Best I can tell the pilot had some mystical urge to leave. So he left a minute before the earthquake which was probably 3 minutes before the Tsunami hit. The controller stayed at his post but it doesn’t appear that he knowingly got the plane airborn in order to beat the Tsunami.
I’m still searching for the time delay between the EQ and the tsunami - probably was more than 3 minutes - but less than 30 minutes.
The above article talks about a warning system that wasn’t functional due to agency friction over $69,000. The US Science Foundation gave them $3 million that was already spent on the system.
BTW - the tsunami warning is the earthquake itself. If you are on a beach or low area and feel a quake - head to high ground, and/or a tall building. And figure out what you will do BEFORE it happens. I’m guessing most vacationers to the beaches (including the Oregon and Washington coasts) don’t think of that.
I can’t find anything definite. I did see that the EQ was 50 miles away from the bay, and that tsunami waves can travel 500 mph in deep ocean (so 6 minutes from EQ to wave arrival). The quake was on/near the shoreline, so probably shallow water which slows the wave down - so maybe more like 12 minutes??
Just thinking in my own mind how much time one would have to flee.
Here on the Washington coast some of the popular beaches the tsunami would arrive within 20 minutes of the large EQ out in the ocean. Of course parts of those beaches and communities will take more than 20 minutes to evacuate.
Some of the towns have built tall buildings designed for a tsunami to allow for vertical evacuation. But it will be bad when it happens. One town has one or two senior care centers within the tsunami zone. They have said that at the moment, with their limited resources, they would not even attempt to help there, but focus on the two schools in the flood zone where the kids would have a chance.