lesliepear: (Default)
Leslie Gottlieb ([personal profile] lesliepear) wrote2004-12-31 07:42 am

Tsunami

Our second internet friend from Indonesia is ok (physically at least). That was good news.
We did find out a friends SIL who lived in that area of Thailand (but her family was from somewhere else in Thailand) hasn't been able to reach anyone she knows. I'm sure her family is thankful she's in the US though.

It's so hard to comprehend this. What I'm not sure is how long did it take from the quake for the wave to arrive on shore? Didn't anyone see the HUGE wave? Or was it just so unexpected?

The hardest thing is there really isn't anyone to blame - 9/11 was caused by someone (planes just don't fly into buildings) so there is someone to hate for the whole thing, plus it has turned out there were smaller problems that had they been fixed would have saved a few more people. I don't think they had strict building codes in many of the places where the Tsunami was, but the idea probably never occured to them (how far inland did the wave go?)

I don't think anything would happen on the US east coast beaches but it does make me a tiny bit nervous about going to the beach over the summer. I guess we are more likely to get a hurricane here and those we tend to have a bit of advance notice on (sometimes the path may veer from the expected, but still people had at least 24-48 hours to leave as a rule).
catyak: The original yakking cat (kit float)

[personal profile] catyak 2004-12-31 12:57 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not much of a wave when travelling over deep ocean. I've seen it reported that at Diego Garcia, where there is not much of a beach and the water depth rapidly reaching several thousand feet, the wave merely registered as a six foot tidal surge. It only becomes significant as the water depth decreases so it's possible that the visible warning time would have been measured in minutes.

US East Coast is relatively safe[*], but the West Coast has signposted tsunami escape routes.

[*] Until the super-tsunami happens, which could be any time. However, there would be a few hours warning of that one.

[identity profile] lesliepear.livejournal.com 2004-12-31 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe I should have bought that house in the Poconos (2+ hours from the Ocean!) :)

[identity profile] ericainohio.livejournal.com 2004-12-31 01:44 pm (UTC)(link)
If it makes you feel any better, my understanding is that the US has a fairly thorough warning system. We monitor undersea earthquakes and give warnings where there might be danger of tsunami.

[identity profile] mighty-sam.livejournal.com 2004-12-31 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I wouldn't worry about it a whole lot. The coast of the US Northwest is MANY times more likely to get a tsunami, and they have not had one since 1964. There's been a lot more people die from household accidents, car crashes, train derailings, tobacco, etc., since then.

[identity profile] jakflak.livejournal.com 2004-12-31 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Does the east coast have tsunami sirens? (the west coast does)

[identity profile] lesliepear.livejournal.com 2005-01-02 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
I honestly don't know. I never thought about it, only hurricanes, rip tides and jelly fish (the last 2 only preventing swimming not the beach).