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Back in the early days of tourism development in Fort Lauderdale, they had a hurricane that pretty much wiped the town off the face of the earth... the jail was still standing, and apparently the town development council decided that they should store all photographs documenting the hurricane damage in one of the jail cells, for several decades.
I wonder if they kept the reporters in the cell next to it until they decided they were ready to let go of their negatives...
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"I recall an incident I saw on the news years back about Maui where there had been a shark attack"
Olowalu seems to be another hot spot - yet Maui county doesnt post any warnings there either
As a whole the islands seem to be much less interested in safety precautions in public places than some other locations (that may have seen more lawsuits)
- more of a pays your money takes your chances kind of place out here
Replying to the posts about higher ground ...
In South Kohala there is only one rule of thumb ... towards the highway from anywhere along the coast. The highway itself is way out of the inundation zone, and Waikoloa Beach Resort only has one through road out. Same with Mauna Lani and Mauna Kea. Puako and Hapuna, whichever highway access is closest ...
There are signs there; I've noticed them.
In Hilo, there are definitely places it would be bad to get caught. The traffic would lock up fast if there were a local tsunami. Common sense though is to head mauka, and forget about sorting out where in the lowlying area is in or out of the zone.
In general though, you can picture the Wailoa River basin as the epicenter of where you don't want to be, along with 4 mile strip and anywhere below Kinoole in old downtown. If you are past the airport on Hwy 11, you are good, but if you were on Kilauea it extends all the way to Lanikaula., because of the area behind the Wailoa River lagoon.
If you don't know Hilo very well, you may not even be aware of the whole Wailoa lagoon area other than what you see from the Manono--Suisan area bridge. It's definitely good to study a map of Hilo. I lived in town for a couple years and I like to take the back way when I can, so I learned all the connector streets and where they go through, which ones are fast and which are not.
You may live in Puna, but you never know if you'll be in Hilo when sirens go off. I live at a comfortable elevation for the average tsunami, but I drive through the evacuation zones all the time ... a lot of us do. The East Hawai'i Mapbook is the best guide to Hilo streets ... not a bad thing to keep in the car maybe. I keep both West and East in the car.
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I just hope folks don't get complacent and start to think that if a siren sounds, they always have several hours to stock up on rice, water and toilet paper before evacuating...
good point ...
hey, if a siren goes off and I don't already know exactly why it's going off, I would move fast if I were in the zone.
Although any quake that generates a local tsunami, the quake itself is what tells you to get to higher ground ... no wait for the sirens.
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Trust me Kathy, if a siren goes off while I'm in downtown Hilo, people between me and the high ground will face a bigger danger than people between me and the approaching wave... (Joking, I'm joking... I will evacuate quickly, but safely...).
