Heed Tsunami Warnings, Obama Says

[spanone]

KAUAI, Hawaii — Evacuation alarms sounded in Hawaii’s vulnerable coastal areas at 6 a.m. local time Saturday, (11 a.m. Eastern) as the region prepared for what federal officials say could be a dangerous — but most likely not catastrophic — tsunami in the aftermath of the earthquake in Chile earlier in the day.

The message to residents and tourists in Hawaii was don’t panic, there’s time. The tsunami was originally expected to arrive in Hawaii at 11:20 a.m., or 4:20 p.m. Eastern time, but residents were told that it would hit Hilo Bay on Hawaii Island at 11:05 a.m.; on Honolulu at 11:37, and on Kauai at 11:42 as the initial waves moved up the island chain.

President Obama, speaking from the White House on Saturday afternoon, said that Americans possibly affected by the tsunami — including those on the West Coast — should “carefully heed the instructions of state and local officials.” He added that the government was ready to “prepare our shores” and protect our citizens.”

The decision to evacuate coastal areas and handing this evacuation is the responsibility of state and local officials in Hawaii, a Homeland Security official had said earlier.

Hawaii has not issued a statewide evacuation order, instead leaving that decision to individual counties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/28warning.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Republicans announce immediate call for americans to ignore warnings

[spanone]

3. they'll brand him an anti-tsunamic....they'll spin it somehow

[Arkana]

10. Glenn Beck issues an edict that all loyal Republicans

should drown themselves like Sylvia Plath

[annabanana]

2. live stream tsunami tv... should "come in" an hour from now

http://www.khon2.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=3299&navCatId=4

[spanone]

4. thanks....

[malaise]

6. Thanks

:hi:

[Drunken Irishman]

5. How does one evacuate the state of Hawaii?

Besides, you know, going up...

[spanone]

7. that's really all they can do, higher ground or higher hotel room

[Drunken Irishman]

9. That sucks.

:/

Hopefully this is all just a precaution and the wave isn't too big.

[kestrel91316]

8. They are asking people to evacuate from the clearly defined "inundation zones".

It's not rocket science.

[Drunken Irishman]

11. That wasn't my question.

My question has to deal not with just this disaster - but another. Let's say a major hurricane like what we've seen recently in the Gulf Coast.

How does one evacuate from an island. Hawaii ain't that big.

[northernlights]

12. they don't evacuate from the island

unless they are a ship. They evacuate from the coast, moving inland and up.

[Drunken Irishman]

13. I figured...but what about a major storm.

Are they SOL if the storm impacts the entire island? Or are hurricanes there not as impacting as say what you get back east?

I know they had that Hurricane Iniki back in the early 90s, which was pretty big.

I guess I am asking, with Hawaii being such a small state in size, specifically the main Hawaiian Island (only 4,028.0 sq miles), if a storm is big enough...it could make any evacuation pointless.

As we've seen - damage from major hurricanes aren't necessarily centralized on the coast.

[northernlights]

16. they still would evacuate inland to higher ground

The worst part of a hurricane is the storm surge.

The island of Cozumel and its neighboring islands have faced cat 5 hurricanes -- and they're tiny. Evacuation would be the the middle of the island, unless there the island is so tiny there is no inland, or unless you had time to get to inland of the mainland.

[kestrel91316]

15. That would be logistically impossible. Millions of people live in HI and there aren't

enough planes and boats to pull it off. Sheltering in place would be sufficient. And staying out of low-lying areas.

[Bonhomme Richard]

14. Republicans want to start with a clean sheet and redo the process

that people are warned about big waves. Will work on it in the next few months. We need to slow this evacuation process down leadership says.