Waves Of Destruction
FOR INFORMATION ONLY:Time Travel: Earthquakes occurring anywhere in the Pacific trigger waves that eventually reach Monterey Bay. Their size and lag time depend on how far off they start.
Total devastation. The apocalyptic reports and images from New Orleans pour in through our televisions and computers. Disease, death, and destitution stand in relief against miles and miles of muddy water. As far as the eye can see there is chaos, despair, and gradually increasing outbursts of feverish violence. Roving bands of armed looters stalk the surreal urban bayou like toothy gators, the Superdome overflows with American refugees, corpses float through the Big Easy like some hideous voodoo dream.
A stunned nation drowns in the gruesome, unbelievable images. The response is similar to 9/11. How could this happen here? Why weren’t we prepared for this? Especially after 2004, the worst hurricane season on record?
“It is like our tsunami,” a survivor says, referring to the devastating Indian Ocean event of Dec. 26, 2004, that killed 200,000. And this isn’t an exaggeration. According to reports, when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the US Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, it created a 30-foot storm surge.
It’s a haunting analogy. The scope and severity of Katrina rendered one of the most beloved cities in America uninhabitable. Like 9/11, the stark reality of the images has opened a Pandora’s Box of new, disturbing possibilities. Suddenly every coastal community in America is asking, could a similar disaster happen here?
In the case of the Monterey Bay area, the answer is yes, according to Gary Greene of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.
“Absolutely,” Greene says when asked about the likelihood of a large scale tsunami hitting our shores. “People should be prepared. Not that it will happen tomorrow, but people should be prepared for it.”
Greene is one of a group of local researchers who have spent the last 15 to 20 years studying the cause and effect of tsunamis in the Monterey Bay area. What they’re in the process of discovering is that we are highly susceptible to tsunamis generated by both distant and local seismic activity and by non-seismogenic events—especially the massive landslides which periodically occur on the steep slopes of the deep submarine Monterey Canyon directly off our shores.
Tsunami Travel Times
posted by MYSTIC @ 12:25 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
It IS very scary. But how much can one actually "prepare" for a tsunami? I mean, other than actually having an alternate home to go to on higher ground... fully stocked and easily accessible among the hundreds of thousands who would also be trying to flee. It's almost illogical. Of course, we could all just abandon our coasts now ... leaving them barron and uninhabited. Imagine this?
Good post topic!
Carol, It isn't what you can do to stop catastrophies from happening. It is, what will you do, if and when, they occur. Your location is also threatened by the same type of threats as is mine. You are in a better geographical location than I. We are getting high winds from Hurricane Oliva as I type. I have done many rescues during hurricanes. The Tsunami here would be a new one for me, but I have however attempted to rescue people during a TYPHOON at sea and on land. The results were poor. I was just glad to survive the endeavor. I never thought about dying until afterwards. DUMB! So what do you do? Play the What if game. What would you do. Buy a new home..? Go visit relatives up in the mountains? How much time would you have to respond? How would the traffic be on the way out of town? How would I contact my family and friends. That type of stuff. As for me...I have a tent and would head to a nice fishing hole up in the hills. I surely would not stay in a city. Look at New Orleans...I wouldn't go to a shelter. I would just start all over again. No big deal. Take the Christmas Tsunami and the Hurricane Katrina and do an honest review of the results. Now if it happened in your area, what would you and yours do. TALK ABOUT IT. It is only scary if you are unprepared for it. MY HONEST ASSESSMENT: These events will continue, they will get more frequent and more intense in their ferocity. Just my opionion.
Thanks so much for getting back to me on this... excellent food for thought. This is exactly the type of thing I like to bring up at the dinner table. We'll see what we can come up with.
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