Caribbean earthquake

[caydiver]

Yes I read the article and all the related ones in the Compass and other sources. It is a small community. We rely on many sources of info as we have business and hopefully a livelihood as do our colleagues. Sadly or unfortunately local newspapers not present reliable source of up to date information. I don’t knock them. When I lived in NY or UK it was no different. Yes we can learn from the eco and work can be done but we just were close to a 7.7 and had no loss of life, minor injuries and no big structural damage. I am happy to live here. I have island grand babies some of whom weathered the event at our house. We were all happy with how it was handled.

 

[Divetech Cayman]

We had the radio on the alerts were loud and clear. Friends with kids in the International School at CB we’re contacted to get the kids immediately when the earthquake happened. Friends in a Pilates class were told to go get their kids. No one told us what to do with the boats but they didn’t give instructions with cars either. I think the tsunami issue could only be a wait and see. Traffic in GT was a mess but I think that much of that was the normal reaction to get to loved ones. Sadly the news reports are not a place I trust either here or when I lived in New York. They like politicians just love the buzz words.

It's not an argument Regina. I'm just saying from my own perspective as a Cayman dive center manager, I don't think it went so smoothly.

They did activate the emergency broadcast system, but this is a very antiquated method of announcing emergencies. They might as well use telegraph. Many people use music services from their phones or car audio. In the shop we play Spotify, not FM radio. The first time I actually turned on an FM radio was when I was underway, moving our boat out of Morgans Harbor, and the alert I actually heard was one saying the tsunami threat had passed.

The one thing everyone has and carries with them is a cell phone. No alerts went out over Digicel or Flow, which is annoying considering I get regular spam texts from Flow offering to upgrade my mobile device on a weekly basis. There should be a quick an easy way to send alerts out to everyone on the Cayman networks. I actually think there might be, as I seem to recall a test message once. If this is the case though, why was this not implemented.

I'm not sure what the original broadcast message was, bit if it told people to go get their kids from schools, this was not the correct message. No one was able to drive anywhere for hours after this. 2 of our employees were in the truck going to our pumping station when it occurred. They never actually made it due to gridlock, and ended up coming back after 3 hours for what should have been a 15 minute drive.

For the non Cayman people reading, everyone here volunteers for something, which is how Caydiver and I know each other - we both volunteer at the hyperbaric chamber. Some of our employees volunteer at the Red Cross Emergency Preparedness center. They said Red Cross was not giving out any useful information.

The best info I was getting was on our Divetech WhatsApp chat group. Our reservations manager and our shop person were feeding us information from the various emergency sites, on quake location, intensity, and the tsunami warnings from NOAA. Thankfully we didn't loose internet.

It's also my experience that people were not calm and orderly. My employees' reports of traffic said it was pandemonium. On my own drive to Morgans Harbor, I had people passing me and honking driving insanely fast. When I arrived in tiny little Morgans Harbor, it was hysteria. Employees from the dock, restaurants, and some police were running in circles on the edge of panic. I was shouted at to move the boat now, with no other instructions. All I did was move it to yacht club.

My own feeling is it went well because there was no actual tsunami of any significant size. (Radar apparently did show a .5 meter wave which hit us 28 minutes after the event.) Had there been one, the stories people would be reading would be completely different, and there would be lots of orphaned kids in the Cayman Islands right now.

Although I read the risk is very slight, I think a better educational campaign, a 24-7 staffed emergency center, and alerts over mobile devices would be a good start.

Tony

 

[chillyinCanada]

Seems almost as if the old style air raid sirens would have been helpful, assuming plans were in place.

 

[caydiver]

I totally agree about the radio but when we stoping shaking we did immediately go put it on. We too got lots of good info from WhatsAp groups. I guess we just had different priorities or there is a different perspective from our generation and the younger ones. I wouldn’t think about my cell phone as more than a means to stay in touch. Yes we were worried about the dive boat and our boat but they were way down the list for me. I also think a big shout out should go to all the dive ops and water sports companies whose staff had their eyes on the shoreline watching to see if the water receded. When I saw the word “haunted” in the paper my reaction was give me a break. That’s a word I would understand after 911 or Hurricane Ivan. I totally agree things could have been better and certainly would not be giving the powers that be an A but I wouldn’t give them a D either. I think I would be giving a B or B- What would your grade for the be? Would give Flow a D- most of the time The internet service is even worse.

 

[markmud]

Seems almost as if the old style air raid sirens would have been helpful, assuming plans were in place.

Hi chili,

That's what we have in southern Ohio for twister alerts. It works well. They are still used on the west coast of the USA for tsunami alerts.

I feel safer in twister country than I did in quake zone 4 (parts of Cali). Twisters are random. A big F4 creates a relatively narrow swath of destruction (unless you are in its path). A big quake treats everyone fairly, the entire region feels mother nature's wrath.

To those who have never experienced a big quake: No one who has endured a big quake can ever explain the magnitude and energy that is being exerted by mother nature. You will never understand.

I can understand newbs becoming nauseated during the experience as @Divetech Cayman described in his post.

To earth we are just fleas; we survive at her whim.

@Bob DBF: "Mother nature is not out to get you, she just doesn't care."

I am glad the Cayman's suffered only minor damage and no one was seriously hurt.

best,
m

 

[cgills]

It's not an argument Regina. I'm just saying from my own perspective as a Cayman dive center manager, I don't think it went so smoothly.

They did activate the emergency broadcast system, but this is a very antiquated method of announcing emergencies. They might as well use telegraph. Many people use music services from their phones or car audio. In the shop we play Spotify, not FM radio. The first time I actually turned on an FM radio was when I was underway, moving our boat out of Morgans Harbor, and the alert I actually heard was one saying the tsunami threat had passed.

The one thing everyone has and carries with them is a cell phone. No alerts went out over Digicel or Flow, which is annoying considering I get regular spam texts from Flow offering to upgrade my mobile device on a weekly basis. There should be a quick an easy way to send alerts out to everyone on the Cayman networks. I actually think there might be, as I seem to recall a test message once. If this is the case though, why was this not implemented.

I'm not sure what the original broadcast message was, bit if it told people to go get their kids from schools, this was not the correct message. No one was able to drive anywhere for hours after this. 2 of our employees were in the truck going to our pumping station when it occurred. They never actually made it due to gridlock, and ended up coming back after 3 hours for what should have been a 15 minute drive.

For the non Cayman people reading, everyone here volunteers for something, which is how Caydiver and I know each other - we both volunteer at the hyperbaric chamber. Some of our employees volunteer at the Red Cross Emergency Preparedness center. They said Red Cross was not giving out any useful information.

The best info I was getting was on our Divetech WhatsApp chat group. Our reservations manager and our shop person were feeding us information from the various emergency sites, on quake location, intensity, and the tsunami warnings from NOAA. Thankfully we didn't loose internet.

It's also my experience that people were not calm and orderly. My employees' reports of traffic said it was pandemonium. On my own drive to Morgans Harbor, I had people passing me and honking driving insanely fast. When I arrived in tiny little Morgans Harbor, it was hysteria. Employees from the dock, restaurants, and some police were running in circles on the edge of panic. I was shouted at to move the boat now, with no other instructions. All I did was move it to yacht club.

My own feeling is it went well because there was no actual tsunami of any significant size. (Radar apparently did show a .5 meter wave which hit us 28 minutes after the event.) Had there been one, the stories people would be reading would be completely different, and there would be lots of orphaned kids in the Cayman Islands right now.

Although I read the risk is very slight, I think a better educational campaign, a 24-7 staffed emergency center, and alerts over mobile devices would be a good start.

Tony

Seems almost as if the old style air raid sirens would have been helpful, assuming plans were in place.

I'm going to agree with Toni on this.. I think we dodged a major bullet, and that a better warning system needs to be implemented.

I was diving with friends up at Cobalt Coast, we had just finished dive, in fact we met Reef's Capt Lee whose experience is detailed above, on the dock heading out. We broke down our gear, rinsed and packed up, I think, during the event. We were on the lower level cement pad built on the ironshore. None of the 3 of us were aware of anything happening. Traveling back home to Govenors Harbour thru West Bay , I had a local radio station on, nothing was mentioned. I did notice backed up dirty water drains and folks out in their yards and wondered what was going on. It wasn't until maybe 10 minutes or so later, just before rounding the corner on our street, that the radio announced there had been an earthquake and with a possible tsunami threat, folks should avoid the coastline. There were NO alerts over my phone with FLOW .Should there have been? Absolutely. Folks were confused, first being told vacate all buildings, then get to high ground, avoid coastline, then no sooner back inside, to experience a couple significant aftershocks, which sent them back outdoors. Still no warnings or alerts came through the phones.
Yes, even the old air sirens given, proper understanding, of their meaning, and follow up actions would be helpful.

We were very lucky. It could have been much much worse. It's time to implement a far better warning system before the next time.

 

[Bob DBF]

Still no warnings or alerts came through the phones.

Around here they are still working out the problems, and that’s after a number of emergencies. I guess it’s harder to get the programming down than one might think.

Yes, even the old air sirens given, proper understanding, of their meaning, and follow up actions would be helpful.

Even without understanding, it lets you know to check the local radio or tv. Of course at noon, when they are tested, it might take longer for people to catch on in a real emergency.

 

[KathyV]

Around here they are still working out the problems, and that’s after a number of emergencies. I guess it’s harder to get the programming down than one might think.



Even without understanding, it lets you know to check the local radio or tv. Of course at noon, when they are tested, it might take longer for people to catch on in a real emergency.

Here in the Chicago area the tornado sirens are tested every month on the first Tuesday at 10 am and the TVs and radios also test their emergency broadcast systems.

 

[KathyV]

I am glad that the damage was so minimal throughout the region, not just Cayman but also Florida, Jamaica, and Cuba, etc. And I think it is wise of the Cayman Governor to use this incident as a learning experience and an opportunity to improve their safety systems for the future. The Caribbean islands are all very focused on Hurricane preparedness so I can understand why there was confusion during the threat of a different kind of disaster. Here in the Chicago-area we mostly prepare for Tornado strikes, but the 911 attack on another major American city expanded our outlook somewhat, but I don't know how well we would handle an earthquake - and it is possible.

There were so many terrible images that came out of the 911 Attack on NYC, but some of the most haunting are the images of the panic-stricken people fleeing and desperately trying to get away and get off the island of Manhattan. The streets were packed, the roads were gridlocked, the trains weren't running, and crowds packed the harbor to try and get on boats going anywhere.

I hope never to see images like that again, anywhere in the world; it reminded me of the HG Wells quote from the War of the Worlds:

"...Never before in the history of the world has such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together... this was no disciplined march; it was a stampede—a stampede gigantic and terrible—without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind..."

So we could all learn some good lessons from the recent "near miss" earthquake in the Caribbean. And it is also good to remember some of the most inspiring images that came out of 911, especially of the emergency workers running toward the disaster.

 

[Bob DBF]

...I don't know how well we would handle an earthquake - and it is possible.

The Great Midwest Earthquake of 1811 | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

“The ground heaved and pitched, hurling furniture, snapping trees and destroying barns and homesteads. The shaking rang church bells in Charleston, South Carolina, and toppled chimneys as far as Cincinnati, Ohio”

“Each New Madrid earthquake had a magnitude of 7.5 or greater, making them three of the most powerful in the continental United States and shaking an area ten times larger than that affected by the magnitude 7.8 San Francisco earthquake of 1906.”