# Tsunami Warning for New Zealand and Fiji!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 3, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252 "2006-05-03T16:35:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/1 "2006-05-03T16:35:12Z")
CNN is announcing a Tsunami warning for these areas based on an 8.0 earthquake.
It is good there is a warning system now. Let’s all pray is really embarrassingly wrong.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/2 "2006-05-03T16:40:27Z")
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/usmgas.php](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/usmgas.php)
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4970308.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4970308.stm)
We _might_ see a Tsunami.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/3 "2006-05-03T17:03:39Z")
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center statement at [here](http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/wmsg)
There was an earthquake. It may or may not have created a tsunami. Still, it is a good time to give the emergency plan a trial run.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/4 "2006-05-03T17:08:16Z")
**If** there is one, impact in Fiji in 15 minutes or so of this post. Sooner, maybe.
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### Author:  [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/5 "2006-05-03T17:36:25Z")
Good thing Keith Richards fell out of that palm tree, eh?
Hoping nothing happens.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/6 "2006-05-03T19:28:30Z")
> [@5que](#):
>
> Good thing Keith Richards fell out of that palm tree, eh?
>
> Hoping nothing happens.
Keith caused an 8.0 by falling out of a palm tree?
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/7 "2006-05-03T21:07:17Z")
It was his wallet in his shirt pocket that did the real damage.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/8 "2006-05-03T21:11:38Z")
Better safe than sorry.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/9 "2006-05-03T22:30:32Z")
The ABC news at 8.00 this morning said that the tsunami warning had been cancelled.
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### Author:  [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/10 "2006-05-04T01:52:16Z")
We leave for Fiji a week from tomorrow. Major relief when the warning was cancelled, I’ll tell ya. I bought travel insurance an hour after the quake. I will never procrastinate on buying it again!
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/11 "2006-05-04T01:58:47Z")
There’s been quite a bit of angst this morning in New Zealand at how ineffective the tsunami warning system seemed to be: [link.](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10380255) Apparently most people who heard about the warning (issued in the early hours of the morning) found out about it from foreign news media or concerned relatives telephoning in.
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/12 "2006-05-04T02:01:05Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#):
>
> It is good there is a warning system now. Let’s all pray is really embarrassingly wrong.
I’m pretty sure they’ve been serviced by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for a long time. It was the Indian Ocean that didn’t have one which proved so costly.
Still it’s good nothing much came of it.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/13 "2006-05-04T02:55:17Z")
> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> There’s been quite a bit of angst this morning in New Zealand at how ineffective the tsunami warning system seemed to be: [link.](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10380255)
Worse yet, the Associated Press is reporting that Tonga [never even _got_ a warning](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060504/ap_on_re_au_an/tonga_earthquake_28).
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/14 "2006-05-04T10:32:37Z")
Well, nothing like a drill to illuminate holes in the system. I’m glad they’re finding them on a false alarm.
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### Author:  [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/15 "2006-05-04T10:47:09Z")
Australia’s heavily populated south-eastern corner has a great tsunami defence - New Zealand. 😃
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### Author:  [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/16 "2006-05-04T11:05:02Z")
This was a great to-do over here. Not because of a possible tsunami (it ended up being a slight swell at the east coast) but because the international media created such a great bally-hoo about it that folks were being called from overseas and told to take to the hills. Our Civil Defence crew just saw it wasn’t a major thing, cancelled the warning before we woke up, and left it at that. Some egg on faces over that.
There were people leaving their homes because of frantic calls they’d received. Ah well, at least they weren’t heading to the beaches to watch it coming in.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-warning-for-new-zealand-and-fiji/355252/17 "2006-05-04T12:38:35Z")
I have never been so happy that my concern was misplaced.
🙂