Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Beware The Tsunami

Yesterday there was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile. I was unaware of said event as it would seem unlikely to affect my life. However, while I was out on my long boring solo Sunday run I came across a Wellington civic worker, decked out in what I would have mistaken for firefighting gear, who put his hand up to me as I was about to run by onto a nice gravelly beach path.

"Beware, En Zed. Beware!"

"I'm gonna have to stop you mate. There's a Tsunami warning in effect."

"What? Wow, uh, thanks!... Good to know."

I immediately got a surge of adrenaline before realizing that the threat was probably pretty minimal and a ways off if this guy was still on the beach. And I know I'd seen other people on the beachfront sidewalk (though indeed no one was on any of the beaches I ran by, a fact that I chalked up to there being absurd gusts of wind). As I ran along, eager to get away from the cliffs trapping me on the waterfront, I actually realized there was no way a wave was just going to rush in and dominate me. The two main reasons being I was on the downwind coast (I didn't know it was earthquake induced at this point), and the South Island was barely shrouded behind misty low-hanging clouds across the channel. Surely it would block most of the raging Tsunami, all I would get is a gradual swell of water and some flooding. Indeed, the whole global incident proved to be quite subdued and I laughed when I read the media's post-"Tsunami" reports which were decidedly disappointed in tone.