Worries About Angry Waves

At home we do not worry about earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes...they are not on our radar, unless they happen somewhere else in the world. Then we see, read and hear about them on the news. We put on charity events and post words of encouragement on our blogs, twitters and facebooks. Here in Nicaragua, though, these things are a reality.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/27/world/americas/el-salvador-earthquake/index.html

Last night I was sitting on the beach with a friend, talking about the extra-largeness of the waves. Usually we do not have waves that are really surf-able, but last night, they were massive. We talked about tsunamis and how terrifying they are. Anyway, I had an extremely long week at work and an a fantastic sunday in the sun, followed by a goodbye party for a friend...I was exhausted. I was asleep in minutes and did not wake up until my alarm went off the next morning. I checked my phone and saw 3 missed messages from an unknown number. I then saw that I had a text saying "Kate-TSUNAMI WARNING...." My heart started to race as I read the text, thinking it was a joke from a friend. We were just talking about it the night before; it has to be a joke. Then I saw it was signed by the director of Peace Corps Nicaragua. I immediately called her and she filled me in. There was a 7.3 magnitude earthquake right off the coast of El Salvador. Because of the great magnitude of the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued the warning last night and had since then been canceled. I packed a runaway bag anyway, just in case, and headed into the city to get some work done and use the internet to research tsunamis. Apparently they are now able to predict the majority of tsunamis that actually occur, some a few minutes before they happen and some a few hours. According to PBS, "75 percent of warnings that resulted in costly evacuations turned out to be false alarms." I have to say; I would rather the government spend tons of money evacuating people for no reason, than lose an entire state, city or in some cases, country. 
So...things should be back to normal (they actually were never not normal), but to celebrate the non-tsunami, I am treating myself to internet, a lactose free latte and a piece of black forest cake for breakfast. Things to learn before the next tsunami warning: how to out-swim a tsunami, how big does a boat have to be to escape a tsunami and if I were to build a cave underneath the ocean, would I be safe?