Tsunami expected in Hawaii at 11am local today

[AlBell]

.... The next one that happens will get nearly no coverage, and the fools will wander out to see it, and the police will be lax about keeping security up. This one was a media event, the next will be a non-event, until after it happens, just like AlBell pronounces it here.

I'm more optimistic than that. As I said, Luckily. There was 15 hrs lead time for Hawaii arrival, and any big quake near the coastline has the potential to present The Big Tsunami. It'll be days before detailed analysis will explain where the movement actually occurred, and why it wasn't a tsunami maker. That time just isn't there for alerts.

Certainly no luck for Chile which is looking more & more battered as news dribbles out. And the single road linking the country north-south is basically gone.

 

[HawaiiBigSis]

There's also the fact that several major Hawaiian cities were devastated by the 1960 tsunami, and people still have memories. As long as those memories are alive, Hawaiians, at least, will heed the warnings.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

There's also the fact that several major Hawaiian cities were devastated by the 1960 tsunami, and people still have memories. As long as those memories are alive, Hawaiians, at least, will heed the warnings.

My 4th grade teacher lost his brother in that tsunami. I'll never forget his account of his family finding "bits of clothing" but no body.


But I was shocked when during the Banda Ache tsunami how few people knew the significance of the rapidly receding tide. I still don't understand why that wasn't common knowledge at least among some of the tourists who I would have thought would have learned about the kids in HI who went out onto the coast where the tide had receded in the 1960 event.

I would hope most Hawaiians would recognize a rapidly receding tide was a warning. But I imagine many tourists wouldn't.

 

[alfaniner]

This was a perfect "dry run" (so to speak) for the big one that may come eventually. A great opportunity to get all kinds of data and refine predictions. And (aside from the cause) no one got hurt or killed!

 

[HawaiiBigSis]

My 4th grade teacher lost his brother in that tsunami. I'll never forget his account of his family finding "bits of clothing" but no body.

How horrible! That's actually fairly common (here) for them to find bits of clothing of people lost in flash floods or drowning accidents, but no bodies.

But I was shocked when during the Banda Ache tsunami how few people knew the significance of the rapidly receding tide. I still don't understand why that wasn't common knowledge at least among some of the tourists who I would have thought would have learned about the kids in HI who went out onto the coast where the tide had receded in the 1960 event.

I would hope most Hawaiians would recognize a rapidly receding tide was a warning. But I imagine many tourists wouldn't.

I know! That surprised me as well. But I know that my (first) knowledge of that phenomenon came from reading a book when I was young. It was about a child who lived through a tsunami in Japan (iirc), and that description just stuck with me. Later learning about tsunamis always triggered that memory. Maybe people never had the later learning, and who knows if it would have stuck for me as securely if I'd not read that book in childhood.

This time, the tourists were well informed, as was just about anybody else who lived within hearing of a civil defense siren or radio or tv.

 

[RSLancastr]

there was even talk on local tv news of the possibility of a tsunami hitting here in Oregon!