October 8th 1055: Suddenly a catamaran motored towards ADAGIO, and the skipper was shouting, “Big Wave, Tsunami coming. Go out to deep water!” Wow! First we put on our life jackets, then raised the anchor and were one of the first boats out of the anchorage. We turned on the radio, and monitored all messages between boats. An earthquake near Vanuatu. The resulting tsunami was due in New Caledonia at about 1100 hours, ten minutes after we received the alert. We motored away from land to an area of 25 meters depth. We heard on the radio that the Loyalty Islands and the east coast of New Caledonia had been evacuated. There was some confusion on the radio reports as to when the tsunami alert had been cancelled. By 1 PM we were re-anchored in Kuto Bay, greatly relieved that the tsunami waves had not come to New Caledonia.
The NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the first of nine related bulletins at 07 Oct 2009 2216Z (that is 08 Oct 0916 NCT = local New Caledonia time). That is about one hour 15 minutes before we heard anything by the jungle telegraph in Kuto Bay:
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 2217Z 07 OCT 2009
THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS…EXCEPT ALASKA…BRITISH COLUMBIA…
WASHINGTON…OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
… A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT …
A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR
VANUATU / SOLOMON IS. / NAURU / PAPUA NEW GUINEA / TUVALU /
NEW CALEDONIA / FIJI / KIRIBATI / KOSRAE / WALLIS-FUTUNA /
HOWLAND-BAKER
A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR
MARSHALL IS. / TOKELAU / KERMADEC IS / POHNPEI / NEW ZEALAND /
SAMOA / AMERICAN SAMOA / TONGA / AUSTRALIA / NIUE /
COOK ISLANDS / CHUUK / INDONESIA / WAKE IS. / JARVIS IS. /
PALMYRA IS. / GUAM / N. MARIANAS / JOHNSTON IS. / YAP /
MARCUS IS. / BELAU
FOR ALL OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS BULLETIN… IT IS FOR
INFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME.
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME – 2203Z 07 OCT 2009
COORDINATES – 13.0 SOUTH 166.3 EAST
DEPTH – 33 KM
LOCATION – VANUATU ISLANDS
MAGNITUDE – 8.0
EVALUATION
IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. THIS WARNING IS
BASED ONLY ON THE EARTHQUAKE EVALUATION. AN EARTHQUAKE OF THIS
SIZE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT CAN
STRIKE COASTLINES NEAR THE EPICENTER WITHIN MINUTES AND MORE
DISTANT COASTLINES WITHIN HOURS. AUTHORITIES SHOULD TAKE
APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS POSSIBILITY. THIS CENTER
WILL MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA FROM GAUGES NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE TO
DETERMINE IF A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED AND ESTIMATE THE SEVERITY OF
THE THREAT.
ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS
WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL
ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN
SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.
LOCATION FORECAST POINT COORDINATES ARRIVAL TIME
——————————– ———— ————
<snip all locations but AUS and Newcal>
NEW CALEDONIA NOUMEA 22.3S 166.5E 0015Z 08 OCT
AUSTRALIA BRISBANE 27.2S 153.3E 0155Z 08 OCT
CAIRNS 16.7S 145.8E 0204Z 08 OCT
SYDNEY 33.9S 151.4E 0228Z 08 OCT
GLADSTONE 23.8S 151.4E 0301Z 08 OCT
MACKAY 21.1S 149.3E 0322Z 08 OCT
HOBART 43.3S 147.6E 0355Z 08 OCT
<snip>
