"Justin Goss was in the shower when he first heard the piercing wail of a nearby tsunami early-warning siren. Still dripping wet, he threw on clothes, grabbed his dog and rushed to the truck. The pair made it 3 metres and no further. The whole parking lot across the street was jammed up. It was complete gridlock within three minutes, he says. I thought, Oh shit, this is not good.'"
"Residents of this small town have long been braced for a deadly tsunami. When not if a tectonic plate snaps upwards, the resulting energy will convert to a wave moving at the speed of an airliner. As it reaches shallow water, it will advance towards the shore at 20 miles an hour (32km/h) slower than an elite sprinter but swap speed for size. A wall of water 20 metres (65ft) high is possible when it finally reaches land."
A tsunami early-warning siren triggered rapid evacuation and chaos in Tofino, causing jammed streets and immediate fear. Residents and visitors fled beaches, parents rushed for children, and restaurants emptied as people sought higher ground. The town lacks downtown warning sirens yet remains highly exposed: a sudden tectonic uplift could generate an airliner-speed wave that grows in shallow water, potentially becoming a 20-metre-high wall of water onshore. A recent distant Kamchatka earthquake produced only a swell, but the alert forced residents to confront Tofino’s precarious geography and the challenge of preparing for an unpredictable, high-consequence tsunami.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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