Wave Goodbye
What to Do If You Don’t Want to Survive a Tsunami
by
A picture of the 2004 tsunami in Ao Nang, Thailand.
This last Tuesday on September 29, 2009 the Oregon Coast was under a tsunami advisory from about 9 pm Pacific through midnight due to an 8.3 earthquake in the South Pacific. Earlier that morning Samoa and the American Samoa were both hit by large waves of up to 15 feet high killing more than one hundred people. On the news that night – shaky phone video of traffic leaving low-lying areas in fear of worse things to come. Unfortunately, it looked as if the world had not learned its lesson from the disastrous tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 that killed more than a 230,000 people. Many of those killed had returned to the beach directly after the first wave to collect fish that had washed up. They violated the only well-established First Rule of Tsunami Survival: Head for higher grounds, baby. And stay there.
But what was this little lump of regret that had tumored up in my heart? I can’t help but think I’d been cheated once again out of something spectacular. The first time I was denied was back in 1986 when I remember a similar warning issued for the Oregon Coast. Nothing came of it, but I had really wanted to be at the beach just in case that Big One came racing in laying waste to any self righteous sand castle having been constructed far enough from the surf to believe it would merely dry-out and wither away a natural death in the salty breeze. I’m not sure what triggered my obsession during my middle teen years, but I can tell you I’ve had reoccurring dreams about tsunami waves chasing me from the shores for more than 20 years.
I would like to lend some weight to the possibility of self-fulfilling prophecy. The only thing that kept me from racing to the beach last Tuesday night was the disappointment of a mere two-foot high wave projection (nothing came of it). Plus it would be dark. I’d be damned if I’d make a 100 mile roundtrip for that. Which got me to thinking. . . how high would the projected wave height have to be to get me to go? What would be the minimum to justify all the fuss? The answer of course, is three feet. Given the relatively smalls slope of most beaches on the Oregon coastline, a two-footer might cover the beaches if it corresponded with a high tide (which was the situation on Tuesday). But consider a three-footer. That would be a thrill to see on some of the more tsunami-prone beaches like at the city of Seaside, where I wouldn’t want to be if there was a four-foot tsunami projection. That place is not much above sea level to begin with. But a three-foot wave would be PG-rated entertainment the whole family could enjoy if the tsunami wave was kind enough to strike during daylight hours, preferably on a weekend. While enjoying my first cup of coffee.
Now imagine something much, much bigger. This was the case back on January 26th, 1700 at around 9pm local time – more than two hundred years before the white man came to the west coast to lose his ass in Native American casinos. This little known event was only related to the modern world by way of Japanese record-keepers, whose shores were hit many hours later by the same wave. The event was also confirmed by scientists who were studying a grove of trees in southwestern Washington Sate that had perished by inundation of saltwater. There is also an 1868 account from a Makah tribesman who recalls some of the oral history: “…Many canoes came down in trees and were destroyed, and numerous lives were lost.” Did you catch that? Canoes came down in trees. At this point I would like to inject a most horrific fictional account concerning the 1700 earthquake:
“It was winter, and it was dark. Many of my tribe was asleep when the earth started shaking. The only light was from the campfire. There was much shouting and confusion. We tried to run but we fell to the ground. But no one knew where to run to. We knew the spirits would move the world at times to show their anger. They never scared us like this before. It seemed to me they wanted to destroy us all for some evil deed. The shaking continued and some of us were able to light new fires to see by. And then it stopped, and all was quiet about the land except for the women and children that were weeping. We men were solemn. We couldn’t speak. I attended to my wife and children and made sure they were okay. They were very frightened, as was I. The chief decided we should send messengers to the neighboring tribes to see if they knew anymore about what had occurred. Surely, we would have to reconcile with the spirits and appease them. I was sent east to contact the tribes closest to the rising sun. I ran. I ran with all my strength. I was more afraid than I had ever been. What if we couldn’t find the ones responsible for the spirits’ anger? After some time I began to tire and I slowed my pace. I stopped by a creek and drank. And that was when I heard the forest speak louder than the wind – there was something coming! It was big. It was larger than all the trees for I could hear it crushing them. And then there were deer and elk running by me. I gathered up my strength and ran with them as fast as I could. The noise became louder and I thought I recognized it. It sounded like…the river. Or the great falls of Snoqualmie I had once visited as a child. It didn’t make any sense but I knew if I stopped running I would be consumed by the great beast. After a while the beast did not pursue me any longer. It retreated through the darkness and I could hear the noises of the things it had taken with it. When I reached the first tribe I told them what had happened. They knew all about the shaking earth but not a thing about the beast in the night. The chief said I should return to my village. He would send his scouts to contact the others. He sent with me five warriors in case the beast should return. I was sickened in my stomach. Had the beast gone into my village? Were my wife and children safe? But when we started back for my village we were halted by the lake. It had grown in size and it was like a river was now there. The trail was gone and there was no way to cross until we found a better way at daybreak. We camped by the lake we no longer recognized. It was then one of the warriors noticed that the lake smelled like the sea…”
The earthquake that caused the tsunami along the coastal region of Washington is estimated to be about a 9.0 event. Evidence suggests that an earthquake of that magnitude strikes the Cascadian subduction zone once about every five hundred. If this average holds, our descendents will have the next generation of video recording to capture the event in full when it happens sometime in the 23rd Century. They won’t have to rely on oral tradition or dendrology to remember it, either. This is the ‘Big One’ scientists are referring to. And it could happen well before then. But they are 100% sure of another cataclysmic quake striking in the Pacific Northwest.
Since the 2004 Boxing Day Quake, I have had the privilege of having my dream-time version of tsunami waves ‘corrected’ to fit the way they might look like in reality. Thanks is due to the surviving videos by those who witnessed the event first-hand. I have watched them all. Here are a few of my favorites:
This one is probably one of the best bits of footage showing a personal level of survival. At first, you can hear a lot of people but then it gets very quiet as everyone except the camera man and his buddy are swept away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecTScxbDkDc
Here are a few more which show more of the wave action.
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