Tonga volcano: effects in Hawaii

[Rob Tucker]

Some years back I recall that there was a tsunami bouy about 200 miles out from the Big Island... someone sailed out there and stole the solar panels off it rendering it useless.

[Carey]

Rob, you are correct.... vandalism & theft of those bugs is a constant problem (when I was working on my Masters, my advisor had a water quality buoy out in Hilo Bay that was vandalized repeatedly & even had a theft, yet it had a GPS, so the lab was able to follow where it went... last time I saw it, it was disabled again & up on day land in PACRC... sorry thing for as hard as prof compete for very little research monies for these instruments to have their research & funding just ripped off..)
https://www.vos.noaa.gov/MWL/apr_10/vand...527205.pdf
https://www.reuters.com/article/environm...1020080219
https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/ker...-1.6081937
https://www.researchgate.net/publication...uoy_Center
& even on land:
https://hawaii247.com/2011/09/23/thieves...y-in-puna/

ETA: HOWEVER THIS WAS NOT THE CASE THAT PTSC DID NOT HAVE THE INFO- NOR WAS IT THE CASE THAT PTWC DID NOT ISSUE AN ADVISORY...
Folks this is all on our county & state for the delay, the instruments & experts deemed an advisory should have been issued at 12:40AM.... have no idea why our county/state delayed...... PTSC issued the advisory at 12:40AM... well ahead of the first wave (2:00AM) & before the first advisory that our county issued (2:03AM

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

the instruments & experts deemed an advisory should have been issued at 12:40AM.... 

Yes, but someone, somewhere decided it was not serious enough to set off the warning sirens or order an evacuation, which is very often the case with Pacific rim earthquakes.  Not every earthquake or potential tsunami requires a warning siren in Hawaii.  If a siren goes off at midnight, or after midnight and almost nothing happens, are you less likely to pay attention the next time one wakes you up groggy, in the middle of the night?

Was it the right call, or the wrong call?  Were officials (and residents in low lying areas) just lucky that it was not a serious event?  I’m not defending the decision that was made, but it is more complicated than hitting the siren button every time an earthquake occurs, or in this case a distant volcanic eruption.

[Carey]

Since there was a PTWC advisory & there wad damage - in an area that has a lot of night boating, fishing & even opihi hunting... perhaps the call should have been to issue the ADVISORY .... with all of what that is... most boaters do check things like that, as do many fishing & opihi hunters... it is one of those things you are on the watch for...

For those that lived through the spring 2009 tsunami alert with hours of alarms... for a very less damaging wave (that one mainly hit fishponds gates) I really do feel a little warning for naught is better than no warning for actual damaging waves...
Obviously the one who made the call not to issue the advisory until after the first wave was in error...

Again, maybe our CD is now in disaster overload...

[TomK]

I think most of us here know that having Talmadge Magno in charge of civil defense was a poor decision. It was very clear during the 2018 eruption that the guy was in a position that was too complicated for him. But he's still there and there will always be claims of incompetence with civil defense while he remains in charge.

There are other things I want to say about CD alerts but will leave it to another time when I feel less upset.

[ChunksterK]

Talmadge Magno is one of those county officials who leaves me thinking, "Whose cousin is this joker?" Leaving him in place in a new administration was yet another failing of Mitch Roth.

[My 2 cents]

"Obviously the one who made the call not to issue the advisory until after the first wave was in error..."

Was a decision actually made, or did someone simply fall asleep at the wheel?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

From a National Geographic article about the Tonga eruption, perhaps providing a little more background with what scientists and emergency officials were looking at behind the scenes:

"Everything so far about this eruption is off-the-scale weird," says Janine Krippner, a volcanologist with Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program.

[Puna Grace]

Extremely interesting article with official reactions to events as they happened.

A submarine volcanic eruption that caused devastation in Tonga is highly unlikely in the isles

• By Timothy Hurley 
  

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2022/01/3...the-isles/

[eightfingers2.0]

What about Loihi?