Tsunami alert
From massacre to meh in sixty minutes
At about 11am today, I was having coffee and watching the waves near Pacifica, when the building started shaking. It had been a while since I was in a California earthquake. I was trying to remember if the advice was still to stand under a doorway. I put on my flip-flops when an alert came to my phone: Tsunami warning, coastal dwellers strongly urge to evacuate.
From traveling in Indonesia, I've been sensitized to tsunami events and I've seen too many videos of 50+ foot waves overwhelming coastal communities where the residents only had about 10 or 15 minutes to seek high ground. I grabbed my laptop and USB charger and walked to the car. I could overhear conversations around me where people were in disbelief or denial about the alert.
Better safe than sorry, I thought, and jumped into the car. I decided to trust the alert and not spend time researching further information if I really only had 10 or 15 minutes. On Google maps, I picked a church on top of the ridge overlooking Pacifica, reasoning that it could be a rally point and shelter.
I would say only about 10% of the people around me took the warning seriously as I noticed cars driving up the same hill. I turned into the driveway for the church, and - lo and behold - they had gated off their parking lot. According to the signage they were annoyed that local residents were using their private parking spaces without permission.
I turned back from St Peter's Gates and went down the other side of the ridge looking for a gas station, thinking I could grab some quick supplies. I bought gas, the first Subway sandwich I had eaten in a decade, some water, and peanuts. I talked to Jenny briefly on the phone, and other customers were similarly engaged.
I looked up the tsunami.gov website and it turned out that the warning zone encompassed most of the Bay area. If I followed their advice to the letter, I would have to drive to San Jose. I could not imagine a situation where the ocean could breach the hills surrounding Montara mountain, but I thought it was a good exercise so I hopped back into the car and drove. Google assistant was helpful for the query of "recent tsunami news" and estimated that the first large tsunami wave would hit Pacifica at about 12:10 p.m. But, by the time I made it to San Jose, the warning had been canceled entirely.
In any case, I think it's for the best to evacuate when these warnings come up, because you never really know when it actually will be important. Did anyone else in CA evacuate, or am I just weird? In the meantime, I will keep my go-bag handy 😅
I was in the parking lot of the Napa Safeway when I received the ShakeAlert. I didn't feel or hear anything at the time. Another alert followed quickly that placed the location of the quake near Eureka, which is good distance north of Napa.
Feeling confident I was in no danger from an event so distant, I entered the store and was near the rear when I sensed a faint vibration and noticed the the hanging aisle signs were "waving." I surmise this was an aftershock. No big deal.
A bit later I received a tsunami warning for Napa County. Now that worried me...we're at least 50 miles from the sea shore with plenty of hills between us and the water...how high are these waves going to be? I headed towards home, as there's a dandy hill right to the east of our house I could drive up and got ready to dial the wife to bolt away from the her lunch with friends to join me on higher ground. I was driving through one of those annoying dead zones for cell service here in town and when I got service back I received a message to cancel the tsunami alert.
So yeah, from HighAnxiety(tm) to full meh in less than sixty minutes.
How was the sandwich?