on- line or in front of bait shops, boat stores, etc., but this is a much more detailed and interesting account.
   I've also read tales of other events and what you hear over and over is how people notice something odd but discount it, attribute it to usual causes, then play catch up in realizing how they've underestimated it.  But you can't go around always assuming the worst, either.  Though it doesn't hurt to prepare for earthquakes in CA!
     Here's a post with my own experience with a tsunami, a very un-gripping account, but as close as I ever want to be to one:
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,6273.0.html

A couple of years after I wrote that, there was a piece in the Santa Cruz Sentinel by a scientist about tsunamis on the West coast, I could probably find it if your interested, because I sent my tale to him and he replied about some other local experiences.