Tsunami Warning
I live in Santa Cruz, but up on a nice solid cliff, so a tsunami is not a threat to me personally. I read about the warning this morning and merely thought, "So I won't go by the sea today." I was asleep when it happened. (Okay, that's a fair bet with me.) Brad works in Scotts Valley which is even higher and drier; about the only thing we worry about there is road closures due to landslides.
My mother lives farther inland and up even higher; she's on the Red Cross list and they haven't called her in because they haven't needed her. For being the second worst city hit on the West Coast, we got off pretty lightly.
I do feel for the people at the harbor, though; some people live on those boats so there might be some lost homes there, as well as lost livelihoods to fishermen. It sounds like everyone got out before the swells hit the harbor, though; we have one probable death on the whole west coast. A lot of people who live at sea level were evacuated. I didn't know we had this system in place, but this morning a recorded call went out to houses in the threatened areas telling them to evacuate. They were clearly effective at evacuating the harbor in time, too.
By the way, there were people walking on the beach today despite the warning. One man got swept out to sea while taking pictures of it. (I really hope they find him, but if he's been out there this long, he's probably dead of hypothermia if not drowning.) Just because tsunami watches and warnings are normally a non-event, this is just not a good idea. I was taught from a young age that if I suddenly saw the tide go unnaturally low, I was to GET TO HIGH GROUND as fast as I could. Pay attention to that, mmkay? Just because it isn't a movie theater experience with tall curling waves doesn't mean that the water isn't powerful and fast. It might skip one town entirely and hammer the next town down the coast. It might look like nothing more than a swell but then sweep you out to sea. "Don't walk on the beach during a tsunami warning" SHOULD be a no-brainer, and it's a basic, if little-needed, survival skill if you are on a Pacific coast.
Of course, all of this is infinitesimal in comparison to what Japan is going through. Not only did they experience a huge earthquake and tsunami directly, but they did not even get warning, like we did. My heart goes out to them. Maki from Just Bento/Just Hungry is watching reputable Japanese news sources and translating them into twitter, for those who are looking for up to the minute news.
How interconnected a world we live in, where an earthquake all the way across an ocean can have ripple effects (literally) over here.
My mother lives farther inland and up even higher; she's on the Red Cross list and they haven't called her in because they haven't needed her. For being the second worst city hit on the West Coast, we got off pretty lightly.
I do feel for the people at the harbor, though; some people live on those boats so there might be some lost homes there, as well as lost livelihoods to fishermen. It sounds like everyone got out before the swells hit the harbor, though; we have one probable death on the whole west coast. A lot of people who live at sea level were evacuated. I didn't know we had this system in place, but this morning a recorded call went out to houses in the threatened areas telling them to evacuate. They were clearly effective at evacuating the harbor in time, too.
By the way, there were people walking on the beach today despite the warning. One man got swept out to sea while taking pictures of it. (I really hope they find him, but if he's been out there this long, he's probably dead of hypothermia if not drowning.) Just because tsunami watches and warnings are normally a non-event, this is just not a good idea. I was taught from a young age that if I suddenly saw the tide go unnaturally low, I was to GET TO HIGH GROUND as fast as I could. Pay attention to that, mmkay? Just because it isn't a movie theater experience with tall curling waves doesn't mean that the water isn't powerful and fast. It might skip one town entirely and hammer the next town down the coast. It might look like nothing more than a swell but then sweep you out to sea. "Don't walk on the beach during a tsunami warning" SHOULD be a no-brainer, and it's a basic, if little-needed, survival skill if you are on a Pacific coast.
Of course, all of this is infinitesimal in comparison to what Japan is going through. Not only did they experience a huge earthquake and tsunami directly, but they did not even get warning, like we did. My heart goes out to them. Maki from Just Bento/Just Hungry is watching reputable Japanese news sources and translating them into twitter, for those who are looking for up to the minute news.
How interconnected a world we live in, where an earthquake all the way across an ocean can have ripple effects (literally) over here.