Tsunami Warning After-Thoughts

October 27, 2012 Queen Charlotte Fault Earthquake
Predicted Tsunami Wave Amplication (Energy)
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency

Having had some time to reflect on the "non-tsunami" warning we experienced in Honolulu this past Saturday night, here are some of my thoughts.

First of all, it definitely was NOT a non-event. It was important and necessary that everybody take all the precautions required to prevent a potential disaster. There are two reasons to err on the side of caution. One is actual: What if a tsunami actually did hit? The other is a bit more prosaic: Protect your legal ass.

If tsunami did hit, then lives would have been saved. Of that, there is no question. And, if a tsunami did hit and the state and city governments, and private businesses and organizations, chose to ignore the danger, then there will be lawsuits galore and a lot of people would go to jail. That’s the “protect your legal ass” part.

Okay, having established all that, here are some other thoughts:

Honolulu took another big economic hit on Saturday night. It was the Saturday before Halloween, and Waikiki was planning on a hopping good time. Tourists would be spending money, the banquet rooms were booked and prepped with food and entertainment for the dozens of private parties and gatherings of all sorts. Someday soon, someone is going to come up with a dollar figure, and I betcha it’s going to be staggering.

Something has to be done about the traffic jams resulting from the warning. As it is, there aren’t and adequate number of routes out of Waikiki, especially when we not only have vehicles leaving, but vehicles entering as well to pick up people who’d be stranded when their Saturday night social functions shut down unexpectedly.

Ewa Beach is no better. We saw that on the television coverage.

I’m not a tourist in Waikiki, so I don’t know if the rooms have any tsunami education information. I’m not just talking about inundation zones and evacuations, I’m also talking about the very nature of the waves (or more appropriately, surges) that could hit. A tsunami isn’t a normal wave; it doesn’t just hit and pass. Think of it as a raised shelf of water that goes on and on and on.

Tourist imagination must have been running wild. They must have been scared to death. That’s because the local television and radio stations only concentrate on the “get to safe ground” fast message. They don’t talk about the improbability of a tsunami from the east actually inundating Waikiki. To think that borders on ludicrous. They need to be told this and calmed, yet urged to take the evacuations seriously, because … well, because nothing is certain and one just never knows.

I wish local television would prepare appropriate coverage now so they don’t concentrate solely on Waikiki. Nothing’s going to happen there. Use the traffic cams in Waikiki as necessary, but do something now to ensure proper cameras and lighting are set up in Kahului, Maui, and Hilo on the Big Island, where inundation is much more likely and serious.

And don’t give the excuse that the lateness of the warning didn’t give enough time last weekend. There should have been emergency coverage planning already in the works. And I always believe that where there’s a will, there’s a way. Something could have been done to give us adequate coverage in the neighbor islands.

People are stupid … the locals rush to the stores and stock up on four things: Rice, Spam, batteries and toilet paper. Especially toilet paper. This reaction is a throwback to the days of the shipping strikes, when all of Hawaii’s goods arrived via ships. Who of us who lived in Hawaii during the ‘50s-‘70s doesn’t remember shortages? But that’s not going to happen today.

For a hurricane, yes. Make sure you’re stocked, but not at the last moment. Make sure you’re ALWAYS stocked. The panic buying reported on Saturday night made me shake my head in disgust.

People are stupid … television coverage showed people going down to the beach in Waikiki. Okay, sure. I know it’s unlikely that they’d be swamped by a tsunami. But they are showing a tremendous amount of irresponsibility, to themselves, to their families, and to others who might be encouraged by their stupid actions.

During the devastating Hilo tsunamis of 1946 and 1960, people died because they went seaside and walked along the exposed reefs to pick up fish stranded when the water receded. People also died when they ignored or missed the warning sirens.

There’s not much anyone can do to stop the effects of a tsunami, economically or otherwise, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take the hits and come back strong. And we can’t do that unless we heed the warnings and do the right things.

So much for that … until the next time. Then, I’ll watch the whole thing happen all over again on the local news.