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Hawai'i and Tsunamis

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  • Hawai'i and Tsunamis

    Now that Asia has experienced a cataclysmic earthquake and tsunamis that have killed more than 23,000 (and the toll is expected to go much much higher), the Civil Defense in Hawai'i is worried that the residents have been lulled into a false sense of complacency that could kill many people.

    It's been a long time (about 40 years) since Hawai'i last experienced a tsunami, although there have been false alarms since then. According to historical records, up until the 1960s, Hawai'i experienced a tsunami about every 7 years. I remember small kid time hearing the sirens and having to take part in drills. The scientists are now saying that Hawai'i is overdue for a tsunami. They have installed sensors in the ocean to warn you about Alaskan earthquakes, but there are no sensors to alert you of Chilean earthquakes, which could reach your shores within 3 hours.

    Do you know what you need to do in a tsunami alert? Do you know where to go to be safe? For your own safety and well being, please review those plans now, while the tragedy in Asia is fresh on your mind and in the news.

    At one time, Hawaiian Tel used to put things like maps of areas where a tsunami would cause the most damage and where the evacuation points were. Is that still in the front of your local phone books?

    http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/27/news/index1.html

    Miulang
    "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

  • #2
    Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

    Originally posted by Miulang
    ... Hawai'i is worried that the residents have been lulled into a false sense of complacency that could kill many people.
    .Miulang
    yep, we are due for something li dat! and me, here on da beach... ho... tank gooness da high hills steh a minute away!

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    • #3
      Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

      yEP, for MAMA and me, go inn the car, take a left on Liliha and go all the way up to Puuniu or Alewa Heights. Or I could hang a right on Wyllie St.,take a left and go on the Pali Drive and slammin to the looK-out to watch the waves come in! On a more serious note...saw the devastation on the news last night. Heartache seeing the people especially loved ones crying over their loved one's bodies. I especially cried hard, seeing a still picture of a father holding his dead child in his arms and his feet deep in water staring with peircing eyes into the camera's lense,as if asking WHY!
      Be AKAMAI ~ KOKUA Hawai`i!
      Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

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      • #4
        Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

        We're not that complacent (yet). A lot of us still remember the cause for alarm with every hurricane that comes by. With the testing of the sirens every month it is a constant reminder of possible natural disasters. When the tides become too high in Hilo Harbor, the bay highway is shut down and barricaded.

        One thing our society has learned is how to identify the symptoms of a tsunami, like a receding shore beyond normal low tides, the calm surface waters before the initial strike, and of course with today's modern communcations, a lot of us affected don't have to rely on just our Civil Defense system anymore. We have the weather channel, the internet, cellular phones. If there's an undersea seismic earthquake happening chances are someone will get the word out to someone here in Hawaii that something just happened and to prepare for it to affect us.

        And believe me, at the hint of a natural disaster, every store is depleted of it's batteries and bottled water. I sometimes think the department stores are in collusion with the State Civil Defense just so that the stores can clear their old inventory of aging batteries!

        Like Kimo said we do have high mountains within minutes reach unlike the continental west and east coasts which could take hours. Since the waves hitting our south shores are buffered by rings of reefs and long shallow ramps to our shores, by the time the actual wave hits our shores, it's power has been greatly diminished with flooding as it's greatest damage potential. In Waikiki, evacuation sometimes calls for moving up above the 4th floors. For everybody else, head for the high hills. And yes the Verizon superpages still show the inundation areas around our islands as well as evacuation procedures and preparations.

        I think Hawaii and it's residents are better prepared for a major tsunami or hurricane than most on the West coast are prepared for their impending disaster, when the San Andreas gives way. But then again scientists predict if that fault goes in a sudden burst it would creat a wall of water 1,000 miles long and 1,000 feet high rolling across the entire Pacific ocean wiping out anything in it's path until it hits China. I'm glad I live on the Big Island where Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are over 13,000 feet high. Not so sure about Molokai, Lanai, Oahu and Kauai though.
        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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        • #5
          Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

          I was reading in Reuters that a techtonic plate shifted suddenly causing the magnitute 9 undersea earthquake. One thing about techtonic plates is that they're all part of that big puzzle that we call the earth's crust, meaning when one moves it affects all others surrounding it.

          So now that the pressure has been relieved on that plate, how does that affect the surrounding plates?

          The plate that the Hawaiian islands sit right in the middle of is the Pacific plate and it rides against the plate where Asia sits on as well as the North American plate. I've always understood that the reason why the Big Island is so big is because the Pacific plate has become stuck partly because of the hang up of the San Andreas fault along the western side of the United States.

          Well now that the plate in the Indian Ocean has cleared whatever was stopping it's movement, it leaves the Pacific plate to move too. Slowly the Pacific plate is consuming the North American plate. California is the result of the Pacific plate pushing up and over the North American plate.

          How does all this relief of pressure on the Indian Ocean plate affect the Pacific and North American Plates? I'm thinking the eruptions that have been going on since 1983 on the Big Island will slowly diminish as the vent becomes cut off. I also think something is going to happen to San Andreas fault real soon. The ceasing of the Big Island eruptions should be the early warning signs of impending seismic activity along the west coast of North America.

          We'll see.
          Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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          • #6
            Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

            Well, if volcanic activity is any indication here on the West Coast, then I would say something is definitely up. Besides the Mt. St. Helens "eruption" that's been going on since late September, Mt. Rainier (the one closest to Seattle) has also been showing increased seismic activity. The new dome that's being built in Mt. St. Helens is almost as big as the top of the mountain that blew 25 years ago.

            A look at a list of eruptions around the world in 2003 (the latest year that has been compiled), shows that there were 58 active eruptions last year, and many were within the Pacific "Ring of Fire". http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/eruptionlist.cfm


            Miulang
            "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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            • #7
              Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

              Center's technology and staff ready to warn isles of tsunamis
              Rosemarie Bernardo, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Dec. 28, 2004
              When it comes to tsunamis, think of the Hawaiian Islands as tempting bull's-eyes in the Pacific. And think of them "not a matter of if, it's when" those bull's-eyes will get hit, said Brian Yanagi, earthquake/tsunami program manager for the state Civil Defense... Yanagi said sirens and the Emergency Alert System are tested every month. A simulated tsunami exercise is scheduled for April 1. Emergency tsunami plans and procedures will be tested based on a simulated earthquake in the Aleutian Islands.
              SE Asia disaster a wake-up call here
              Jan TenBruggencate, Honolulu Advertiser, Dec. 28, 2004
              For a quake in Alaska, Hawai'i might have four to five hours' advance notice of an approaching tsunami, and from South America the delay might be half a day. But a local earthquake could generate a tsunami that could strike the Islands in a matter of minutes. "Locally, people should heed Mother Nature's warnings," said Brian Yanagi, tsunami program manager for state Civil Defense. "If you're near the coast and you see the ocean water retreating, or you hear a sound like a freight train coming from the direction of the sea, or you feel the ground shaking, don't wait for official word. Get to high ground immediately. We generally say you're safe if you're half a mile inland in Hawai'i."

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              • #8
                Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

                Originally posted by Miulang
                But in the 12 months that separated them, there have been many other ruinous and seismically ominous events, occurring in places that seem at first blush to be entirely disconnected.
                Don't forget that, as we've mentioned here before, Mauna Loa has also been unusually restless...

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                • #9
                  Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

                  The day after the earthquake, I was driving along one of the back stretches in Puna in the Hawaiian Acres subdivision behind Ainaloa and noticed something I've never seen before, steam coming out of the ground along the roadside along with the distinct smell of sulphur!

                  This roadway is called Road 9 and it is part of the shortcut from Pahoa to Kurtistown. It's also about 20-miles from the Volcano National Park where the sulphur banks and the steam vents are typically visible. This wasn't little tufts of steam, this was billowing steam vents and a strong odor of sulphur not just wisps of it. Where there's steam there's hot rocks. Where there's hot rocks there's lava running deep below.

                  Typically there's not a lot of activity there if any at all but that day there was a lot of steam coming out from many of the cracked lava tubes that were destroyed when they paved that section of Puna years ago.

                  Something's happening and I think this earthquake is just the beginning of something bigger geologically in the Pacific ring. 2005 will be an interesting year to watch techtonically speaking.
                  Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Tsunami Maps missing from Maui Phone books

                    From KHNL.com

                    There is some potentially life-saving information missing from telephone books on Maui.

                    A number of tsunami evacuation maps did not get printed in the newest edition of the phone book.

                    A Verizon spokesperson says the company doesn't know how the mistake happened, adding that they've been printing the phone book for years.

                    The missing evacuation maps cover the shoreline of West Maui - from Kapalua to Ma'alaea. And this includes the populated Lahaina town.

                    Verizon has been in contact with the Governor and the Maui Mayor's office.

                    The phone company is scrambling to print 130,000 copies of the missing page.

                    The information on the maps have not changed from last year.

                    Verizon said in the meantime, you can tear out the old pages from the last year's phone directory and place it in your new phone book.
                    How'd I get so white and nerdy?

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                    • #11
                      Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

                      Call builds for new Hawai'i tsunami maps
                      Jan TenBruggencate, Honolulu Advertiser, Monday, January 17, 2005
                      The best Hawai'i tsunami inundation maps now available — the ones in the phone book — are based on a technology that is 15 years old. Now, state Civil Defense officials have received indications that both state and federal financial resources might be available. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials have called, asking what resources are needed. And Hawai'i state legislators have indicated they're prepared to kick in money if the feds don't come up with enough.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Hawai'i and Tsunamis

                        I thought that was pretty funny. What's scary is for some reason or other, Verizon in its infinite wisdom OMITTED completely those maps from the Maui County phone books! So if you want to know where you can run if a tsunami hits, you have to go to a hotel (they all have printed maps of 15 year old data available) or to a website. How stupid was that little oversight?

                        Miulang
                        "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

                        Comment

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