Tsunami Watches, Warnings, and Alerts

Okay, so in response to the comments of my last post, I will explain a little more about what happened.

We did have a tsunami watch in our area for a few hours on Monday. It didn't go any further than that. In fact, a couple hours before the expected arrival, it was canceled.

A tsunami watch happens when there is an earthquake that could possibly generate a tsunami. There was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake Monday evening off the coast of California. They didn't immediately know if it would generate a tsunami or not, but because it happened in the water, they had to issue the warning.

When nothing seemed to be happening, it was canceled. If it had appeared that there would be a wave generated, even a small one, they would have issued a Tsunami Warning. That would have meant that we had to pack our emergency supplies, and be ready to evacuate.

If it appeared to generate a wave that was likely to reach our vicinity, they would have issued a Tsunami Alert. Then the town alarm would have gone off, we would have packed our emergency supplies into our cars and evacuated the town. Then we would just sit and wait until we were told it was safe to come home.

They don't issue warnings for every earthquake and this is not a direct result of the devastating tsunami that hit Southeast Asia last December. We've had these things for as long as I can remember. Thankfully, we haven't had to evacuate since I was in high school. Nothing ever happens when we do evacuate, but I guess it's always better to be safe than sorry. The one time I remember a wave reaching us, it was so small that all it did was raise the tide really high for a short while. There was no damage done.

Alaska has been hit before. In 1946, a tsunami hit the Aleutian islands destroying a light house and killing the 5 people inside. In 1957, the Aleutian Islands were hit again, but the only casualties were sheep. The village of Lituya was devastated back in 1958. The damage from the 1964 tsunami was greatest along the southeastern coast of Alaska. Many of the coastal communities along Prince William Sound and Kodiak Island were completely wiped out. In all, tsunami waves generated by the 1964 quake killed 119 people and caused approximately 300 to 400 million dollars in damage to Alaska alone.

So the tsunami watch was not new to us. We've been extremely lucky in years past and have not suffered any damage from any of the major Alaskan tsunamis.

Okay, lesson's over. Hope you were paying attention. There'll be a pop quiz later!