by Joanne Lane

28 February 2010, Brisbane, Australia.  I never thought I’d find myself near Brisbane on a balmy summers day hearing the word “tsunami” at the coast and preparing for impending danger. But that’s exactly what happened yesterday.
Much of the Pacific region spent Sunday morning battening down the hatches to prepare for surging waves as a result of the seismic fallout from the 8.8-magniture earthquake off the coast of Chile on Saturday night, February 27.

As for us, we were speeding blissfully unaware towards a coastal region in Queensland to take part in an organized triathlon event. I hadn’t caught the news from the previous night to even know there had been an earthquake in Chile or that waves were racing at 700km/hr across the Pacific towards us.

As we pushed our bikes towards the transition area just after dawn, an announcer began the first of a series of warnings about the tsunami threat scheduled to hit in about two hours time.

At first we thought it was a joke.

“They’re pulling your leg,” I told my friend. “A tsunami? Here? Come on!”

It seemed completely incongruous that there would even be a warning. For the previous tsunamis in the Asian region, people had little more than a few minutes notice.

Unabated, the announcer continued.

“Sea levels are expected to experience a surge sometime after 8am with potentially dangerous currents, therefore all races starting after that time will instead begin with a run leg. Competitors will not be allowed in the water.”

Replacing the swim leg with another run effectively created a duathlon, which seemed rather unfair given it was shaping up to be a steaming hot day. The swim leg certainly kept you cooler.

Of course these were all ridiculous thoughts. The Associated Press has reported the death toll from the Chilean earthquake has now surpassed 700 and here we were bemoaning the fact we couldn’t swim for a few hundred metres.
 
Throughout the Asia Pacific, tsunami is a word that conjures up much horror thanks to rather terrible recent events. On September 29 in 2009 an earthquake of between 8.0 and 8.3 magnitude triggered a series of tsunami waves that struck the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. A day later a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck a different fault line off Sumatra triggering wave surges on the Indonesian island.

While neither event claimed lives to the extent of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in which 230,000 people died all around the Indian Ocean, the death toll of all these tsunamis did include Australians.

But while the oceanic world was on red alert and nations like Samoa, Tonga, Japan and Indonesia prepared for the worst, somehow here in Australia, the news of an impending tsunami raised little concern. While officials closed down beaches, surfing events and the swim legs of triathlons; the general public, was, well, unperturbed.

The effects on our coastlines were to be minimal, but authorities warned of dangerous tides and currents and to keep away from the coastal interface and neighbouring estuaries.

However on Manly beach in Sydney people actually gathered to watch the sea and on Bondi swimmers ignored “Beach Closed” signs and still went in the water. Some people even drove to the coast in expectation of some kind of show. Fortunately nothing eventuated and it swept lightly across the Pacific coasts.

We were out racing when the water was supposed to hit the Queensland coast. But when we returned to the coastal finish area afterwards, only one bystander reported he noticed anything different about the water levels. He said there was a minor surge at one point.
 
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii initially issued a warning for 53 nations and territories after the Chilean earthquake. And once the tsunami was largely deemed a non-event, scientists admitted they had been over cautious.

Oceanographer Dai Lin Wang said, “It’s a key point to remember that we cannot end the warnings. Failure to warn is not an option for us. We cannot have a situation that we thought was no problem and then it’s devastating. That just cannot happen.”

With the little-to-no-warning before the 2009 or 2004 tsunamis, being over prepared certainly seems a better option. Although complacency is now an additional concern because the tsunami warning was called off this time.

“If you give too many warnings and none of them materialize, then you lose your credibility,” Wang said. “That’s something that we have to deal with and we have to improve.”
The New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally said Australians should have heeded warnings on beaches and waterways. “Next time,” she said, “they may not be so lucky.”

The biggest surges in Australia were recorded on Norfolk Island (50cm), the Gold Coast (20cm) and Tasmania, Southport and Darlington (all 17cm).

As for us in Queensland, well we were hot and sweaty when we finished the duathlon, but it was hard to criticise organizer’s concerns for our safety. And in comparison to the devastation wreaked on many lives in Chile, being barred from the water was no sacrifice at all. At least we still have a next time to worry about.

Joanne Lane is a freelance photojournalist based in Brisbane, Australia.