Notes from Tsunami Day

Before scheduled arrival of the first tsunami wave, I looked out my aerie in Wild West Waikiki and saw what looked like a regatta. Sailboats were being taken out to open water, where they're safer in a tsunami. Earlier, while I was doing all-tsunami-all-the-time on Hawaii Public Radio, a friend called from Kona to say she heard from a fisherman in Hilo who was taking his boat out to open water (a) to be safe, and (b) to catch all the fish. So much about a tsunami is either counter-intuitive or differs from what people think who get all their information from movies. A tsunami is not a regular wave at all, but a massive incursion of the ocean, coming not once but several times, with equally extreme outward movement in between, revealing more of the ocean floor than it customarily seen. The first couple incursions are usually not the worst. The ones in the middle are. Everyone obsesses about how high the waves will be, but in truth it is the horizontal force of the tsunami that is most to be feared. A manini tsunami, say, three feet, can carry cars a block inland or hurl furniture at people with enough force to break bones. Even a vestigial tsunami, barely visible, can create strange currents and eddies around beaches and marines that create temporary hazard for people in or near the water. The practical effect of a tsunami includes other hazards... hoarding that causes supply shortages, for example, and health problems from disrupted wastewater systems.

Comments

[Claire]

And power outages if the grid gets affected by downed poles in coastal areas.

[dirk wasano]

Ok, it’s better to be safe than sorry. I knew about the tsunami at 4: am (because my T V was watching me). At 5: I caught the “Hawaii News Now” coverage.
When Guy Hagi explained the magnitude scale, I looked up the formula, and realized that the force of the wave would be 10 times less than the April Fools Tsunami.
Now, I agree with clearing all beaches, but clearing people to the first floor would have been enough. Shutting down any sewage system would not really be recommended. This was the second tsunami that wasn’t. I agree it should be better safe than sorry, and the next one might be the big one, but if I can calculate the size of the 6 foot wave, being a college drop out, then at least the people in charge, being PHDs, should get a dose of common sense.

[To me, common sense leads us in another direction, in which the forecasters did the right thing. They weren't simply deciding "better safe than sorry," they were accounting for possible variations in the outcome, like the margin for error in a poll. Am I wrong about this? HMD]