I woke up early this morning to check if a tsunami was generated from yesterday’s earthquake in Chile. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued a tsunami warning statement for the State of Hawaii.
This action forced me to postpone my trip to Hilo with my girlfriend today. We intently watched the tsunami coverage online instead. The Hilo bay tidal surges were very impressive. However, I think we were very lucky that a significant tsunami was not generated by this earthquake.
It will be interesting to see if the armchair quarterbacks will come out of the woodwork complaining that government overreacted to the tsunami threat. Nevertheless, I think they handled this issue perfectly. Mother Nature is very unpredictable. There would’ve been hell to pay if this tsunami did significant damage and the government did nothing to prevent the loss of human life.
February 28th, 2010 at 7:53 AM
You are so right Aaron. It was so close to happening and the right set of circumstances underneath the water and wave sets didn’t come together closer to the shoreline to create the tsunami. All in all a great thing! The sensible understand this is nothing to be triffled with. History shows how great the loss of life has been in the past and this set of notification and adhearing to warnings are for everyones best interest. Here in Texas those escaping from the hurricanes got log jammed going through the interstate and it was very slow leaving. Took many hours of sitting in line, some longer than 8 as I recall.
February 28th, 2010 at 3:23 PM
It’s certainly easy for armchair quarterbacks to come forward — and thay have!. But the state and county, in my opinion, did an exemplary job alerting and evacuating residents. As a resident of Hilo’s tsunami zone, I could look at the ocean off the lanai and think, “no worry,” but it’s so better to be safe than sorry. A little inconvenience — much better than a loss of life for the unprepared.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:02 PM
I survived too. We are so blessed we did not get hit.
Aloha,
Keahi