Friday, March 11, 2011

Restless Night Ahead

Bay Area residents who have difficulty falling asleep will have real trouble tonight. The magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck Japan last night produced a tsunami that destroyed wide swaths of farmland in northeastern Japan. The horrific videos are looping endlessly on the major channels.

If it does hit Hawaii, the tsunami is expected to make landfall in about three hours (2 a.m. HST). The ETA in San Francisco is currently 8:07 a.m. PST. Reasoning and experience suggest that the wave will have substantially dissipated by the time it reaches California. We do live on Bay flatlands, but the 25-mile distance between Foster City and the Golden Gate provides additional reassurance.

However, the probability that we'll have to evacuate isn't zero. I'll have to get up early, check what happened in Hawaii (the many relatives we have there are an additional source of worry), and pack people and materiel in the car if necessary.

Yes, it's going to be a restless night ahead.

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