Where did they think the water had gone?

I wasn't going to post on the tsunami but this article-- MSNBC - Technology Alone Can't Save Us-- is a little much for me. It says that people rushed out onto exposed beach when the waters receded prior to the tsunami. I wonder where they thought the water had gone? There has been a lot of suffering and sympathy should be the rule, but it seems like some people have surrendered their common sense. Does it take education to think that maybe if the water went away, it might just come back? And if you are out where the water was and it does come back, that that might cause some problems for you?

The article says it was tourists and that could mean from any country including the countries that were hit. But some of them had to be from Western countries. Did they think it was some sort of theme park attraction technology set up to entertain the tourists? People have to have some common sense. It's a lot like the people who go to Yellowstone and try to get up close to moose and buffalo to get a picture. When they are attacked you wonder how they could have been so, to put it charitably, naive.