For a few hours last night people living on the Australian east coast were unsure whether they would be wise to flee inland - or whether a tsunami caused by a massive earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale would crash onto our shores.
That Japanese quake was one of the world's biggest. Television pictures graphically illustrated the damage caused by a tsunami on the Japanese mainland and the tsunami centre in Hawaii predicted waves of varying height heading to many Pacific ocean destinations.
Later - we were given the " all clear " - but what could be described as a " near miss " invites a question.
Had bad luck delivered a ten metre tsunami - what procedures are in place to evacuate the eastern sea-board - and what warning systems would alert the population to the coming danger ?
New Zealand recently had an off-shore 6.3 earthquake. It is possible that in future a much larger quake could result in a tsunami and because of the close proximity we would not have a huge time gap to act.
So - more questions ! Who has the responsibility for such a disaster ? Is it state ? Or a Federal matter ? And what systems exist to evacuate citizens from the danger zone ?
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