Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with natural disasters. This is the one of the most fascinating ones. Can you imagine a giant wall of water this size coming at you?
I often sit and think about the Missoula Floods and struggle to fathom what these walls of water would have looked and felt like as an onlooker. When I was told about the flood (it was thought to be one big event when I was a kid) I thought people were pulling my leg. This is such a wild world be live on.
Depending on the scale and speed it probably would register as something "off", but not necessarily dangerous. As in out-of-context, does not compute. I mean, just look at the videos of the tsunami in Thailand, 26 December, 2004. Most don't get it. How should they, if they have never experienced it before?
Maybe OT, but to demonstrate a similar thing I once experienced: Been bicycling in the forest like ever so often, and something was off. Stopped.
Thought someone suddenly built a large, long wall or building there within a few days, because it wasn't there before. Went about 100 to 150 meters into the forest to investigate what it was. A massive wall of whitegrey smoke, with many nests of flames between 50cm and one meter high. Didn't recognize it as such until I saw the flames shining through. Really thought of it as a wall until then.
For those that are unfamiliar: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_floods