[An updated experience for Fiji's September, 2009 tsunami scare is also available.]
At around 7.30 a.m. this morning (20 March 2009), I started hearing rumblings about a big earthquake in Tonga with a potential tsunami warning issued. This news came in via a neighbor who was called by someone abroad.
Coincidentally, I had just finished looking at some beautiful photographs of an underground volcano erupting this week in Tonga so I assumed the two were connected. I switched on the radio and heard Kid Rock singing "Sweet Home Alabama" again. To be honest, the sounds of a tsunami warning would have been preferable, but I digress.
I drove to work among the typical morning car and pedestrian traffic and by the time I arrived in my office, the radio was communicating a tsunami warning for Fiji and other Pacific Island nations. My wife then called me to say that people are evacuating the neighbourhood (we live in a low-lying area along the coast) and she was scooping up the 3 year old to head to higher ground. I kicked myself for not grabbing the family passports earlier this morning when I first hear the rumour of all this so I made a decision to run home and pick them up. I guess I'm convinced that in an emergency/disaster, the only thing that would really make a difference is an easy way for my family to get away from it. I'm not talking about abandonment..just survival should it ever have to come to that.
Anyway, by the time I walked outside my office, there was a weird vibe in the air, entirely fed by an purported fear over what might or might not happen. Businesses were closing down and there were people walking briskly down the street carrying bags. It didn't look or feel normal.
On my short drive home, the streets were PACKED with people walking away from the water. I also saw two car accidents. Let me remind you that at this point, all that was issued was a warning of a potential tsunami which may or may not hit Suva around 10 a.m. It was now 8 a.m.
Stupidly, I had forgot my little video camera but used the Blackberry to capture a few seconds of people walking up the street towards higher ground. It's not very gripping video at all, filled mostly with students who had evacuated their schools.
Tsunami warning reaction from jonathan segal
After collecting the passports from my house, I headed back to the office. The streets around the University of the South Pacific were even more crowded. Why did it feel like people were on the verge of panicking?
Emails were coming in on the blackberry by this point announcing essentially the same warning with different levels of concern.
As I watched all this communication around me, I was suddenly struck with a feeling that in the event of a real disaster, we'd be fucked (please pardon the swear but I can't come up with a less obscene word that accurately captured my feeling). A friend who owns a resort along the Coral Coast gave me a ring just before 8 and I assumed he wanted to know the latest news in Suva about the threat. As it turns out, he wasn't even aware of Tongan earthquake or subsequent warning. Did I mention he runs a resort?
Accolades can be given to the news radio and Vijay Narayan's updates but there still seemed to be a real problem getting the word out in a consistent and non-rumour way. I sat looking at my phone wondering whether an SMS warning would come in since that would obviously seem to be the most efficient way of reaching the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time. If an official warning was, in fact, given then there should be a damn message on my phone. 100%. Absolutely no excuse for their not being one.
When we had a tsunami warning in 2006, there was a great deal of follow up about using mobile phone communications in an emergency. If such a plan is in place, I think the public should be aware of it so they know what they should be relying on.
Am I complaining here? If I am, I'm complaining about the lack of any consistently accurate news. It took 40 minutes for the Fiji Times to publish information about the threat on their website. Connect's "news portal" still doesn't have anything as of 9.30 a.m. despite their RED breaking news headline area. Nothing from the Fiji Sun at all nor Fiji TV. As of 9.30, I can see news on the event at the FijiLive.com website but it wasn't there during the warning. Only FijiVillage.com seemed timely and responsible.
I will never forget how the New York Police Department snapped into action on September 11th as the city was being attacked. It was the ONLY thing that day which made me feel comfortable. The news reports will always differ but I don't want to look to the news for direction. I want to feel that someone else is making plans and in control of the situation. I just didn't get that feeling this morning as I moved about Suva.
I'm thankful the disaster never came, of course, but I really wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about how communications are supposed to work in the islands when faced with the potential for such disaster. The absence of that information just makes me feel as if there is no plan in place at all and it's pretty clear what the outcome of that would be.
[UPDATE: By the way, what has already come out of this is the obvious need to put a personal emergency plan in place should there ever be a situation which requires it. My 12 and 10 year olds are smart enough to make their way up to a pre-determined location on their own if need be and we'll be sure that our passports and other essential paperwork is in one single place. Anyone can take these kinds of precautions, even among complicated communications elsewhere. Would be a good idea for families to have this kind of discussion.]
[UPDATE 2: Cool video of those underwater Tongan volcanic eruptions.]
[An updated experience for Fiji's September, 2009 tsunami scare is also available.]
[An updated experience for Fiji's September, 2009 tsunami scare is also available.]
