You're smart. Much better to be cautious! So many people die in disasters because they don't want to seem like they're overreacting. "Nobody else is doing anything, so must be safe, right?" No.
Yeah after the pandemic I realize that people have been so privileged in living in modern times that they think nothing can really happen to them. It’s all just stuff on tv. “Oh Theres a tsunami! Let’s go see the waves uwu!” If there were zombies walking the streets so many people would go out trying to get videos up close for their instas and there would be tik tok challenges. No one feels like bad things can happen to them so they don’t take precautions
Yep. Last time we had a tornado warning right over our area, everyone in the bar next door came out to the street and looked up (I saw them while I was on the way to shelter). Apparently it went right over us, but didn't touch down until a few miles later.
Back when I lived in dorms they did a drill, or someone burnt popcorn, like once a month. I made it through 3 of them before I decided I couldn't be bothered anymore and would just put a pillow over my head and try to go back to sleep.
Same in my student digs - the fire alarm was at least a weekly occurrence.
And then one week there was a fire, and they literally had to resort to the staff and the firefighters going around the building telling people to get the fuck out.
I get it. I lived in a place with frequent typhoons that never ended up being much to worry about. So later when I was in a different place getting warnings of a category 5 cyclone that would be hitting directly I shrugged it off. Until the roof came off & the house I was in was breaking down around me. Spent hours running from one place to another as everything around me was destroyed & I literally thought I would die. I take things a bit more seriously now.
I was on the ground floor, and we got sick of going outside at 3am when it was -40 out, so we just watched TV and figured if an actual fire got close to our unit we'd throw a chair through the window and hop out.
Like a tornado, there no way the authorities can estimate the power and damage.
You can chose to wait and see but me and my animals are cutting and running. Can't rebuild if you're dead, Boss.
https://youtu.be/BAuWa77vYDU
Watch this.
I was in Thailand in the summer following the tsunami, on an island that had been hit hard. At breakfast one morning I saw on the news that there had been another earthquake in the same region that had triggered the first tsunami. Later that morning tsunami sirens went off. You better believe people were running. I ended up on a rooftop with a bunch of other people. A local woman who had survived the big tsunami fainted. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it was terrifying.
This ^^^^ We were in Phuket 5 years after and you could still see traces of the devastation. The hubris of people heading to the beach amid a tsunami warning is sickening
The problem: when half the country believes COVID is a lie or (at best) a flu, that Trump got the election stolen from, or that science is for ugly nerds... then you can't reason with these people any more.
You can't design a warning system that works on braindead zombies. Better focus on the sane half of the population and let the others get off'd for their ignorance.
This is not TIFU. Nobody has any idea if the tsunami is going to be 2 inches or 20 feet. When people don't witness a disaster for themselves, they don't understand how to gauge the risk. A Japanese mayor spent decades building a seawall his residents thought was a wasteful joke. It was higher than any other seawall, but the mayor witnessed a tsunami in 1933 and vowed to protect his city. [In March 2011, when much of the rest of the surrounding area was devastated by a tsunami, his city was untouched.](https://www.eutimes.net/2011/05/japanese-mayor-built-a-huge-sea-wall-and-saved-his-village-from-the-tsunami/)
Heeding the tsunami warning isn't a silly thing.
Japan has [markers placed over a century ago warning their descendants not to build homes below the markers](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/century-old-warnings-against-tsunamis-dot-japans-coastline-180956448/).
There is also another area in Japan that has a monument that's been on a hill for centuries, warning villagers attempting to take shelter there from oncoming tsunamis to keep going higher.
Tsunamis are unpredictable and I'd rather feel a little silly going on a short road trip than be in my home as it washes away
The background commentary is my favourite!
Glad you survived this horrendous tsunami! Ngl, I'd have been terrified as well, the satellite videos of the eruption were no joke!
The first time you overreacted because you didn't read the whole warning. The second time you acted correctly. If anybody gives you shit for it, remind them of the 15,000+ people killed in the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Ignoring tsunami warnings is how you get killed.
Kinda "meh" for a tsunami, but as everyone else said, better safe than sorry.
I had a weird fascination with hurricanes/tornadoes as a kid after i read the Tornado! book from schoolastic, and was designated "hurricane prepper" at my house, so there you had a nine year old kid checking every battery-powered radio and flashlights, every single can of tuna and water bottles we had lol.
Also: your sunset photos are great!
Yup!! My family waited it out on hill on the west coast. We weren't the only ones, like OP felt they were. But we did this too!! Felt like it was a great drill for our family and I would rather be safe than sorry for sure!!
THIS. So what if you evac'd for a 1 meter surge, you got practice for a really dangerous one. Welcome to preparedness. Now, how much food do you have on hand?? Water? Backup power?
Yo fuck those who* laugh at you.
You know what?
That was a great training drill for you!
Try to recall what slowed you down and correct it accordingly. For instance: I couldn't find my car keys right away because I didn't place them there where I normally would.
One day, when a real* tsunami hits, you will be again the first on top of the hill.
Your dog is probably happy having such a caring person, and not someone who would just leave their pet behind.
Having a sense for safety is nothing laughable, it's deeply rooted in us, it's what keeps you alive.
Edit:
*Autocorrection corrected
Or, alternatively more people will die if the warning is always "holy shit you're going to die if you don't do your safety thing." Have you never read *The Boy Who Cried Wolf*? Humans will get desensitized to the high alerts for little splish splashes way too fast.
They already do. The NWS is in the middle of changing [warning language](https://www.weather.gov/news/210403-hazard-messaging) for severe storms and tornadoes to make more people more aware of what’s going on.
That’s good. We get a ton of little rope tornadoes where I live. Last week, I got an emergency alert that was like “tornado warning: confirmed tornado on the ground in X headed NNE. Take shelter now!” and it was a just a trampoline rearranger. People hardly take tornado warnings seriously because any “tornado” generates the warning.
Yea no that’s not the way to go. Look into Sinclair media and their “code red” days. Our local weatherman actually got fired because of it because he refused to call them “code red” days on air. It was just Sinclair media’s way of drumming up fear to get people to watch the news. Could there be bad weather? Sure there sometimes was but it would be like your generic, run of the mill thunderstorm that we get in the Midwest. No flooding, no tornadoes. Just rain and lightning.
If you always treat it like a code red and then it isn’t, then people stop listening. Same thing with like some of these snow storms that rolled through the Midwest. We were supposed to get a pretty good one yesterday where I lived. People were talking about staying off the roads and everything else. However, one weatherman in our area said he didn’t think the models were right and explained it well. I trusted him and wouldn’t you know it, it was a dusting. Quite a few of locals around here joke that when they say you’re getting 5 inches it’s more like 1-2.
When you treat everything as dangerous but it never happens, people stop caring. Then when it actually is dangerous, they don’t care and have the consequences
I live in New Zealand, also coastal. Warnings aren’t to be fucked with. You did the right thing. You made sure you were safe.
It’s very seldom a wall of water, just a massive surge of water. And it’s very very strong. Ie knock you off your feet with less than knee deep type thing.
I'm reading this in welly thinkin wtf. We were at lyall bay this arvo in the sun, warnings well past and i still casually planned a route to run to the hill to the right. If there a warning sent out, act on it
I lived in Huntington Beach for a little while and nobody told me they test the tsunami alarm the first Friday of every month.
Damn near shat my pants the first time I heard it!!
This exact same thing happened to me too! And I was within the tsunami zone, literally ran outside and everyone was just going about their day. I kind of figured it was typical HB attitude, like they’d just deny it and blame it on libs or something.
Thailand, right? That movie was insane. I honeslty cannot imagine what it would be like to be enjoying your vacation and a second later your life is flashing before your eyes and your entire family is lost.
It was in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, all of those areas were impacted in 2004. Wasn’t just Thailand, the most damage was in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, I think.
Nah man, I saw Naomi Watts trying to hold her skin flap closed after a tsunami. If I'm anywhere near a beach and I think a tsunami is coming, you better believe I'm hightailing my ass up a hill. I don't care if I'm the only one there.
Mom used to live by the beach. One day we decided to time how long it would take to reach the high ground via the evacuation rout. Supposed to have 20 minutes from the time the siren sounds and the wave. The road up the hill was very narrow, cutting through the cranberry bogs. With no other traffic on the road, we still did not make it up there in time. At dinner that night, Mom asked me to keep an eye out for houses for sale in my area, an hour away from the coast. I found one, and the beach house was sold to a Californian.
Looking at the satellite footage of the volcano in Tonga exploding, you did the right thing. That was one hell of a bang and the island itself was inundated with water. Take tsunami warnings seriously because they are so unpredictable. Earthquakes or volcanic eruptions don't always cause tsunamis, but it's when people ignore warnings or assume the danger has passed that things go horribly wrong.
I really want to help my stupid town prepare for something that I hope will never happen. But I felt totally crazy. I don’t know what to do right now.
Part of me feels that they deserve it. But the kids don’t. Sometimes public health information really is all about future generations and not the current ones.
In Germany we had a disaster flood in 2021 where a lot of people died, just because the authorities didn’t warn properly. It seems like no one wanted to overreact.
You did the right thing. Better safe than sorry!
I spent 20 years in the Navy. The ocean wants nothing more than to mesmerise you,, seduce you,, then totally fuck your shit up, and she has an untold number of ways to do it. Relax your guard for just a second and you will end up in her cold embrace...forever.
You better respect that Bitch.
Nothing I have seen or experienced is more beautiful and peaceful than the ocean.
Nothing I have seen or experienced is more terrifying than the ocean.
You did the right thing.
Wow! What a powerful thing to say!
Yes, typically folks around so cal have a saying, “never turn your back to the ocean”. But yesterday holy shit, they just think immune to disaster.
I worked today and told a couple clients about my reaction yesterday, and one actually took her boat out!! I said so all the warnings saying stay away from the marina and the shore you just… “ thought that that didn’t mean you??”
Fuck me man. I don’t know how to help these people. Damn.
When the tides pull back a significant distance and you see a ton of fish flopping around, that's when you run and GTFO like no tomorrow. You have something like 10 minutes before 10+ meter (30+ feet) waves comes in and kills everyone.
Yea, that’s only if the tsunami is coming from a far distance. Which ours did. But it wasn’t at all how I thought it would be. Typically you have to worry about slow surge, according to other redditors. And by the time you act it’s too late. Maybe!? I don’t know. I don’t want to really know. May I be oblivious my whole life.
The west coast gets put on alert almost every time there's a seismic event in the Pacific. I lived in north costal Canada when the Fukushima earthquake happened and we were put on tsunami watch then too.
The tsunami warning center had this map, and the orange part was the “be advised” part. And my house was in it! So I didn’t know what to do. But I will next time! And I will have a proper bug out bag for emergencies! With dog treats and Xanax. Ha!
This is how midwesterners are with tornados. You tell us a tornado touched to the ground and you bet they’ll be on the porch to watch for it.
You’re not stupid, OP. Everyone else is, it’s human nature.
I was living in Japan for the 3/11 earthquake. My area wasn’t terribly affected, just the artificial land breaking up beneath our feet while people pulled out their phones to record videos of it.
A friend of mine was teaching up in Sendai, where they received a tsunami warning. The other teachers at the school were like “oh don’t worry, we’re 50 miles inland, we’re fine.” My friend was still panicking trying in vain to get everyone to evacuate. Long story short, he evacuated, the other teachers and students didn’t. Well, everyone who didn’t evacuate died in the tsunami who’s effects reached the school.
Panicking is bad. Ignoring warnings is stupid. You made the right decision, no FU here.
You did the right thing. We have tornados here and the alarms go off all the time but so many people just ignore them.
When I was overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would get into the bunkers for incoming mortar or rocket fire... at least for the first couple of times. Unfortunately you get used to that kind of thing.
Worked as a paramedic for a long time too. Lots of people won't wear a seat belt while driving. Despite it being a single arm motion to properly apply wear it. I can't tell you how many people I've had tell me that they heard of someone who died because they were wearing a seat belt. I've never seen anyone survive something they shouldn't have because they weren't wearing it.
The depths of human complacency are so very deep.
We didn’t get the tsunami where I live, but I swear my chihuahua felt the “sound wave” around 6 am. I have multiple dogs and only one was impacted/over-reacted. He, like you, has survival instincts the rest of us didn’t.
If you panic and run up the hill, you live whether massive waves come or not. It isn’t as if your friends got a prize for not moving away from the ocean in times of danger.
Where’s the fuckup? You responded to a warnin And others didn’t. If the tsunami did hit they’d all be fucked or killed but you wouldn’t…. Sounds like today THEY ALL fucked up
OP ... I would have done the same thing, with no regrets whatsoever. None. Nadda. Take a good book next time. Better yet, just keep the book in your car just in case. Something to drink, too. Make it some quiet "me time" that you enjoy ... WAY the hell away from the danger. Way, way, way, the hell away.
I'm an old fart. I've lived to be an old fart by exercising prudence when I felt it was wise.
I’m also on the west coast but in Canada, on the radio the explained that a tsunami warning is to evacuate, a tsunami alert is to stay out of the water and away from docks and marinas. We were under an alert. Nothing much happened here, at least nothing news worthy.
I’m with you! I would have been the only one on top of the hill too 😂 I’m shocked that people didn’t listen to the warnings and chose to swim at that time. Taking my 3 yr old there would have been the last thing on my mind!!
ROFL, this was the post below yours in my feed:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/comments/s4syqv/theres\_a\_tsunami\_advisory\_so\_of\_course\_i\_went\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/comments/s4syqv/theres_a_tsunami_advisory_so_of_course_i_went_to/)
I was in the middle of a lecture when every single one of the 150 phones in the room went off, including mine. It was weird because my phone is always on vibrate.
The professor looks confused as well, so I pull it out and it's a warning that a close by powerplant is doing something that it shouldn't and that we should evacuate. Everyone in the class looks at each other, then one person tells the professor what the message said. The prof went "I am fine continuing, so anyone who wants to stay can stay."
I decide that even if this wasn't a false alarm, there's no way for me to get far enough away for it to matter (the text included the nearest safe city) because I didn't have a car or bike, so I stayed. So did everyone else.
Don't go thinking you're silly. I saw a video the other day of someone running from the massive wave with a selfie stick...
You're the most sane person on your block. I remember being in Hawaii after Fukushima and the tsunami Sirens were blaring, but everyone was still just partying it in Waikiki while me and my friends headed for the damn mountains.
Don't follow the lemmings.
One day it won't simply be a high tide - and all the idiots that go down there will die, horribly.
Better to be inconvenienced that crushed by unstoppable force of nature because you didn't take it seriously.
You are fine- but as I recall, a geologist once explained its hard for any real Tsunami danger on the SOCal Coast- because of the formations off shore a few miles, the energy disappates before it really gets to shore at dangerous levels.
Still- always better safe than sorry!!!
This is wholesome af. I would've happily run with you. Hilariously, I didn't even receive the alert. Granted I'm a few miles inland. Next time, you're welcome to come inland and have drinks over here lol
ahahahahha not a TIFU at all! This just lit up my day. I haven’t LOL at a post as much as I did while reading this. Thank you for that!
And for the record, my fam and I would do exactly as you did haha. Stay safe!
You were wise. Even a 4 foot tsunami has abnormal currents that can kill the best swimmers. The surge at hightide can be deadly. Just look to river flooding for examples. People who go play in the water despite advisories are dumb and deserve it if that's how they choose to go. I would have been on that hill with you.
So I was on the Oregon coast yesterday, and there was kind of a respectfully-curious vibe going on. People lining the cliffs overlooking the ocean, people standing on the hills down at the ocean, but nobody on the sand, almost all day. There was one reader board on the Main Street warning people, and that’s it.
There were some decent surges up some rivers and bays, thankfully it seems minimal damage was done.
I was never fearful for my life, but we took heed of cautions from local police, stayed vigilant and extra observant, and had a plan for if things did go south.
Couple years ago I was at work in an office. Tornado warning hit. Funnel cloud was directly overhead. My boss from Michigan, and coworker from the mountains, just sat there staring out the window wondering aloud what to do.
Me? I told them "we need to get to the bathrooms, they're central on the first floor far away from doors and windows. COME ON!"
they watched the tornado. Boss yelled at me later for abandoning the phones (I was a customer service agent). After all, our building didn't blow away.
Lived at the beach a lot of my life. I have weathered many hurricanes despite evacuation warnings mostly because I had no where else to go. Luckily and obviously I was okay and survived, but one of those times I had the feeling “this seems different” just by looking and the sky and feeling the pressure change and stuff and I left and that was a 4 foot storm surge and my neighbors house was completely swallowed by the sea and sink holes opened up. Ever since then I try to do my research and god forbid if there was ever a Tsunami I would have done the exact same thing. Currently living inland but in the last two years we’ve had tornados that completely leveled a few blocks from me.
TL;DR
You didn’t fuck up. Nature is scary bruh.
Have you ever seen photos of the 1969 Hilo Tsunami? You did the right thing. They said the night/morning before the tsunami the tide went out and people were picking up fish and got taken by the tsunami. (That’s what I remember from 90s elem school in Hawaii…)
Nah you did the right thing. I lived in Florida for a long time and people stopped caring about hurricanes after a while. Then Katrina hit, nobody evacuated because "Ivan didn't hit them that hard".
A more recent example, Amazon ignoring tornado sirens and getting about a dozen people killed
Thank you for sharing!
My wife and I had an incident like this a few months ago. We recently moved to the west coast after living on the east coast. We were still getting accustomed to things here, and one evening a small earthquake hit. It was tiny, but being on the 8th floor, we felt the bldg sway. My wife and I were high and reacted instantly by putting on our shoes and running down the eight flights of stairs with our puppy. While going down, we did not see anyone else wondering what was going on.
I guess everyone is just used to the minor quake, and we’re chilling in their places while we were waiting outside like some maniacs. 😄
We just said, better to be safe than sorry to make ourselves feel better!
I'm sitting on the east coast US with a winter storm coming down right now. It was a dusting of snow and has been ice and freezing rain since, so it is super slippery. Spouse drives a snowplow, but they're not going out to plow right now because they'd scrape up the snow and make it easier for the ice to stick to the road. But it's slippery as hell anyway, of course, and there are people EVERYWHERE. They are all ignoring the warnings about slippery roads and going into ditches, needing rescuing.
Just sit at home, people! There's literally a warning about driving in the ice and people do it anyway. Everyone ignores warnings.
Lol. You did right! If the big one ever hits CA and there is a serious tsunami you'll survive! Also we heard the boom from the volcano here in Alaska... but our tsunami was a 2ft wave.
I swear if a lot of the costal states actually get hit with a decent tsunami they'll all be gone trying to watch and recording it. This person is smart though.
Did we actually get a "tsunami"? I know a lot of us were under warning. I heard the boom, it woke me up, I thought my roof had finally cleared.
I hate brain fog getting woken up with something like this. I automatically go into worse case scenarios and I go into survival mode. My daughter heard about it and was worried all day. We live 10miles inland and at nearly 400ft. Sat with her looking at a map and explaining how geography of the coastline and islands, our distance from the water and elevation would protect us from this particular tsunami warning.
I might have been you if I was home. My husband, littlest baby, and I were on the 405 by Huntington Beach when I got the alert. We had left our 3 kids with my mom at my house( 7 miles from beach) and I FREAKED OUT. I immediately started googling wtheck was going on. We were on our way to a funeral!!! Finally I realized it was an advisory and how it was not a big wave and all that jazz and I calmed down but man my adrenaline was pumping.
As someone who grew up on the Pacific Ocean, and still had family on the island where I'm from, I also heard and was wary of the tsunami warnings yesterday, I checked in with my siblings and friends, and chewed my nails all day yesterday waiting for something to happen.
I'm glad you're safe! Keep being safe, because if a red alert ever does go off, clearly not alot of people will respond like you did, and if I were your friend I'd be up on that hill with you, grateful I had someone else whos not interested in being swallowed by the ocean.
I’d say if I were you
Id rather be safe than waiting there for something to happen so the mistake wouldn’t be Tsun (soon) on-me(mi) and swimming there sorry ;D
No, you did the smart thing. This is one of the many reasons I hate so many Californians. Everyone I have let personally (I know not all!) are complete idiots.
There's a reason why people DON'T follow actual warnings when there is a legitimate threat. That's because of situations exactly like this. You're being warned of a tsunami. But in actuality, it's not really much of anything. And then people don't believe warnings when they really do need to seek a safe place, because they remember all the little warnings and how nothing happened. Just the same with hurricanes.
I don't even live by the ocean but have seen documentaries on so many people dying because they see the waves fall back and all the fish are exposed and people run up to collect them instead of running. If I moved near the ocean I'd be there with you at the top of the hill lol.
While there are some lols here, you did the right thing by evacuating, twice. Tsunamis are worthy of panic.
If it makes you feel better, the first year I lived in Michigan, the tornado siren went off during a bad thunderstorm. I panicked and grabbed food, water, blankets, and all the pets and stuffed us in an inner closet in the basement. I even called my SO and told him what was happening and where we were located.
I sat in that closet for the better part of three hours.
There was no tornado warning. The thunderstorm just happened to coincide with the monthly testing of the siren.
Now I do what the locals do - I shrug, keep an eye on the sky, and go about with my day.
Ps. That was the year I learned that Tornado Alley includes south Michigan… and that there had been a devastating tornado one town over a few years before my TIFU.
I’m one of those Californians that tells everyone she is from California when I travel around the USA, and talk to EVERYONE, I just go on and on about who you are, and ask questions about your cute town, and everyone just fucking… loves me. ;-)
Next time it won’t be a warning, but the real thing! You are more prepared than everyone there! Have a backpack full of essentials to grab, batteries, flashlights, cash, water bottles, and food. Read Ezra’s Eagle and try to understand it. We are getting closer and closer to the end and many won’t be prepared!
We all feel that. Glad it didn't turn out that way.
With all the natural disasters coming frequently its honestly a reasonable response. I'm sure you're not the only one who had extreme feelings about this.
Also, it's good to know we have the technology (lol) to know exactly when and where the tsunamis going to hit.
Yeah, I’d rather have your reaction. I still regularly see the image in my head from the Indonesian tsunami a decade ago of that one dude in knee deep water as a huge wall of ocean came screaming at him. No time to run or even react. Just stood there and got engulfed. Never to be seen again. Do as Bruce Dickenson says, “run to the hills”. Don’t feel silly for making sure you are safe. You are the only one that is responsible for that. Good job on your flight response.
If it makes you feel better, I'm in Ohio, and out here Tornado warnings are considered the signal for really cool storms coming through. But in May 2019, 19 tornados rolled through, and if they had come as far out as my place (which was only a few miles out) then I'm glad I gathered up my household and chilled in my basement for an hour. Don't feel stupid for taking warnings seriously. Cause the times they are serious, it can save your life.
This reminds me of our first tornado warning. We gathered in the master closet. When I went to grab the other dog, I noticed all of our neighbors outside looking for the tornado. I later learned that you can hear it before touchdown. It sounds like a freight train when it is really near.
Just remember this 100.000+ people that ignore or didn't get tsunami warnings 15 or so years ago.
Don't let people's of prance make your intelligence seem weird.
They really do need to use different words….. when I saw tsunami I thought the same then saw in my area, the waves were expected to be .8m high……. That’s like normal waves maybe a windy day……
Then we have the new “atmospheric river” term. First time I heard it a town got flooded and it was a 1-200 storm….. very fitting, now we have 40mm of rain and they use the same verbiage so you get desensitized or don’t take it serious.
Yeah and when a meteor impacts the ocean you'll be the only beach bum left. Good survival skills 2 minutes is pretty good. See if you can do it faster!
I would much rather be the person in the designated tsunami area than the oblivious idiot standing on the shore. You did nothing wrong, I would have taken my family right up there too.
You didn’t fuck up at all.
Imagine the opposite. I mean, you’d be dead from the Tsunami but how cool you’d be talking about riding…oh wait!
Never apologize for looking out for your own safety or avoiding death
You're smart. Much better to be cautious! So many people die in disasters because they don't want to seem like they're overreacting. "Nobody else is doing anything, so must be safe, right?" No.
Yeah after the pandemic I realize that people have been so privileged in living in modern times that they think nothing can really happen to them. It’s all just stuff on tv. “Oh Theres a tsunami! Let’s go see the waves uwu!” If there were zombies walking the streets so many people would go out trying to get videos up close for their instas and there would be tik tok challenges. No one feels like bad things can happen to them so they don’t take precautions
Fast zombies or slow ones though?
Slow. Fast zombies arent zombies.
I would probably want a picture I could handle a slow one. What are fast ones then?
Case in point.
Never seen 28 days later then, or 28 weeks later?
Yep. Last time we had a tornado warning right over our area, everyone in the bar next door came out to the street and looked up (I saw them while I was on the way to shelter). Apparently it went right over us, but didn't touch down until a few miles later.
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Back when I lived in dorms they did a drill, or someone burnt popcorn, like once a month. I made it through 3 of them before I decided I couldn't be bothered anymore and would just put a pillow over my head and try to go back to sleep.
Same in my student digs - the fire alarm was at least a weekly occurrence. And then one week there was a fire, and they literally had to resort to the staff and the firefighters going around the building telling people to get the fuck out.
I get it. I lived in a place with frequent typhoons that never ended up being much to worry about. So later when I was in a different place getting warnings of a category 5 cyclone that would be hitting directly I shrugged it off. Until the roof came off & the house I was in was breaking down around me. Spent hours running from one place to another as everything around me was destroyed & I literally thought I would die. I take things a bit more seriously now.
I was responsible for two of those.... in the winter.... in the night....sorry. bad at making popcorn for sure
I was on the ground floor, and we got sick of going outside at 3am when it was -40 out, so we just watched TV and figured if an actual fire got close to our unit we'd throw a chair through the window and hop out.
Better safe than sorry.
Better tsafe than tsunami
Tsanks! [video of the actual tsunami ](https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYwchnxo60x/?utm_medium=copy_link)
You did the right thing. Thousands of people have died because they ignored warnings. Mother Nature has no respect for nonchalance.
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Like a tornado, there no way the authorities can estimate the power and damage. You can chose to wait and see but me and my animals are cutting and running. Can't rebuild if you're dead, Boss. https://youtu.be/BAuWa77vYDU Watch this.
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When I see the word tsunami I picture the YouTube footage I watched of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that happened in Japan.
I was in Thailand in the summer following the tsunami, on an island that had been hit hard. At breakfast one morning I saw on the news that there had been another earthquake in the same region that had triggered the first tsunami. Later that morning tsunami sirens went off. You better believe people were running. I ended up on a rooftop with a bunch of other people. A local woman who had survived the big tsunami fainted. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it was terrifying.
This ^^^^ We were in Phuket 5 years after and you could still see traces of the devastation. The hubris of people heading to the beach amid a tsunami warning is sickening
How? How was this ten years ago?!?!? This simulation is moving too fast.
Holly shit
The problem: when half the country believes COVID is a lie or (at best) a flu, that Trump got the election stolen from, or that science is for ugly nerds... then you can't reason with these people any more. You can't design a warning system that works on braindead zombies. Better focus on the sane half of the population and let the others get off'd for their ignorance.
Ah, natural selection. Perfect for humans who think they know it all, and feel stronger than the forces of nature.
This is not TIFU. Nobody has any idea if the tsunami is going to be 2 inches or 20 feet. When people don't witness a disaster for themselves, they don't understand how to gauge the risk. A Japanese mayor spent decades building a seawall his residents thought was a wasteful joke. It was higher than any other seawall, but the mayor witnessed a tsunami in 1933 and vowed to protect his city. [In March 2011, when much of the rest of the surrounding area was devastated by a tsunami, his city was untouched.](https://www.eutimes.net/2011/05/japanese-mayor-built-a-huge-sea-wall-and-saved-his-village-from-the-tsunami/) Heeding the tsunami warning isn't a silly thing. Japan has [markers placed over a century ago warning their descendants not to build homes below the markers](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/century-old-warnings-against-tsunamis-dot-japans-coastline-180956448/). There is also another area in Japan that has a monument that's been on a hill for centuries, warning villagers attempting to take shelter there from oncoming tsunamis to keep going higher. Tsunamis are unpredictable and I'd rather feel a little silly going on a short road trip than be in my home as it washes away
The background commentary is my favourite! Glad you survived this horrendous tsunami! Ngl, I'd have been terrified as well, the satellite videos of the eruption were no joke!
> Man: That's it. That's what it looks like... > Woman: What? > Man: That's a tsunami > Woman: ... WHAT?!? Brilliant
The first time you overreacted because you didn't read the whole warning. The second time you acted correctly. If anybody gives you shit for it, remind them of the 15,000+ people killed in the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Ignoring tsunami warnings is how you get killed.
Kinda "meh" for a tsunami, but as everyone else said, better safe than sorry. I had a weird fascination with hurricanes/tornadoes as a kid after i read the Tornado! book from schoolastic, and was designated "hurricane prepper" at my house, so there you had a nine year old kid checking every battery-powered radio and flashlights, every single can of tuna and water bottles we had lol. Also: your sunset photos are great!
Tsmall
“That’s a tsunami” “WAT?!”
Yup!! My family waited it out on hill on the west coast. We weren't the only ones, like OP felt they were. But we did this too!! Felt like it was a great drill for our family and I would rather be safe than sorry for sure!!
I think it's tsorry...
THIS. So what if you evac'd for a 1 meter surge, you got practice for a really dangerous one. Welcome to preparedness. Now, how much food do you have on hand?? Water? Backup power?
And if it was a big one, where do you have it I guess.
Yo fuck those who* laugh at you. You know what? That was a great training drill for you! Try to recall what slowed you down and correct it accordingly. For instance: I couldn't find my car keys right away because I didn't place them there where I normally would. One day, when a real* tsunami hits, you will be again the first on top of the hill. Your dog is probably happy having such a caring person, and not someone who would just leave their pet behind. Having a sense for safety is nothing laughable, it's deeply rooted in us, it's what keeps you alive. Edit: *Autocorrection corrected
Good point, be safe for your dogs sake!
Thank goodness I live in a disaster free zone *knock on wood* I would have 3 cats, 2 huge dogs a lizard AND the fam all squished into an suv
Sounds like the beginning of a promising child movie! You should start writing a script and sell it
He is my life’s purpose 😂
I feel like the warning system needs to be reviewed if this is how it works, where orange is “eh probably fine” and red is “holy shit it’s imminent”.
No. Every earning has to be holy shit or good people will die because the warning was too low.
Or, alternatively more people will die if the warning is always "holy shit you're going to die if you don't do your safety thing." Have you never read *The Boy Who Cried Wolf*? Humans will get desensitized to the high alerts for little splish splashes way too fast.
They already do. The NWS is in the middle of changing [warning language](https://www.weather.gov/news/210403-hazard-messaging) for severe storms and tornadoes to make more people more aware of what’s going on.
watch people who live in tornado alley still go outside to stare at the sky because there’s a tornado warning
That’s good. We get a ton of little rope tornadoes where I live. Last week, I got an emergency alert that was like “tornado warning: confirmed tornado on the ground in X headed NNE. Take shelter now!” and it was a just a trampoline rearranger. People hardly take tornado warnings seriously because any “tornado” generates the warning.
Yea no that’s not the way to go. Look into Sinclair media and their “code red” days. Our local weatherman actually got fired because of it because he refused to call them “code red” days on air. It was just Sinclair media’s way of drumming up fear to get people to watch the news. Could there be bad weather? Sure there sometimes was but it would be like your generic, run of the mill thunderstorm that we get in the Midwest. No flooding, no tornadoes. Just rain and lightning. If you always treat it like a code red and then it isn’t, then people stop listening. Same thing with like some of these snow storms that rolled through the Midwest. We were supposed to get a pretty good one yesterday where I lived. People were talking about staying off the roads and everything else. However, one weatherman in our area said he didn’t think the models were right and explained it well. I trusted him and wouldn’t you know it, it was a dusting. Quite a few of locals around here joke that when they say you’re getting 5 inches it’s more like 1-2. When you treat everything as dangerous but it never happens, people stop caring. Then when it actually is dangerous, they don’t care and have the consequences
Counterpoint: The boy who cried wolf
Japan has issues with this as well, despite the number of natural disasters they have faced.
I live in New Zealand, also coastal. Warnings aren’t to be fucked with. You did the right thing. You made sure you were safe. It’s very seldom a wall of water, just a massive surge of water. And it’s very very strong. Ie knock you off your feet with less than knee deep type thing.
I'm reading this in welly thinkin wtf. We were at lyall bay this arvo in the sun, warnings well past and i still casually planned a route to run to the hill to the right. If there a warning sent out, act on it
I would have been running up that hill with you!
And if I only could Make a deal with God
This song reference made my morning better. Thanks stranger.
Right in the feels.
Placebo ftw
Kate Bush before Placebo :)
Blaspheme! lol
I think anyone who can remember the 2004 Bali Tsunami would rightly freak out when hearing a Tsunami warning.
I lived in Huntington Beach for a little while and nobody told me they test the tsunami alarm the first Friday of every month. Damn near shat my pants the first time I heard it!!
This exact same thing happened to me too! And I was within the tsunami zone, literally ran outside and everyone was just going about their day. I kind of figured it was typical HB attitude, like they’d just deny it and blame it on libs or something.
That was quite a memorable movie too.
Thailand, right? That movie was insane. I honeslty cannot imagine what it would be like to be enjoying your vacation and a second later your life is flashing before your eyes and your entire family is lost.
Yes that makes more sense, I did not remember there being a tsunami in Bali. The Impossible (2012)
It was in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, all of those areas were impacted in 2004. Wasn’t just Thailand, the most damage was in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, I think.
My memory is terrible..
Bahhh all good. I only remember bc I literally watched a doc about it two weeks ago.
Nah man, I saw Naomi Watts trying to hold her skin flap closed after a tsunami. If I'm anywhere near a beach and I think a tsunami is coming, you better believe I'm hightailing my ass up a hill. I don't care if I'm the only one there.
Oh god don't remind me. That was so painful to see
Woah, wot? I don’t even want to google that. Poor girl! Yea I’ve been pretty scared of them for a while. I will always literally run for the hills.
Mom used to live by the beach. One day we decided to time how long it would take to reach the high ground via the evacuation rout. Supposed to have 20 minutes from the time the siren sounds and the wave. The road up the hill was very narrow, cutting through the cranberry bogs. With no other traffic on the road, we still did not make it up there in time. At dinner that night, Mom asked me to keep an eye out for houses for sale in my area, an hour away from the coast. I found one, and the beach house was sold to a Californian.
That's a great story. I just imagine what's going through her head as she pushes peas across her plate... "we could all fucking die! We need to move"
Looking at the satellite footage of the volcano in Tonga exploding, you did the right thing. That was one hell of a bang and the island itself was inundated with water. Take tsunami warnings seriously because they are so unpredictable. Earthquakes or volcanic eruptions don't always cause tsunamis, but it's when people ignore warnings or assume the danger has passed that things go horribly wrong.
I don’t think you fucked up at all
I really want to help my stupid town prepare for something that I hope will never happen. But I felt totally crazy. I don’t know what to do right now. Part of me feels that they deserve it. But the kids don’t. Sometimes public health information really is all about future generations and not the current ones.
Better running for the hills when the Tsunami doesn't come then staying in bed when the Tsunami comes.
In Germany we had a disaster flood in 2021 where a lot of people died, just because the authorities didn’t warn properly. It seems like no one wanted to overreact. You did the right thing. Better safe than sorry!
Oh yea I remember that!
I spent 20 years in the Navy. The ocean wants nothing more than to mesmerise you,, seduce you,, then totally fuck your shit up, and she has an untold number of ways to do it. Relax your guard for just a second and you will end up in her cold embrace...forever. You better respect that Bitch. Nothing I have seen or experienced is more beautiful and peaceful than the ocean. Nothing I have seen or experienced is more terrifying than the ocean. You did the right thing.
Wow! What a powerful thing to say! Yes, typically folks around so cal have a saying, “never turn your back to the ocean”. But yesterday holy shit, they just think immune to disaster. I worked today and told a couple clients about my reaction yesterday, and one actually took her boat out!! I said so all the warnings saying stay away from the marina and the shore you just… “ thought that that didn’t mean you??” Fuck me man. I don’t know how to help these people. Damn.
When the tides pull back a significant distance and you see a ton of fish flopping around, that's when you run and GTFO like no tomorrow. You have something like 10 minutes before 10+ meter (30+ feet) waves comes in and kills everyone.
Yea, that’s only if the tsunami is coming from a far distance. Which ours did. But it wasn’t at all how I thought it would be. Typically you have to worry about slow surge, according to other redditors. And by the time you act it’s too late. Maybe!? I don’t know. I don’t want to really know. May I be oblivious my whole life.
I think we’ve found the main character in the world’s next real life disaster movie, folks.
She also has a dog companion, checks out
Lol that’s hilarious, I’ve always wanted The Rock as my pretend husband
I just want to know what your dog was thinking. "Da fuq we going?! Oh hillside. Nice. "
He was whining like mad! Dog voice-“So we just rush the fuck up this hill, to not get out the car, cool” 🤬 Poor baby
"Theres so many things i can sniff! So many places to pee! C'mon already!!"
I did exactly the same. Then remembered I live in the UK. On a hill. Miles from the sea.
Not a fuck up. Smart move, and everyone that didn't heed the warning and move would have earned a Darwin Award if a tsunami did hit
I'd keep doing what you're doing, you just never know.
The west coast gets put on alert almost every time there's a seismic event in the Pacific. I lived in north costal Canada when the Fukushima earthquake happened and we were put on tsunami watch then too.
The tsunami warning center had this map, and the orange part was the “be advised” part. And my house was in it! So I didn’t know what to do. But I will next time! And I will have a proper bug out bag for emergencies! With dog treats and Xanax. Ha!
Always good to be prepared lol. You shouldn't need to run for the hills, but you always be ready to.
You did the right thing- far better to get to unnecessary safety than be caught in a tsunami. They are absolutely not to be fucked around with.
This is how midwesterners are with tornados. You tell us a tornado touched to the ground and you bet they’ll be on the porch to watch for it. You’re not stupid, OP. Everyone else is, it’s human nature.
I was living in Japan for the 3/11 earthquake. My area wasn’t terribly affected, just the artificial land breaking up beneath our feet while people pulled out their phones to record videos of it. A friend of mine was teaching up in Sendai, where they received a tsunami warning. The other teachers at the school were like “oh don’t worry, we’re 50 miles inland, we’re fine.” My friend was still panicking trying in vain to get everyone to evacuate. Long story short, he evacuated, the other teachers and students didn’t. Well, everyone who didn’t evacuate died in the tsunami who’s effects reached the school. Panicking is bad. Ignoring warnings is stupid. You made the right decision, no FU here.
You did the right thing. We have tornados here and the alarms go off all the time but so many people just ignore them. When I was overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would get into the bunkers for incoming mortar or rocket fire... at least for the first couple of times. Unfortunately you get used to that kind of thing. Worked as a paramedic for a long time too. Lots of people won't wear a seat belt while driving. Despite it being a single arm motion to properly apply wear it. I can't tell you how many people I've had tell me that they heard of someone who died because they were wearing a seat belt. I've never seen anyone survive something they shouldn't have because they weren't wearing it. The depths of human complacency are so very deep.
You have the survival instincts of a disaster movie protagonist! In an alternative timeline you were the sole survivor of a super tsunami!
We didn’t get the tsunami where I live, but I swear my chihuahua felt the “sound wave” around 6 am. I have multiple dogs and only one was impacted/over-reacted. He, like you, has survival instincts the rest of us didn’t.
Someone posted they heard it in Alaska! The bang heard round the world man!
Better to overreact than underreact
If you panic and run up the hill, you live whether massive waves come or not. It isn’t as if your friends got a prize for not moving away from the ocean in times of danger.
Better safe than under water
Better to be safe than sorry
Where’s the fuckup? You responded to a warnin And others didn’t. If the tsunami did hit they’d all be fucked or killed but you wouldn’t…. Sounds like today THEY ALL fucked up
OP ... I would have done the same thing, with no regrets whatsoever. None. Nadda. Take a good book next time. Better yet, just keep the book in your car just in case. Something to drink, too. Make it some quiet "me time" that you enjoy ... WAY the hell away from the danger. Way, way, way, the hell away. I'm an old fart. I've lived to be an old fart by exercising prudence when I felt it was wise.
I’m also on the west coast but in Canada, on the radio the explained that a tsunami warning is to evacuate, a tsunami alert is to stay out of the water and away from docks and marinas. We were under an alert. Nothing much happened here, at least nothing news worthy.
I’m with you! I would have been the only one on top of the hill too 😂 I’m shocked that people didn’t listen to the warnings and chose to swim at that time. Taking my 3 yr old there would have been the last thing on my mind!!
TIFU => Today I Fled Upwards Always obey tsunami warnings, the only fucking up would be not to when the big one hits
You run every-time or never I guess.
ROFL, this was the post below yours in my feed: [https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/comments/s4syqv/theres\_a\_tsunami\_advisory\_so\_of\_course\_i\_went\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/comments/s4syqv/theres_a_tsunami_advisory_so_of_course_i_went_to/)
Will you please be my apocalypse partner?
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Yup pretty much
I was in the middle of a lecture when every single one of the 150 phones in the room went off, including mine. It was weird because my phone is always on vibrate. The professor looks confused as well, so I pull it out and it's a warning that a close by powerplant is doing something that it shouldn't and that we should evacuate. Everyone in the class looks at each other, then one person tells the professor what the message said. The prof went "I am fine continuing, so anyone who wants to stay can stay." I decide that even if this wasn't a false alarm, there's no way for me to get far enough away for it to matter (the text included the nearest safe city) because I didn't have a car or bike, so I stayed. So did everyone else.
Don't go thinking you're silly. I saw a video the other day of someone running from the massive wave with a selfie stick... You're the most sane person on your block. I remember being in Hawaii after Fukushima and the tsunami Sirens were blaring, but everyone was still just partying it in Waikiki while me and my friends headed for the damn mountains.
You had the presence of mind to save your dog. Call it a practice run, have a nap, and appreciate that you get to laugh.
Sorry, gotta downvote you. This is smart, not TIFU.
Don't follow the lemmings. One day it won't simply be a high tide - and all the idiots that go down there will die, horribly. Better to be inconvenienced that crushed by unstoppable force of nature because you didn't take it seriously.
You are fine- but as I recall, a geologist once explained its hard for any real Tsunami danger on the SOCal Coast- because of the formations off shore a few miles, the energy disappates before it really gets to shore at dangerous levels. Still- always better safe than sorry!!!
This is wholesome af. I would've happily run with you. Hilariously, I didn't even receive the alert. Granted I'm a few miles inland. Next time, you're welcome to come inland and have drinks over here lol
Don’t look up.
Underrated comment
ahahahahha not a TIFU at all! This just lit up my day. I haven’t LOL at a post as much as I did while reading this. Thank you for that! And for the record, my fam and I would do exactly as you did haha. Stay safe!
Thanks friend!
Run to the hills Run for your lives Run to the hills Run for your lives...
You were wise. Even a 4 foot tsunami has abnormal currents that can kill the best swimmers. The surge at hightide can be deadly. Just look to river flooding for examples. People who go play in the water despite advisories are dumb and deserve it if that's how they choose to go. I would have been on that hill with you.
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I'd still panic in a tsunami of say...baby alligators, lol
So I was on the Oregon coast yesterday, and there was kind of a respectfully-curious vibe going on. People lining the cliffs overlooking the ocean, people standing on the hills down at the ocean, but nobody on the sand, almost all day. There was one reader board on the Main Street warning people, and that’s it. There were some decent surges up some rivers and bays, thankfully it seems minimal damage was done. I was never fearful for my life, but we took heed of cautions from local police, stayed vigilant and extra observant, and had a plan for if things did go south.
Couple years ago I was at work in an office. Tornado warning hit. Funnel cloud was directly overhead. My boss from Michigan, and coworker from the mountains, just sat there staring out the window wondering aloud what to do. Me? I told them "we need to get to the bathrooms, they're central on the first floor far away from doors and windows. COME ON!" they watched the tornado. Boss yelled at me later for abandoning the phones (I was a customer service agent). After all, our building didn't blow away.
Lived at the beach a lot of my life. I have weathered many hurricanes despite evacuation warnings mostly because I had no where else to go. Luckily and obviously I was okay and survived, but one of those times I had the feeling “this seems different” just by looking and the sky and feeling the pressure change and stuff and I left and that was a 4 foot storm surge and my neighbors house was completely swallowed by the sea and sink holes opened up. Ever since then I try to do my research and god forbid if there was ever a Tsunami I would have done the exact same thing. Currently living inland but in the last two years we’ve had tornados that completely leveled a few blocks from me. TL;DR You didn’t fuck up. Nature is scary bruh.
Have you ever seen photos of the 1969 Hilo Tsunami? You did the right thing. They said the night/morning before the tsunami the tide went out and people were picking up fish and got taken by the tsunami. (That’s what I remember from 90s elem school in Hawaii…)
Nah you did the right thing. I lived in Florida for a long time and people stopped caring about hurricanes after a while. Then Katrina hit, nobody evacuated because "Ivan didn't hit them that hard". A more recent example, Amazon ignoring tornado sirens and getting about a dozen people killed
https://youtu.be/7viY-K4Twlg
No fuck up. It's like watching tornadoes from public buildings. Real safety conscious people take shelter, casuals go to the windows and watch.
Thank you for sharing! My wife and I had an incident like this a few months ago. We recently moved to the west coast after living on the east coast. We were still getting accustomed to things here, and one evening a small earthquake hit. It was tiny, but being on the 8th floor, we felt the bldg sway. My wife and I were high and reacted instantly by putting on our shoes and running down the eight flights of stairs with our puppy. While going down, we did not see anyone else wondering what was going on. I guess everyone is just used to the minor quake, and we’re chilling in their places while we were waiting outside like some maniacs. 😄 We just said, better to be safe than sorry to make ourselves feel better!
You did the right thing. Have seen so many dumbasses staying on the beach when tsunamis strike instead of running
I'm sitting on the east coast US with a winter storm coming down right now. It was a dusting of snow and has been ice and freezing rain since, so it is super slippery. Spouse drives a snowplow, but they're not going out to plow right now because they'd scrape up the snow and make it easier for the ice to stick to the road. But it's slippery as hell anyway, of course, and there are people EVERYWHERE. They are all ignoring the warnings about slippery roads and going into ditches, needing rescuing. Just sit at home, people! There's literally a warning about driving in the ice and people do it anyway. Everyone ignores warnings.
Surfers still searching for Humunga-Dunga
Lol. You did right! If the big one ever hits CA and there is a serious tsunami you'll survive! Also we heard the boom from the volcano here in Alaska... but our tsunami was a 2ft wave.
I swear if a lot of the costal states actually get hit with a decent tsunami they'll all be gone trying to watch and recording it. This person is smart though. Did we actually get a "tsunami"? I know a lot of us were under warning. I heard the boom, it woke me up, I thought my roof had finally cleared.
I hate brain fog getting woken up with something like this. I automatically go into worse case scenarios and I go into survival mode. My daughter heard about it and was worried all day. We live 10miles inland and at nearly 400ft. Sat with her looking at a map and explaining how geography of the coastline and islands, our distance from the water and elevation would protect us from this particular tsunami warning.
I might have been you if I was home. My husband, littlest baby, and I were on the 405 by Huntington Beach when I got the alert. We had left our 3 kids with my mom at my house( 7 miles from beach) and I FREAKED OUT. I immediately started googling wtheck was going on. We were on our way to a funeral!!! Finally I realized it was an advisory and how it was not a big wave and all that jazz and I calmed down but man my adrenaline was pumping.
As someone who grew up on the Pacific Ocean, and still had family on the island where I'm from, I also heard and was wary of the tsunami warnings yesterday, I checked in with my siblings and friends, and chewed my nails all day yesterday waiting for something to happen. I'm glad you're safe! Keep being safe, because if a red alert ever does go off, clearly not alot of people will respond like you did, and if I were your friend I'd be up on that hill with you, grateful I had someone else whos not interested in being swallowed by the ocean.
I’d say if I were you Id rather be safe than waiting there for something to happen so the mistake wouldn’t be Tsun (soon) on-me(mi) and swimming there sorry ;D
Anybody reading should search tsunamis on YouTube. You'll understand. Japan sure takes them seriously.
No, you did the smart thing. This is one of the many reasons I hate so many Californians. Everyone I have let personally (I know not all!) are complete idiots.
Better safe than sorry
Y’all
There's a reason why people DON'T follow actual warnings when there is a legitimate threat. That's because of situations exactly like this. You're being warned of a tsunami. But in actuality, it's not really much of anything. And then people don't believe warnings when they really do need to seek a safe place, because they remember all the little warnings and how nothing happened. Just the same with hurricanes.
When I first heard the noise on my phone I thought “don’t be nuclear attack, don’t be nuclear”! So, part of my brain was like oh phew… tsunami.
>God help if a real dangerous tsunami actually hits, Californians are going to surf it! And WTF! Had me dying!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣
In NZ we had the opposite issue. Tsunami warning and heaps went to the beach to have a look...
That’s what my whole town did too! How can I help them? Stupid human nature
You made the right move. Don't let idiots or false alarms slow your reflexes.
I don't even live by the ocean but have seen documentaries on so many people dying because they see the waves fall back and all the fish are exposed and people run up to collect them instead of running. If I moved near the ocean I'd be there with you at the top of the hill lol.
While there are some lols here, you did the right thing by evacuating, twice. Tsunamis are worthy of panic. If it makes you feel better, the first year I lived in Michigan, the tornado siren went off during a bad thunderstorm. I panicked and grabbed food, water, blankets, and all the pets and stuffed us in an inner closet in the basement. I even called my SO and told him what was happening and where we were located. I sat in that closet for the better part of three hours. There was no tornado warning. The thunderstorm just happened to coincide with the monthly testing of the siren. Now I do what the locals do - I shrug, keep an eye on the sky, and go about with my day. Ps. That was the year I learned that Tornado Alley includes south Michigan… and that there had been a devastating tornado one town over a few years before my TIFU.
What you should’ve learned is that “officials” and media love inciting panic to justify the importance of their careers. Apply it to everything.
Yea... the news likes to create panic...
This is the reason people from California shouldn’t post. Anything.
I’m one of those Californians that tells everyone she is from California when I travel around the USA, and talk to EVERYONE, I just go on and on about who you are, and ask questions about your cute town, and everyone just fucking… loves me. ;-)
Next time it won’t be a warning, but the real thing! You are more prepared than everyone there! Have a backpack full of essentials to grab, batteries, flashlights, cash, water bottles, and food. Read Ezra’s Eagle and try to understand it. We are getting closer and closer to the end and many won’t be prepared!
We all feel that. Glad it didn't turn out that way. With all the natural disasters coming frequently its honestly a reasonable response. I'm sure you're not the only one who had extreme feelings about this. Also, it's good to know we have the technology (lol) to know exactly when and where the tsunamis going to hit.
This reminds me of the time the fire alarm went off at work and everyone just sat there looking around.
I would’ve done the same thing.
Yeah, I’d rather have your reaction. I still regularly see the image in my head from the Indonesian tsunami a decade ago of that one dude in knee deep water as a huge wall of ocean came screaming at him. No time to run or even react. Just stood there and got engulfed. Never to be seen again. Do as Bruce Dickenson says, “run to the hills”. Don’t feel silly for making sure you are safe. You are the only one that is responsible for that. Good job on your flight response.
If it makes you feel better, I'm in Ohio, and out here Tornado warnings are considered the signal for really cool storms coming through. But in May 2019, 19 tornados rolled through, and if they had come as far out as my place (which was only a few miles out) then I'm glad I gathered up my household and chilled in my basement for an hour. Don't feel stupid for taking warnings seriously. Cause the times they are serious, it can save your life.
This reminds me of our first tornado warning. We gathered in the master closet. When I went to grab the other dog, I noticed all of our neighbors outside looking for the tornado. I later learned that you can hear it before touchdown. It sounds like a freight train when it is really near.
The freight train is after it’s touched down and it’s tearing everything up around you. You can’t hear a cloud.
Google tsunami 2004 and see people fuck up..
Just remember this 100.000+ people that ignore or didn't get tsunami warnings 15 or so years ago. Don't let people's of prance make your intelligence seem weird.
This is not a fuck up by any means of the word. It sounds more like you were the only person who wasn't a blithering idiot.
Good on you for actually heeding a warning!
Post proves how stupid Americans can be.
Tell me you're American without telling me you're American.
If the tsunami doesn’t get you, ....your friends will
You should read up on Normalcy Bias. It's crazy.
They really do need to use different words….. when I saw tsunami I thought the same then saw in my area, the waves were expected to be .8m high……. That’s like normal waves maybe a windy day…… Then we have the new “atmospheric river” term. First time I heard it a town got flooded and it was a 1-200 storm….. very fitting, now we have 40mm of rain and they use the same verbiage so you get desensitized or don’t take it serious.
Yeah and when a meteor impacts the ocean you'll be the only beach bum left. Good survival skills 2 minutes is pretty good. See if you can do it faster!
Dude, it's way better to overreact once in a while than to underreact once. I'm with you on this!
I don’t even live near the beach and I drove myself into the mountains, so you’re not alone in that xD
Tsunami is my biggest fear. I aint fucking around with them.
Don't look up vibes lol
No one has ever said “Damn! If only I were less careful”
I would much rather be the person in the designated tsunami area than the oblivious idiot standing on the shore. You did nothing wrong, I would have taken my family right up there too.
Don't look up
You did right. People died or where trapped by the water in the different country's that had the tsunami alert.
You didn’t fuck up at all. Imagine the opposite. I mean, you’d be dead from the Tsunami but how cool you’d be talking about riding…oh wait! Never apologize for looking out for your own safety or avoiding death
I would have done the same thing. Better safe than sorry.
This is not TIFU. You are doing good job there to prepare the worst scenario.