‘If you feel the earth shake, run’
IF YOU FEEL the earth shaking, see the sea receding or hear an unnaturally loud roaring, run as far inland as you can.
Don’t wait for official word because if these signs portend a tsunami, the time to evacuate to safe ground could be mere minutes.
This was the mantra from the University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Centre yesterday as it updated media workers on the Tsunami And Other Coastal Hazards Warning System Project.
“The earthquakes that can be generated in the Caribbean that can cause tsunamis, these tsunamis will strike within minutes. There will be no time for an official warning,” said Joan Latchman, seismologist with the UWI Seismic Research Centre.
“So while we are in the process of setting up a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean, that [warning system] will be effective for those tsunamis that occur at distance; those that are generated by earthquakes far away and cross the open ocean basins . . . strike within hours, giving us lots of time to get messages out, evacuations organised and people taken away from the danger zone,” she said.
As a result, the seismologist urged people to learn the warning signs and act accordingly and speedily. If you are at the beach and you see the water recede - run “as fast as you can” for higher ground; if you feel a massive earthquake - run; if you hear a roar like a train or rather large aeroplane - run.
“The object is to be out of there. Do not go down to the beach,” she said.
Latchman stressed that a tsunami was actually a series of waves caused by the abrupt disturbance of the ocean floor. (Nation News)