Tsunami!

It was 4:20 in the morning when friends called from Cambridge to let me know, here in California, that I was about to experience a tsunami. It wasn't, however, until 5:50am that I got the first of two reverse 911 calls, saying that there was a tsunami coming and if I was in the zone, I should go immediately to higher ground. I'm not in the zone, but the second call was more relevant: at 7:15, a second reverse 911 call came that said that the State had decided to close all the beaches in Monterey County, and that we should not try to access the shoreline at all.

Perspectives on tsunamis here on the West Coast are considerably different than on the East Coast. I do not ever remember, in all my months and years on the East Coast ever being told I was in a tsunami zone, or ever seeing a sign such as I used to see in Pacific Grove, that I was then in a tsunami zone. But the threat is real here, and is ever present. The same kind of subduction zone that caused the earthquake in Japan, exists off the northern coast of California, Oregon and Washington. It is a not-so-theoretical possibility that something like what happened in Japan, could happen here. Especially as we consider the "Ring of Fire". With one devastating earthquake in New Zealand in February, another in Japan in March, where might the next one be?

News organizations out here are quite specific now, that they are letting us know what's happening so that we may be prepared. But they also say, quite specifically, that they are not trying to "scare" us. What? What is this news if not scary, that the Japanese still do not have control of the 3 reactors in Fukushima? Authorities are saying that after a meltdown, it will take 10-14 days for radiation to reach the West Coast, and by then it will have dissipated in the wind

to a level that will be tolerable. Really. It brings all those things to mind, like well, I've lived a good life. If God wants me now, he will have me. There's not a great deal I can do about things. and Que sera, sera.

The situation has caused some conversation about the difference in people's behaviour on the East and West Coasts. It has been generally conceded out here, that people in the East are better at knowing their neighbors on an ongoing basis, than people on the west coast. But that when a big one happens, people on the west coast are better prepared. This shows up in interesting ways in the budgets of non-profits and governmental agencies. Back East, we really worked hard on the school boards, United way agencies, and other boards that I have experienced, to balance the budgets fairly precisely each year. Here on the West coast, those same sort of agencies always have a "reserve" of 3-6 months, left in their accounts, or generally set aside for just such things as tsunamis.

I think it is in the way of the weather in both places. The seasons back East demand that people be always at a relatively low level of preparedness, whether it be for hurricanes or blizzards or torrential rains. Out here, the weather is usually not the problem. Devastating earthquakes, tsunamis and radiation from far away places are the problem - less frequent, but more disruptive. So we people adapt to our situations, and organize ourselves accordingly. Let's hope those reserves are not necessary at least while I'm still in California!