Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tsunami Evacuation Plan

We got the warning around 5AM-an 8.8 earthquake in Chile may cause a tsunami to the islands.

Richard was up (yes he has a sleeping problem) so he headed to Safeway to get some milk, diapers, and food for Jacob as well as some gas for his car. He already had to wait 20min. for gas at that early hour. We decided we would probably be ok where we were but figured to be safe we would head to the mountains aka Richard's parents house.

Here is our evacuation plan:

Bring developed pictures up to the top floor
Grab camera
Bring Jacob's supplies including pack n play
Leave

In hindsight, I would have brought our important documents that I left upstairs.

This was part of a long line of cars parked along side the road leading up the mountain right in front of Richard's parents house. The line got longer as it got closer to tsunami time -11AM. The reason this warning was such a big deal was that in the 1960's Chile had a 8.3 earthquake that caused a tsunami. It hit the Big Island and cost the lives of 61 people. Since this earthquake was a little bigger, there was no reason for us not to think the tsunami would come again.

We watched the ocean and the news all morning. A little activity took place in the ocean about 11:30 but no big waves. We didn't have the all clear for awhile though, and since many roads were closed we just hung out. We were glad nothing major happened and if nothing else it was a good reminder to be prepared.






No comments: