I went to work as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. The beaches and trails in the Pacific Rim National Park were closed and there were Parks staff at each entrance, guarding wanna-be intrepid souls from entering and creating a search-and-rescue nightmare. All the schools in Tofino, Ucluelet, and Port Alberni were closed.
The result? Not much really happened. Not that I knew of.
Then Dan told me what he saw when I got home today. I guess he had gone down to Whiskey Dock to have a look at the harbour. At that moment, water was sucked back from the inlet, the water line dropped several feet, then swelled again about a metre or so in the space of two minutes. That was it, that was the effect ouf the tsunami here. But water moving that fast can do a fair bit of damage, so hopefully no one was hurt.
Apparently in times like this the best place for a boat to be is not in harbour but out to sea. The tsunami waves roll under the water, only start rolling up when they reach shallower depths.
I was mildly concerned this morning because, despite having been at the hospital six weeks now, I haven't had any real sort of Disaster Preparedness training. I now where the manuals are located, but during a disaster you don't want to be coming to this information for the first time. Also: am I on the disaster fan out? Is there someone who is responsible for phoning me in case of emergency?
What this morning taught me was that we need to be ready at any time. The earthquake could have just as easily hit us. We need to have a plan, we need to have a disaster preparadness grab-and-go bag in case we do have to high tail it to high ground. Gas in the vehicle, or at least Jerry cans full of gas; food & water; money and passports; a list of our medications(none at the moment) and allergies; warm dry clothing, blankets and things for sleeping, etc. There has been a lot of publicity in the area lately about preparing for disasters like this, but I admit to having felt rather cocky about not needing to prepare too much, Dan and I can defend ourselves pretty well. But what if one of us is trapped under a beam? Then we need pry tools. Yup, we need to be readier than we were this morning when Benj called at 4:30.
When The good people at Stellar Coffee came over this morning, one of them asked me to put knitting in her hands. Crap! I didn't really have any easy projects on the go! One mroe thing for the disaster preparedness kit: emergency knitting
The result? Not much really happened. Not that I knew of.
Then Dan told me what he saw when I got home today. I guess he had gone down to Whiskey Dock to have a look at the harbour. At that moment, water was sucked back from the inlet, the water line dropped several feet, then swelled again about a metre or so in the space of two minutes. That was it, that was the effect ouf the tsunami here. But water moving that fast can do a fair bit of damage, so hopefully no one was hurt.
Apparently in times like this the best place for a boat to be is not in harbour but out to sea. The tsunami waves roll under the water, only start rolling up when they reach shallower depths.
I was mildly concerned this morning because, despite having been at the hospital six weeks now, I haven't had any real sort of Disaster Preparedness training. I now where the manuals are located, but during a disaster you don't want to be coming to this information for the first time. Also: am I on the disaster fan out? Is there someone who is responsible for phoning me in case of emergency?
What this morning taught me was that we need to be ready at any time. The earthquake could have just as easily hit us. We need to have a plan, we need to have a disaster preparadness grab-and-go bag in case we do have to high tail it to high ground. Gas in the vehicle, or at least Jerry cans full of gas; food & water; money and passports; a list of our medications(none at the moment) and allergies; warm dry clothing, blankets and things for sleeping, etc. There has been a lot of publicity in the area lately about preparing for disasters like this, but I admit to having felt rather cocky about not needing to prepare too much, Dan and I can defend ourselves pretty well. But what if one of us is trapped under a beam? Then we need pry tools. Yup, we need to be readier than we were this morning when Benj called at 4:30.
When The good people at Stellar Coffee came over this morning, one of them asked me to put knitting in her hands. Crap! I didn't really have any easy projects on the go! One mroe thing for the disaster preparedness kit: emergency knitting
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