Japan has been hit (again) by a serious quake over 8.0 and (again) loss of life and a follow up Tsunami. Our hearts go out to them, especially from sister Californians who live in 'the zone' and not too distantly dealt with the aftermath of a smaller quake here at home.
A Tsunami is caused by "the displacement of a large volume of a body of water due to disturbances above or below the water." (Thank you, Wikipedia) The ocean currents freak out, not only at the site of the earthquake but for thousands of miles in every direction. The closest land gets it: the more shallow it is, the bigger the punch. It was heartbreaking to watch a wall of water 23' high travel 6 miles inland.
Survivor accounts of a Japanese tsunami by a child at a school in the 1920s described the waters receding a long way from shore, and her classmates running down to pick up starfish and seashells. As the ocean built in volume on the horizon and a distinctly big wave formed, they realized the danger too late as they ran for their lives.
It's hard to imagine the approach of a wall of water with no break that surges in and swallows everything in its path. People thinking they were safely out of the way are often swept out to sea with the receding waters. And this just minutes after the shock of living through the most devastating quake imaginable, an 8.9 and hundreds of times stronger than the devastating San Francisco quake of 1906.
Open bays and coastlines are risk even half a world away and so a Tsunami warning was put out for Hawaii and along the west coast through noon today. For some unknown reason our four major news stations took this as an invite for continual coverage even though tracking a Tsunami is a waiting game. It takes a while to travel. (Dramadramadrama)
Not only that. I'm looking at a confusing series of photos of the Japanese Tsunami on the left side of the screen with a reporter in Hawaii on the right. To the casual observer, it implies that the pictures you are viewing are from Hawaii. Not good, people.
Let's try another station. Here we are looking at the Great Hwy in San Francisco across from where Pop B lives, which has been closed since 5am and is being patrolled by SF's finest. Another earnest looking reporter is standing on the abandoned road and interviewing officers about the implied danger. (But evacuations? No?) With swells expected to be 2' above normal (isn't that 24 inches?) they will 'continually monitor the situation'. Well thank God for that!
Flipping to another station ... where photos are constantly repeating in Santa Cruz, showing the local bridge and a couple of dozen commercial and private boats having lost the oldest dock at the north side of the marina floating along upside down. Five hours of the same pictures and no mention of the 95% of the marina that remains. People in tears. Seriously!
News is super important, I get that, for early warnings and notifications, but I wish it were spent keeping focused on the real tragedy here: the Japanese people and news on how to help and where to donate. Even with baby tsunami leftovers, no part of this day should have been about us.
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