Waiting For The Big Wave To Come

Last night, and into the early morning hours, we had a rather strange occurrence in my locale.

I just thought I’d share the account of it that I wrote in my Journal with all of you:

March 10, 2011

11:58 PM: I was listening to the local college baseball game on the radio while I was doing a few things around the house earlier this evening, and found out that there had been a large earthquake off the coast of Japan, of 8.9 magnitude at about 8 PM or so, local (Hawaii) time. Thus, there was a Tsunami Watch to see if a tsunami had been generated that might come towards the Hawaiian Islands, where I live, and this was later upgraded to a Tsunami Warning – so this was indeed the real deal.

I turned on the TV, and there was footage being shown of a large tsunami causing great damage in Northeastern Japan . And the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center here was cautioning people in areas near the coast to move to higher ground. The first waves of the tsunami were expected to hit at about 3 AM, with an estimated height of two meters, or six feet. I soon heard the wailing of the civil defense sirens, and these were sounded about once an hour thereafter, through much of the night.

It’s interesting to see how the different branches of the government, the media, and of society come together in an emergency.

On some of the cable TV news channels, they were covering the tsunami on an international level, giving predictions as to when the tsunami was expected to hit for each nation that lay in the path of the tsunami. Many islands in the Pacific, and many nations around the rim of the Pacific were expected to be affected. Even states along the western coast of the United States, and Alaska, were put under a tsunami warning.

The earthquake which struck near Japan was said to be about as large as the one that hit Chile in late February of last year , and one hundred times larger than the one which had caused great devastation in Haiti earlier that same year. It was only a little smaller than the one which had generated huge destructive tsunamis in Indonesia in 2004 .

As I write this, we are waiting for the first waves to arrive. I live fairly close to the ocean, but outside of the inundation zone; however, a couple of blocks closer to the ocean, they were evacuating people from their homes, ordering them to leave. In places such as Waikiki, those who are in the hotels are being told to go to the 6th floor of the buildings, or higher. This is called a “vertical evacuation”.

I remember last year, when we were waiting for the tsunami from the earthquake in Chile to arrive, the media was broadcasting live video from cameras that were mounted near the ocean. Fortunately, the tsunami that arrived was really not that big, and did not really cause much damage. However, Hawaii is geographically situated much closer to Japan than it is to Chile – about 3,900 miles versus about 7,000 miles; so very roughly half the distance. Thus, we are expecting some sizable waves to arrive here.

Right now, all we can do is wait… (12:34a)

(12:43a): They were saying on the more national level news channel that Hawaii had been hit by a magnitude 4.5 earthquake a couple of hours after the large earthquake that hit off the coast of Japan. I do not remember feeling any quakes in that time frame, but it does raise questions as to whether large quakes can trigger smaller quakes to occur in other places, even thousands of miles away… (12:47a)

(1:51a): The media is very busy with the news on the impending tsunami. It is expected to hit starting about an hour and fifteen minutes from now. Again, it is expected to be about 6 feet high, in areas such the North Shore of this island. Now, I have seen waves (not tsunami waves) in the order of around 30 feet tall on the North Shore before, and they are quite an impressive sight, especially when they are seen breaking on a rocky shoreline. Nonetheless, it seems that the nature of a tsunami type wave is very different from a “regular” wave, in that while the regular wave crests and falls very quickly, a tsunami wave continues to come inland for a very long time, rather like a fast moving flood. So even a six foot tsunami wave is said to be capable of causing considerable damage. (2:18a)

(2:28a): Road closures, and earlier, long lines for gas, crowded streets, people crowding the stores for essentials such as bottled water, and boat owners taking their boats out to sea – these were the kinds of preparations that were going on in anticipation of the arrival of the tsunami waves. (2:30a)

(2:49a): While a lot of tourists in Waikiki did the vertical evacuation in their hotel buildings, some ended up going in their cars to roads in the mountains, along with local residents. The media was interviewing some of them. One fellow was saying that he is in Hawaii with his wife and kids for his anniversary. This will certainly be “an event to remember”. So all kinds of strange little things occurred in this event.

(2:52a): Some of the local channels have cameras trained on the ocean, to show what happens when the waves arrive. (3:03a): Interestingly, a couple of people are sitting on a little wall that fronts the beach scene in Waikiki, apparently hoping to have a front seat view of the tsunami when it arrives. Now, I remember the last time we had a tsunami warning, in February of last year, there was someone swimming in the water, and the authorities were telling them to get out. This time, the media announcers say that the police are busily clearing the streets and other places, so they cannot get to the stragglers at this time… (~3:30a): The scene at Waikiki shows the waters rising, and splashing over some of the protective seawalls in the water. It seems that there is about a 3 foot rise or so in the water level. Some people still seem to insist on being near the beach, and the police helicopter is shining its light on them, and they are being told to leave. Finally, they leave. Meanwhile, another camera, near the base of Diamond Head, is trained on the ocean and beach there. There are lights shining towards the ocean from one of the beachside mansions there, making the scene visible in the darkness. The water recedes greatly, exposing the reef, and then slowly comes back in. So the tsunami is occurring. However, at this time, it does not seem to be all that big, but you never know…

The local stations are saying that the more national news channels are saying that the tsunami has “slammed” into Hawaii; note the choice of words. They do seem to be concerned about the semantics being used here, and are talking about “damage control” – impressions. But will some of those who are visiting think back to this as a memorable event?

And now, I had better go to sleep, as it is about 4:42 AM…

LATER: The “All Clear” has been issued, and there have been no reports of injuries and death, although some damage has occurred .

But it certainly could have been much, much worse…

And one last note: their predictions on the time of arrival for the first tsunami waves were actually pretty good, considering the great distances involved…

Wave Fish