Our friends in NZ - Tsunami

[DrBee]

I just saw that there is a Tsunami warning for NZ and Fiji. An 8.0 earthquake was detected off of Tonga which prompted the warning. A Tsunami has not bee confirmed, but is a possibility. I know we have some NZ TE girls on here - I'm wishing you (and anyone else affected) safe harbor if this materializes. I hope nothing comes of this. I just wanted everyone to know.

[slinkedog]

Just saw this, too. We're thinking of our kiwi friends and hoping for the best!

[CorsairMac]

Thanks for the heads up - adding NZ et al to my " in my thoughts" list!


Will the Down Under ladies report in when you get a chance....let us know ya'll are ok?

[DrBee]

Looks like a large Tsunami was not generated from the earthquake - the warning was just cancelled. That's great news! There is minimal damage in the Tonga Islands from the quake.

[slinkedog]

Great news! Thanks fishdr!

[SnappyPix]

Happy to report that we're Tsunami free in NZ - lots of news being generated about this because apparently our Civil Defence didn't have a clue what to do! That's reassuring!

[kiwi girl]

Although there was an earthquake in the South Pacific the Tsunami warning was a false alarm. It happened overnight and there only appears to be one coastal community where the news spread off CNN and people tried to evacuate.

Two streams of comment on the radio (even though it was a false alarm the fact that some people in Gisbourne headed for the hills has made it the lead story on national radio this morning)
1. some criticism of the international media for its reporting
2. it has shown up that we still need to do some work on how information is communicated to the public during disasters (where there to be a real one)

[Fuji Girl]

Glad everyone is safe.

I was in Samoa/Fiji/NZ (North Island)/Tahiti in the summer of 1999 and the whole South Pacific got hit pretty bad with hurricanes...Tonga got it the worst. Good thing the tsunami missed you guys. :)

[DrBee]

Glad to hear everyone is OK and that you didn't have to evacuate.

[RoadRaven]

I didn't find out about this warning til 12 hours or so later!
I overheard a woman explaining to her friends that her uncle had rung her and told her to pack and head for the hills.
Fortunately, I live 600' above sea level, so when that warning was issued, I was quite safe.
I live a little bit south of where the tsunami was headed for

Thanks for all your kind thoughts for TE DownUnder...

[margo49]

Just saw this brilliant cartoon on the topic. This boffin /geek sitting among all this technologia saying " Our new tsunami-warning will be 10000 messages in bottles dropped into the sea. If you find one floating thru your house there is a 99.9% probability this is not a false alarm" LOL
Bit of a cock-up , what?. But better that than what happened in Thailand with all the Northern Hemisphere geophysicists watching their screens for hours and nobody finding the International Dialling code for Thailand

[DirtDiva]

This one (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,0a2581,00.html), per chance? Gave me a good giggle this morning when I was cheking out Stuff.

[margo49]

Yep, the one and very, Tee-Ell
Stuff is my home-page

[DirtDiva]

Heh, mine too. :cool:

[kiwi girl]

My BF has suggested that Civil Defence should be renamed the National Emergency Response Organisation (Nero) :)

[DirtDiva]

Ha! Nice one. :D