Tonga Given No Tsunami Warning After Quake Published: 5/3/06, 10:07 PM EDT
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga (AP) - A powerful earthquake struck near the South Pacific nation of Tonga early Thursday, triggering tsunami warnings for as far away as Fiji and New Zealand. But word of the imminent danger never reached the tiny country closest to the epicenter.
Apparently there was a power outage at the precise time people were sending messages and tsunami warnings to the tiny island monarchy. The earthquake was 34 miles from Tonga. I've read that tidal waves travel like 500 miles per hour. This means that the residents of Tonga had approximately 4 minutes to do exactly what? The island is 286 square miles. Where would they run to?
This brings up another story which talks about the residents of the Florida Keys abandoning their houses already...the hurricane season hasn't even begun yet. Look, when you live in places that are susceptible to extreme weather phenomena, you tend to loose your stuff if not your life at some point. Sure it's great to live in Tonga or Key West most of the time but eventually a hurricane or tidal wave is going to get you or at least destroy your house and property.
These two stories remind me of the people in New Orleans before Katrina. They lived happily in a cereal bowl out of which which enormous pumps kept water that naturally wanted to flow there. Now people are moving back and setting up camp in the same places only three feet higher on stilts (for the life of me, I don't know what three feet will do when the Katrina flood waters were up to the roof gutters...that's like 12 feet). In Tonga and the Keys we have people living happily in the paths of hurricanes and earth quakes respectively and fretting about when they will get wiped out. They will get wiped out sooner or later. It's not a question of if, but when. That's the risk you run when you live in the path of nature.
What is most surprising though is that real estate prices continue to soar in these places even though the residents are leaving permanently in droves.
4 comments:
Yeah people who live in high risk places shouldnt complain when they lose their home. I mean, there has to be drawbacks to paradise. THere isnt a single place on this earth where some sort of phenomena will destroy your home, and Im personally sick of people who complain ALL the time about it. Thanks Ed for writing this article because this needed to be said.
I say briefly: Best! Useful information. Good job guys.
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