The Darwin Effect?
Plain Jane responded to my comment on Heraldo's blog yesterday,"People did the same thing in Crescent City in the 64 tsunami, Fred. It’s the Darwin effect."
I had commented on people going down close to the water to watch a tsunami arrive.
I'd actually heard some of those same stories about the Crescent City wave, but after actually reading accounts of how people were killed in those waves, it doesn't seem the people who were killed were just curious onlookers.
That said, it's totally believable after reading news reports of yesterday's event from here and around the state. Seems like it was business as usual for a lot of people.
Here in Eureka the powers- that- be went ahead with their Perilous Plunge event which involved jumping off the dock at the foot of F Street and into the bay. It was supposedly business as usual for people living down by the water in places like King Salmon, too.
Hey, I know it would be tough to stay away from the water when you live right next to it, but I don't think I'd be outside casually walking my dog on the beach like a number of people seemed to have been doing.
Unbelievable, the way people just ignore warnings. The worst part about this is the predictions not really coming to pass in places like Hawaii. Now, the next time a tsunami alert is given. people will think it's another false alarm and there will likely be even more people going out and walking on the beach to see what it looks like when the wave hits the shore.
Hat tip to Kym for the links to the info on the '64 Crescent City wave.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:28 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
A couple of days after the '64 tsunami, the Eureka Humboldt Standard had an article about this entitled "Cry of Wolf" Responsible for much of Quake Apathy. According to John W. Gaffney director of the Ca. Disaster Office in Sacramento at that time there had already been "six or seven false alarms within the last year alone."
Like I said, I can see how it might be kind of tough to leave your house for the most part of a day if you lived right on the water in some place like King Salmon, but would it be all that difficult to just stay away from the beach for a day?
Fred, these people may have read the forecasted height of the waves, which for Humboldt, was no more than 1 foot... and turned out to be a LOT less. That poses zero risk for the foot of F street.
They couldn't be sure about that. It would of made sense to stay away from the water for the day.
They were forecasting an 8' wave for Hawaii. Not sure it went up there that much, or not. Didn't look like it to me, but hard to tell from the video.
Thing is, tsunami forecasts aren't an exact science. I'd err on the side of caution.
Look in the mirror to find irrationality. Weren't the predictions made by Government employees and don't Libertarians believe Government can't be trusted? Maybe it was a plot to just exercise control over people.
But ignoring the warnings about climate change isn't a problem, is it? If you want to pick and choose which authority to follow, then you're really settting yourself up as the authortiy. An authority who's ignorant.
i like the pics of the tsunami waves rolling ashore.
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