Tsunami Warning 2nd April

Tsunami Warning
I do not want to take away from the sadness of what happened in the Solomon’s last Monday as a result of the earthquake and following tsunami………that was tragic.

 

The following is our experience of the tsunami warning for Vanuatu on Monday 2^nd April 2007.

Last Monday I was in the middle of teaching a class when mama Cindy came to the room looking all worried and asked me to take the old Talua truck to the local school (Tata) and collect all the kids blong Talua students......as there was a tsunami warning.

This warning message arrived around 10:40AM from a nephew of the principal – not an official warning. He said he had heard on the radio a tsunami was expected around 11AM. So it was off to the school in the old blue Talua truck driving it as fast as possible with one eye on the ocean in between the coconut palms. Got to the school to find they had just heard as well……not from the Government Disaster Centre but the boyfriend of the school secretary had rang from Luganville.

Luganville was totally shut down, all shops, banks and whatnot closed for the whole day. On Tuesday when chatting with a few Luganville shop owners, one had known about the tsunami warning from around 9:30AM while another was working in her shop at 10:45 when a friend walking past asked her “why are you still open……..” Rather sad really……..what if there had been a big one.

At the school I asked the teachers what their tsunami warning procedure was...they didn't know, so I suggested they get all the kids up to the medical centre quickly, there was about 5 minutes before the 11AM deadline, the medical centre is on a rise about 10 - 15 meters higher than the school and only a 3 minute walk away. Well in the process of the teachers telling the kids, about a third of them (and some teachers) tore off into the bush helter-skelter back to their homes - potentially serious if there was a big one coming. It was emotionally upsetting seeing the kids run off towards their villages as if it was a big one…….……..their houses are along the beach (up a few meters but still at risk).

I drove the Talua kids back to Talua and we waited. Viv listened to NZ radio and it sounded like the wave would have hit by the time we had had the warning - the earthquake was 7:30AM Vanuatu time…..we later found out the tsunami tidal surges actually arrived around midday.

When talking to folk in Luganville on Tuesday, some people went down to the wharf to see what would happen (not clever)…….about midday there was a strong unusual tidal movements, with the tide going out and then coming in, all much further than normal etc. It sounds like this happened about three or four times.
Back at Talua around midday, some staff and students took to the hills. Monday night some staff and students were still frightened and stayed ether in the hills or they went to Luganville to sleep in the hospital or houses on the hill. Later during the day we heard NZ radio say the wave would hit NZ in the late afternoon, we figured it was well past. Pastor Fiama (Talua Principal) was frustrated with the National Disaster Centre (he said it was the disaster), as he tried to ring them all day and never got a definite answer - either way, so he was quite worried all day not knowing what was happening.

The last time a big tsunami hit the Talua / Tangoa region in South Santo (sometime in the 60’s), it was during the night and no one was hurt. Back then it sounds like most people around here lived on Tangoa Island - which is reasonably high. People got up and went to the main land to work in their gardens and instead found fish and whatnot lying inland about 500 meters on the road. Today many of these people live in villages along the stretch of land where the water washed through………..where the school kids went running off to.

God Bless

Jon