Chile Earthquake & the Tsunami
Monday, March 1, 2010 at 11:55 PM 
Before I say anything more my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Chile as they deal with the devastation and loss of life caused by the weekend's earthquake.
It is an interesting insight into our culture that most of the coverage and commentary online and on TV yesterday here in New Zealand was about the tsunami heading our way, rather than the earthquake itself. Quite sad really. Are we really that self-absorbed as a country?
Whilst many NZers plans for yesterday had to be changed - for example our church youth group went to the local pool instead of the beach as planned - this is trivial compared to dealing with the aftermath of such an earthquake, the loss of loved ones, etc.
That said, it was interesting to see how NZ responded to the threat of a tsunami. The threat turned out to be real, but not as dramatic as initial reports and warnings suggested it might be. The photo to the top left shows the water level in inner Wellington harbour late Sunday afternoon. High tide is usually just below this board walk.
It is a sad reminder of the idiocy of some people to see reports of people going to the beach while the tsunami warning was still in place. They not only put themselves at risk, but also emergency services personnel who would have been called on if they got into difficulty. And, we as taxpayers would have had to fund treatment for any injuries they sustained, which could quite easily have been horrific.
An interesting side question is how will NZ respond next time? This time was real, but not dramatic. Will people respect the warnings next time?
hat tip to 'eye of the fish' for the link to the image in the comments of their post on this
Reader Comments (1)
I was in New Zealand the week before the earthquake, visiting 3 cities in need of Tsunami Alert systems. Only City of Dunedin had sincere interest. Christchurch, devastated by a tsunami in 1960 was somewhat ambivalent to the dangers. A week later, I was in Tahiti, watching the tsunami roll by. Luckily, it didn't amount to much, but could have been much worse.
Chile continues to dig out after these months, and the beautiful culture has been put on hold in the mean time. We share your thoughts and prayers for the people of Chile.
Bobby Vassallo