Posted on 12/27/2004 8:24:29 PM PST by naturalman1975
UNUSUAL tidal surges and strong currents hitting the coastline of Western Australia, caused by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, are set to continue for at least 24 hours, forecasters have warned.
Meteorologists said they did not know exactly how long the local effects of the undersea earthquake would last, but they were expecting the surges to last at least throughout today.
Perth Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Grant Elliott said the bizarre consequences of the world's worst earthquake in 40 years were hard to predict.
“We do expect the effects to continue and we have had anecdotal evidence of tides up to a metre higher than normal,” Mr Elliott said.
“But because this is beyond our experience we don't know what ripples might remain in the basin, so we just don't know who, what, where or why really.”
The first waves arrived on the west coast on Sunday afternoon and continued into yesterday.
Tidal surges were reported from Geraldton, 425km north of Perth - where several boats in the port lost their moorings - to Busselton, 232km south of Perth.
The southern half of the state felt the greatest effects, despite being further away from the epicentre of the quake, because it was more directly in line with it.
Two people had to be rescued after strong tidal surges swept them out to sea in Busselton, where surges of one metre every 30 to 60 minutes were reported.
feels like that movie "the day after" where an event is just totally global.
The Day After, where there were arctic hurricanes and supercells in LA, but most striking was the pro-global warming crud in it.
Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learning how
Come on and safari with me
(Come on and safari with...)
Surfin' Safari
Yes - I'm looking at news stories now. The local impact here in Australia has blessedly been limited and until now has largely been hidden among the larger news stories - but reportedly we actually were hit, fortunately by greatly dissipated waves. It completely swamped a beach at Busselton, Western Australia (to the extent that people were pulled out to sea - fortunately rescued) and hit quite strongly in parts of Tasmania as well.
Serious questions are being asked about what we need to do for warnings - if it had been a hot day, that beach at Busselton could have had significantly more people on it, and this wouldn't be as minor an issue.
They may have surges but they are in no way "tidal".
I guess I have a gift, I don't even hear that crap anymore, must go in one ear and out the other. I remember a huge storm and some rescue. On the Entertaining / Not Entertaining scale, I was entertained.
Wonder if these are reflected waves from the west African coast? I do some kayaking, and up on the Maine Coast, you can feel the wave pass beneath the kayak and hit a rocky outcropping and reflect back underneath you. Worse case is when the reflected wave hits at the same time a new incoming wave arrives. The troughs can get deep and the peaks get rather high. What a ride.
How could Tasmania be affected? It is shielded by the enitre continent of Australia?
I have read some of the accounts also and they're hair raising. Sometimes God or his angels watch over you. Sometimes not.
CNN just showed aftermath video of the Maldives - the washover effect is unreal. they say there are (were) 5 star resorts there where people actually stay in huts on stilts out in the water.
Apparently the energy released tends to curve around a fair bit - don't ask me the science, but that's what they are saying.
Personally I wonder if what is being seen in Tasmania isn't related to an 8.1 earthquake that occurred a few days before this really huge one. That was much closer to Tassie.
Some of the pictures I have seen make me real humble about nature's power.
Anderson Cooper did two straight hours tonight.
he was going bananas though on this "why didn't the US call to warn you" when the Sri Lankan president was on. The Sri Lankan president didn't even know about the earthquake it seems. Finally, some "expert" came on and told Anderson directly - even if we told them the exact time and place of the tsunami, very few would have left the coastal area. its hard to convince people that something they cannot believe could happen, is going to happen in two hours.
Sri Lanka got it the worst it seems - one half of all the deaths occurred just on sri lanka.
Yes - and the simple fact is in Australia we tried. Our emergency services here did know the tsunami was coming and did try to warn people in several SE Asian countries - but there was no system set up to do so. Our people made the calls - but there was no one answering the phones.
and even if the first line officials in that country get the word - the beauracratic structure in place probably means the people at the coastal locations, tourists, etc - probably never get the word in time, and even if they do, they probably won't believe it.
Just doing some checking - the US tried as well, but had the same basic problem. NOAA in Honolulu identified the fact there was a tsunami about the same time we did - but basically didn't have anyone to contact in the countries that were most at risk.
There is a failure here, and that needs to be addressed - but the failure wasn't with the identification of the problem in western nations - the failure was that there doesn't seem to be any central contact point in most of the south east Asian nations. You can only issue a warning if you know who to warn.
Whether it would have done much good is an open question as well.
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