The likelihood of an “extreme” tsunami hitting Hawaii is slim, but city officials aren’t taking any chances. A series of informational meetings will be held in December throughout Windward Oahu to update residents on revisions to tsunami evacuation zone plans.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by the city Department of Emergency Management, the public meetings are set for 7-9 p.m. Dec. 2 at Kailua District Park, Dec. 8 at Kaneohe District Park, Dec. 11 at Waimanalo District Park, Dec. 15 at Ka’a’awa Elementary School and Dec. 18 at BYU-Hawaii’s Little Theatre.<\/p>\n
Hawaii’s current preparedness plan is based on the 1946 tsunami that ravaged Hilo and Kauai, killing 159 people — the deadliest tsunami in Hawaii’s recent history. But studies are now suggesting that this plan may not be enough. Evidence found in a sinkhole on Kauai, researched in part by Rhett Butler, a scientist at UH’s Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, states that about 500 years ago, a massive tsunami struck Hawaii — a wave that was three times larger than the 1946 wave.<\/p>\n
There is a 0.1 percent chance that a 9.5-magnitude earthquake in the eastern Aleutian Islands could generate a tsunami that would cause water levels to rise 26 to 30 feet above the Makauwahi sinkhole. By comparison, the 1946 tsunami raised water levels only 8 feet.<\/p>\n
It’s a small percentage, but those are the same odds that produced the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. The city therefore has redrawn its plans to include a second, larger evacuation zone, should this massive tsunami hit.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit honolulu.gov\/dem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The likelihood of an “extreme” tsunami hitting Hawaii is slim, but city officials aren’t taking any chances. A series of..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windward-oahu-news"],"yoast_head":"\n