Home Ministry official: "Nevermind."
Kind of cruel. I know the feeling. Californians tended to ignore, put out of their mind, even 5-6 quakes before Loma Prieta. If anyone was watching the great Bay Area series that year get punished from above, they'll remember. And after that, a lot of people got very nervous at a 5.0 quake, which wouldn't have bothered them before. Myself, I got shaken by smaller quakes, literally and emotionally. I can understand people fleeing in panic, after having seen the sea surge on them in a way it had never done before, in their lives, perhaps - and this in monsoon country.
We have a tsunami warning system in place,and would probably have several hours warning before the west coast was hit.
Picture the traffic jams.Picture the "last minute folks"-clogging up the roadways.Picture our media-doing their level best to add to the panic.
What do you think ?
Would our casualties be in the thousands, or the tens of thousands ??