U.S. Beach Tsunami Evacuation Methods: How to Stay Safe

Once the world beheld the massive Indonesian tsunami the day after Christmas, 2004, most of us felt that survival is probably impossible after being near such a sudden calamity. Many who live or spend time along the west coast beaches of the U.S. certainly took notice of it, especially when we've seen smaller tsunamis and threats of them there before. If you've read me often, you'll know I've expounded on tsunami threats before, particularly along the Oregon Coast where the worries of a massive tsunami hitting are always in my mind the minute I step foot on their beautiful beaches. It doesn't help that the signage on every beach there implores you to seek higher ground within minutes after an earthquake hits. Unless you can fly, that isn't going to happen.

Of course, those signs could go with a negative vibe and say that nobody has a chance if you're on a large beach minutes before a tsunami hits. Or, those signs could get an overhaul and give more detail about what you can do to stay safe rather than state the impossible. The education and preparation to survive a tsunami is appallingly neglected in places vulnerable here in the United States. With recent news from scientists that the west coast could someday get a bigger tsunami than originally surmised (see source link), the time to get people educated is sooner rather than at some indefinite future date.

And it doesn't mean teaching people how to fly into the nearby hills.

After it was discovered not long ago that Alaska has more dangerous earthquake faults off their coast than previously known, scientists started throwing out (or whispering) the prospects of the entire U.S. west coast getting more intense tsunamis because of it. There should have been an immediate call for all beach towns from Alaska down to California to set up more elaborate plans to help people evacuate easier should a tsunami on the level of the 2004 Indonesian disaster happen. Based on my single line insinuation above, this could be the greatest example of symbiosis between people and the government helping one another rather than letting the populace go it alone.

Based on the understanding that people can't possibly run from a beach and into their cars to head to higher ground in a matter of minutes, the U.S. Coast Guard should implement a plan to get as many people to high ground as possible in a short amount of time. For those physically able, though, running as fast as you can up to land away from the waterline is a given. Once up on land, however, you're going to encounter one other normal reaction of the populace around you due to fear: A traffic jam of cars trying to get into any available hills.

While it may be controversial to say so, I recommend you not get in your car and get stuck in a traffic jam that only delays precious time transplanting you, your family or friends to a safer place. I say this out of the probability that our U.S. Coast Guard will have a procedure in place that would allow an orderly evacuation rather than people running over one another just to survive before a massive wave comes ashore.
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If the Coast Guard has any sense of preparation, a complete plan should be in place by then where large utility trucks are at the immediate ready to transport large quantities of people at a time to whatever higher ground that can be found. Through this method, people can line up single file near one of the vehicles and be whisked out of harm's way in minutes without creating a traffic jam from hell. The most haunting sight and sound would be a video released to national media showing the cacophony of blaring car horns stuck in a mile-long line while a massive wave from the Pacific Ocean comes roaring over the cars.

The vehicles would have to be the primary method of evacuating people other than using a number of Coast Guard helicopters being able to reach you right on the beach if you're too slow to run back up to dry land. I know from my own observations at the Oregon Coast that the majority of people you'll see most of the year there are retirees who may be physically able to walk slowly on the beach, but wouldn't be able to sprint through deep sand back up to higher ground in minutes. Every person should have a chance to evacuate and shouldn't be left behind based on age or inability to move fast. Even though I'll assume you have a conscience, be sure to help those people if able and without thinking of just yourself.

Yes, it's easy to say you'll do that when your own life in peril. But everybody helping each other is going to be the most important step in your escape route. On the other hand, there might be immediate thoughts to do otherwise when dealing with one peculiarity you'll likely encounter when a tsunami warning is announced: Dealing with those who go down on the beach to watch the tsunami come in.

I'll never forget the last time a tsunami warning happened on the Oregon Coast back in the mid 1980's and hearing the reports of people congregating down near the ocean to be witness to a disaster. Fortunately, the tsunami was less than a foot high, yet could have killed a good number of people had it been at more intense levels. In the interim, the continuing phenomenon of naïve people checking out a tsunami up close intensified and will probably happen again in bigger numbers should a real threat occur again.

Whether you want to stay to yell and berate these people for not living reality is up to you. For yourself, though, you'll know that major tsunamis do happen on the U.S. west coast. Going by a major one hitting there 45 years ago in 1964 that killed hundreds of people in Alaska, Oregon and California, it's inevitable it'll happen again in our lifetimes.

We'll just have to depend now on our own government to join in to bring back smart evacuation procedures. For those who oppose government interference, this is one reason to think it's worth it, at least on a local level.

If only they'd impose a posthumous fine on those who wanted to see a tsunami up close and too personal...

Source:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/090721-pacific-tsunami.html