Tsunami Warning

Well, as recent events have shown, paradise is not always a paradise. I was woken up this morning at 2:00am by a call from the Samoa Peace Corps office, there has been a 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chili. The quake could have potentially triggered a tsunami that could affect the pacific islands and even as far as Asia and Japan. The potential tsunami will hit the island of Samoa at approximately 9:00am local time. Unfortunately it seems there is no way to actually tell if it is on it's way or not. I have heard that we could get any where from nothing, up to a 10 meter wave.

I have been up pretty much since the initial call because at 3:00am, my landlord came to get me to go to higher ground. Though, where we live is a block away and maybe 10 feet lower in elevation than one of the area's major tsunami evacuation points, so in all reality there is not much reason to move to that place from our houses. Of course, I did not tell them this since it better to be extra safe in these situations. Of course I opted to stay in my house and try and get a few more hours of sleep. I'm sorry I should have specified in the earlier sentence, it's better to be extra safe if you are someone other than me and I don't want to sleep more.

Then at a little after four, after I managed to just drift off to sleep I got a call from the Red Cross informing me of the tsunami warning and effectively ending any hopes of catching a few more hours sleep before going in to the Red Cross office. It's not that I had to get up, my body pretty much sad screw it, and I was now wide awake.

I arrived at the office at around 6:30am and it is buzzing with volunteers and staff preparing to go to the evacuation points to record the number of people there. I am not sure how this information is used but it is common practice to go out and do this. The volunteers also serve as first aiders at the evacuation points. I do have a concern about sending all the volunteers out for this because it leaves almost no one to go out immediately once the warning is lifted to any affected areas to provide first responder emergency care. But we will hope for the best and maybe there won't be a tsunami or maybe there is a system in place I am unaware of that will help to ensure these first responders can get out to any affected areas immediately if we are hit by a tsunami.

Me, I will probably wait here in the office and help where I can. Then if we are hit by a tsunami I will be going out to one of the affected areas to help in a first responder capacity. With the recent tsunami, heightened awareness in Samoa right now and the early warning I think we can expect the impact with regards to deaths and injuries to be low if we are in-fact hit.

Well, as what usually comes with emergency preparedness and response I will now proceed to sit and wait. Good opportunity to study up on my GRE Vocab. I will be sure to post later today if I have time and anything note worthy to report.