The " Demonstration Tsunami "

I'm going to use Howard Dicus' phrase to describe what we were calling a "tsunami scare" during our coverage yesterday. As he put it it, there was "enough unnatural wave action to show there had been an event, but not enough to disrupt our lives for more than a day." (The gist of this also came from Pacific Tsunami Warning Center geophysicist Gerard Fryer, describing what happened.) The most dramatic pictures had to come from our exclusive Web cam overlooking Hilo Bay and Coconut Island. You could actually see the tidal surges, with whitewater moving from left to right as the water receded from the bay, and then reversed direction as another surge entered, raising the water level again. It wasn't the eight-foot surge that the computer models had forecast, but there was still definitely something going on. You also could see it in, of all places, the Ala Wai Canal. There were a handful of people who were looking at the water at the McCully Street bridge over the canal, but they didn't stick around very long. It wasn't as dramatic as the tidal surges at Hilo Bay, but as I looked down at the murky water, you could tell there was a strong current coming in, as the water level started rising. And then, the water would swirl around, as if deciding what direction to go in next, before rather rapidly heading back out to sea, stirring up more silt in the process. Litter, like old paper cups and a styrofoam lunch plate, floated by toward the ocean. And then, about ten minutes later, would return as another surge pushed water back into the canal. The outgoing current , the brown water notwithstanding, especially looked strong enough to pull someone out to the ocean, had it continued. Some people mentioned the so called "Waveless Wednesday" of 1986, when there were massive traffic jams as people evacuated -- and others tried to go in the other direction to look at the waves, which never showed up. I was living on the mainland for that, but I was here for another tsunami scare in 1994, where a six-inch tsunami showed up. This tsunami is officially the first one I've actually witnessed, even if it wasn't really a wave. While I was watching this with my photographer, a gentleman walking by paused to rant about how this event was another effort by the media to control the minds of the public, and that we had made the whole thing up because, in his words, absolutely nothing was happening. I listened to him as the incoming water below paused, and then began to lower and head back to sea.

Comments

[eunice]

We should all be grateful for nothing happening.The people that made comments don;t know what could have happened, we could have had a massive wave come in and had a lot of damage.And i for one am very thankful for the news always being on top of it all.I stayed up all night listening to channel 9from beginning to end and am very grateful. And yes i was at the Hawaiian Monarch and i saw the Ala Wai canal change from my window i thought that was neat that we could see it.Thank You Ben and Everyone at channel 9 for keeping us up to date....

[Asa Ellison]

Well done story here. Those images from the Hilo Bay cam did show something was happening. I know as reporters your job is to report the story. Also you have to try for the ratings side of the business so you have to give people a reason to want to watch. This is where I have a bit of a problem. I saw a Civil Defense Web page for Maui predicting 9 to 12ft surge in Kahului harbor. This was put up just a few hours before the event. Then in reality the surge was less than 3 feet. This coming just after the peak of the low tide. So the result was just the levels of very high tide. I felt that there was a bit of "crying wolf" here. The Civil Defense made a big prediction, then the media ran with those numbers as they reported the story. Of course a 9 to 12 ft surge would definitely be cause to evacuate the low areas. I think the media did their best to get reporters and cameras in all the well known areas to watch and report on such a big surge. In the entertainment world, the media would be saying things like...Stay tuned after this commercial break for the climax of this situation. KHNL wasn't running commercials that I saw during this so I am not accusing them of this. That stated, the continual watching of the situation with cameras all over built up almost an excitement to see what would happen. When in the end, all that could be shown was a little water flowing in and out under a bridge, I think there was almost a letdown. Not a sigh of relief. Of course no one wants to see damage or anybody get hurt or worse. I think the Civil Defense and Tsunami prediction people need to do more on accuracy and the media should temper there reporting somewhat. If not, the next time there will be many who just say...ah it will be like last time and just be nothing. PS. Did you see that Vid that Tanya's husband made? That was cool. He was in the water.

[barefoot shoes]

If I had one and it did*****so so so...
I am sure it would attack if I poked it like that to wake up***

[Christian louboutin heels]

The people that made comments don;t know what could have happened, we could have had a massive wave come in and had a lot of damage.And i for one am very thankful for the news always being on top of it all.I stayed up all night listening to channel 9from beginning to end and am very grateful.