Bermuda To Participate: Tsunami Warning Drill
Bermuda will participate in an Atlantic tsunami warning exercise on Wednesday 28 March, in conjunction with other countries in the region. The exercise will simulate an undersea earthquake and landslide off the coast of the US Eastern Seaboard, resulting in tsunami waves being directed towards Bermuda and other jurisdictions in the northwest Atlantic. Exercises are also planned for the Gulf Of Mexico, to be carried out on the same day.
A spokesperson said, “Residents should not be alarmed to note the Exercise Warnings posted via the Bermuda Weather Channel on CableVision and WOW, the weather telephone recordings (977, 9771, 9772, and 9773), www.weather.bm or broadcast via VHF Radio. Residents should however, note the relevant information contained within the exercise warnings and take the opportunity to think about their state of readiness, should such an actual event occur.
“There are active earthquake and volcano zones in the Caribbean, and historical tsunamis have been documented in the Atlantic also. The low frequency of these events is disarming, but the potentially devastating effects warrant at least a basic action plan.
“It is worth pointing out that Bermuda has recorded a tsunami locally in November 1929, when Flatts experienced a “sudden inrush of water, an equally rapid receding, and the final flow back to normal lasting some time” (quote from the Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily, 21 November 1929).
“Only after a few days did word reach Bermuda of the cause of this event, an undersea earthquake and landslide off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, producing a tsunami which killed dozens in the Maritimes of Canada. Thankfully, no fatalities were recorded in Bermuda, but the increase in population and coastal infrastructure indicates a higher vulnerability to this hazard than ever before.
“This exercise will not only afford local agencies an opportunity to exercise their communications procedures, it also allows for the general public to test their own readiness.
“Participants in this exercise include the Bermuda Weather Service (operated by BAS-Serco Ltd. on behalf of the Government of Bermuda Department of Airport Operations), Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre, and the Bermuda Police Service.
“If any real tsunami threat occurs during the time period of the exercise, the exercise will be terminated.The exercise is sponsored the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and by the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program.”
if it was ever one id be on the next flight out i dont care where its goin as long as its in the air in 5mins
@reality, do you really think that if a Tsunami was to hit Bermuda any of us would stand a chance let alone have time to get on a flight, one swish of the ocean and we would all be doomed. get yourself a reality check
We have an airfield that is less than 10′ above sealevel. At the first warning of a tsunami anything here will be smoking & outta here. Anything on its way here will be turning around & heading back.
Nothing will be back till the runway is fit to be used.
I wonder if the police will be stopping all traffic heading west at the junction of South & Middle Roads again.
Yeah the Chefs down Grotto Bay are the early warning system!
Yeah-remember the last time? We can laugh at it now but it wasn’t so funny then. That’s what made it so believable-when the Police got involved. That’s when I started getting scared-it made it seem like it was true. I remember seeing people speeding by, three to a bike, and the police just waving them by as the usual rules went out thw window. Some poor guy was riding with his kid on his bike and he had a rubber ring on her-like that would make a difference in a tsunami, poor guy.
Tons of people were heading to Town Hill…it’s so funny looking back on it now. I was packing a bag-don’t ask me where I thought I was going! My husband was just sitting there all amused telling me that it would have hit by that time-he was calmly watching his football game on t.v. not bothered at all. Then I got a call from my sister whose boyfriend is a cop saying it was a false alarm.
Ironically, the guy who sounded the alarm and caused mass panic had the surname of ‘Flood’-I believe he’s passed away now.
Anyway, if one really does come, please let me and my family be overseas far, far away as ‘lol’ is right-we’d never be able to evacuate in time…
It could probably be argued that Policeman Flood did not infact actually cause the mass panic. He got his info from a certain West End resident (who I won’t name) who in all his years would have seen the phenomenom that he mistook for a tidal wave many times before in his life.
Had Policeman Flood been able to go and observe what the West Ender was reporting he would have known exactly what it was that he was looking at. Something that happens after nearly every winter gale.
After becoming quite accustomed to a short term future threatened by a huge debt and huge unfunded pension liability tsunami, an ocean based tsunami should be a piece of cake for Bermuda residents.
I have Gibbs Hill Light House on my scope..
Gibbs Hill Lighthouse apparently is not the highest point on the island….I always thought it was myself……
Apparently Town Hill in Flatts is the highest point in Bermuda-although it doesn’t look like it to me.
I remember the great tsunami scare of whatever-year-it-was. It was mass panic up the west end. I remember as well seeing people riding three and even four to a bike out of Somerset with the police waving them on frantically instead of stopping them as would usually happen. All that stuff did make the issue legitimate to the public.
My poor sister was in town but my teenaged nieces were home alone in Somerset. She was on her way to get them but called me hysterically because she heard that the police weren’t letting anyone into Somerset. She said nothing was going to stop her from getting her girls and if the police tried to stop her she was going to run them the hell over-which goes to show the mindset as people were desperate…and it all wasn’t even true-smh. Thank God the truth came out before my sister could do any bodily damage to members of the police service!
Yes the man who sounded the alarm was a Flood-I believe he was a retired police officer which also gave the story some credence…
We already did that test, didn’t we? Except the wave came from the west not the east.
Getting ready just in time for the end of the Mayan calendar. I guess we all can agree this island needed an enema. Maybe we can plan on taking all the murders & rapist out of westgate an hour before the wave hits & tie them at the shoreline to appease the gods.
This matter has always piqued my curiosity; since we sit atop a mid-oceanic volcanic pedestal lacking a continental shelf for water to pile up on, what would be the possible projected impacts of a tsunami on Bermuda’s shores? Have there been bathymetric surveys and the like to provide information, extrapolations to this effect? How would the angle of its approach affect the size and swell of a tsunami? Migitating factors, such as whether the tsunami was to approach from the North Shore, where the water could roll unimpeded for a few miles before breaking on low-lying shores; the impacts on Hamilton Harbour and the Great Sound; the impact on a “closed” inlet such as Flatts Inlet; the impact of one approaching from the South Shore/Southeast (a-la Cumbre Vieja or the Puerto Rico Trench); and furthermore what geological evidence of past impacts is present?
Thankfully , someone else has this figured out too !
It seems that nearly everyone when hearing the word ‘tsunami’ thinks of an 800′ high breaking wave like the ones seen (but much larger) on opening episodes of old Hawaii Five O tv shows.
We don’t have a gentle upsloping continental shelf for water to creep up and rise on. Geographically ,we are but a pinprick rising from 20,000 foot deep water.. any underwater surge has nothing to rise on , it would just flow right around us.In other words , the power pulse/surge deep underwater stays there and keeps moving past.
IMO , we might get the equivalent of a high tidal surge if one came in from the west, and even then , only on certain North Shore locations.
I think the concerns of a Japan style tsunami are greatly overplayed.
I spoke to someone who is an authority on these things (he’s some kind of marine scientist) and he said the same thing. Basically, Bermuda is just too small…there’s nothing for the water to kind of build up against or rise on as you said. He said the ocean is so vast and Bermuda is so small that the ocean would just absorb the water…it would just sort of sweep past us and fizzle out with little effect on us.
It really did ease my mind…your last sentence is right on the money.
Valid points. One of the reasons that we do not get siable storm surges from hurricanes is that they basically go around us.
A tsunami is no hurricane storm surge but the same features of the island that make a storm surge minimal will also reduce the effect of a tsunami.
I will not head to Gibbs or Town Hill. That is where the rest of you crazy people will be trying to get to in a panic. As long as I can get maybe 50′ above sea level with higher ground nearby I’ll be happy.
The worst directions of approach, IMO, would be square on the N Shore, not likely, or square on the S Shore, more likely.
Apparently studies have been done and because of our reef mass and where the Island is located a tsunami will not affect Bermuda, It would wrap right around us. If it did unfortunately there is nothing you can do it happens in a matter of mins most likely you will never know.
Just make sure you’re thirsty when it hits .
Haven’t we already practiced this drill……lol
Got my boardshorts and surfboard ready!
Heaven forbid !!
http://www.armageddononline.org/local-evacuations-be-prepared.html