Last night the east coast of Australia was put on a Tsunami red alert. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning last night at about 7:30pm. I, of course, was out at the local pub having a few beers with some mates and had no idea that this warning had been issued. As I wandered home I checked in with the latest tweets from friends and to my surprise there was a tweet about a tsunami warning. In disbelief I kind of brushed it off. About half an hour later I checked twitter again and there they were, even more tweets about the tsunami alert.So I followed this up with a bit of web surfing and checked out the warnings myself and there it was: "under real danger of powerful waves following a major undersea earthquake off the New Zealand coast at 7.22pm (AEST). " So I popped on my shoes and wandered down to the beach to see for myself. Yes, probably not a great idea, but hey, I'd had some beers so my judgment was slightly impaired. When I got to the beach it was so calm. A little further up the beach a few more people had gathered so I wandered up towards them. These people had beers in hand, a couple of the girls had some champaign glasses. It was a tsunami party. We were all out to welcome the waves. Madness. But to me it kind of struck me as typical Australian behavior.
Another review of the warning revealed that the danger was downgraded but expected to last all night, so I wandered home and crawled into bed hoping that I wouldn't wake up floating in the ocean. It was kind of exciting knowing for the first time since moving so close to the beach that tsunami's are a rare but real possibility.
6 comments:
That would've been really fucking cool actually. I like it when you're presented with the the dangers of a particular region. It's a little bit exciting. Glad you're not posting from the middle of the ocean today though.
I'm actually surprised not more Australians end up on the Darwin awards.
Next time wear a life vest and bring something to eat for the sharks. *wink*
What I don't understand is that no-one in the bar got the message, wasn't it said on radio, tv or a text message on cellphones?
Yowsers! What a goon! You went to welcome the waves. Love it.
The only danger here is being reclaimed by the desert...
TM: Yeah, I thought it would have been cool too. Although, I stop to think if my insurance actually does cover tsunami damage.
AR: I'm sure there is our fair share on that list. :)
Peter: We were in a downstairs bar and I can't help but think if there was a big wave and no warning we would have really had no escape. I guess there was no real warning because the football was on so there would have been no way that would have been interrupted.
DG:From what I read the threat didn't seem too great. I was expecting some bigger waves and that was about it. It turns out that there was a 30cm increase in wave height. OOOooooo look-out!
Oh you, you just love living on the edge don't you! LOL
Post a Comment