As most readers undoubtedly know from the sirens that started going off at 10pm HST, a severe 8.9 earthquake hit the northern Honshu region of Japan last night. For those who didn’t pay attention in geology class, this size quake is absolutely HUGE. Strictly based on seismic energy, it will be one of the biggest quakes to occur in most of our lifetimes. Unfortunately, hundreds are already confirmed dead with that number likely to grow as we are still less than 24 hours from the time of the event. With much of Hawaii’s population of Japanese descent or having family back in Japan, our hearts go out to them. Luckily, we escaped serious damage and losses here in the islands, although Kauai, Maui and the Big Island did experience a bit of a scare.
The timing of this event is a bit peculiar as I recently set up a two-part video interview with a good friend of mine to discuss the dangers of coastal living (planned for mid-April). We have new evacuation zones drawn up in Hawaii to help mitigate loss of lives during these events, but there’s no denying that living by the coast carries with it an inherent risk to a multitude of natural hazards, some of which are magnified by human presence alone (depends on your definition of ‘hazard’ and ‘vulnerability’). But no place on earth has been as settled as our coastal zones. For centuries and centuries, man has settled the perimeters of the world, from Athens and Sao Paolo to Mumbai and New York City. No place has attracted settlers like the coast.
So no one is advocating a mass withdrawal (well, actually some are) from our shorelines, but the events of the past 24 hours, while tragic, may serve as a bit of a wake-up call for Hawaii’s residents. Just because we got off easy this time, the next Hawaii tsunami could be disastrous. How close to the beach do we really wish to live? What’s the trade-off? How many of us are aware of the new evacuation zones? They’re in the phone books (if you still have one of those things). How many of us know what a tsunami siren sounds like? A friend of mine asked me last night what the horn was – obviously, not everyone hears about world events as quickly as others. These are important items to give serious thought to, but we only tend to do so after the fact.
Here are some great resources for you to bookmark:
Pacific Disaster Center – With HQ in Maui, PDC watches over the entire Pacific
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – Part of the National Weather Service & based in Ewa Beach
Hawaii Evacuation Zones – Enter your address and find out…
NOAA Main Honshu Tsunami Event of March 11, 2011
USGS Honshu Earthquake Information