A wave of relief swept over Vancouver Island residents in coastal communities, many of whom evacuated their homes for two hours early Tuesday morning in the wake of a tsunami warning sparked by a powerful earthquake off Alaska.
Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne said she received the tsunami warning at 2 a.m. and quickly activated the district’s emergency operations centre at the fire hall and opened the Tofino Community Hall as an evacuation reception centre.
The tsunami warning sirens were sounded at 2:10 a.m., which could be heard along low-lying areas of Tofino. The sound woke people up and signalled that it wasn’t a drill. Social media alerts told people to get to higher ground.
Osborne spoke with parents, children, and older residents, and while people were concerned, they stayed calm. “I didn’t see any signs of panic.”
Wendy Hainstock, general manager of Hostel International Tofino, said she was at her other job at the Tofino Legion when her staff alerted her to the tsunami warning just after 2 a.m.. She drove back to the hostel, grabbed a blow horn and the guest ledger and began systematically waking up guests. Some seemed very scared and some were nonchalant, including a man who opened his door naked.
She grabbed the hostel’s evacuation backpack, which has food and water for ten people for three days, and staff and guests car pooled to the community hall.
Hundreds of people packed into the Tofino muster centre nervously awaiting any news. The district of Tofino’s Twitter feed advised that tsunami activity was forecast to start at 3:40 a.m., and then 4:40 a.m.
Hainstock said some children cried, others played, oblivious to the potential danger.
One woman read from a book of poetry to those gathered around her and she sang Disney songs to kids.
Many tourists appeared visibly scared, obviously not used to the regular tsunami drills carried out by locals.
“We practise drills regularly,” Hainstock said. “The tsunami is always looming. The idea of it happening is always there.”
Catherine Lempke posted on Twitter at 4:10 a.m.: “Everyone is calm and chatting here at @TofinoEmergency muster centre. Wave estimated arrival is now 4:40.”
Thirty minutes later, she posted a video which showed the crowd cheering and dogs barking as the announcement was made that the tsunami warning was over.
The sense of relief was palpable as Osborne saw “lots of hugs, phone calls to parents and friends, and posts on Facebook.”
“I think that everything went really well. I was impressed with the communication here and how well people responded,” she said, adding there’s nothing that makes a mayor more proud than seeing how a community comes together in the face of a potential emergency.”
Dozens of Saanich residents drove to the top of Mount Tolmie and a handful of people packed their kids into cars and drove to the Oak Bay Recreation Centre.
“We set up the Oak Bay Rec Cente for area of refuge for people who self evacuated,” said Oak Bay Fire Chief Dave Cockle, adding that volunteers were called in to staff the centre.
He said the areas of concern were McNeill Bay and people who live along Esplanade near Willows Beach.
“We were prepared to begin door-to-door evacuation,” he said.
The dispatch centre fielded calls from the public asking for information as Cockle and Oak Bay’s emergency program manager Eileen Grant monitored the predicted inundation zones on the tsunami mapping system.
In Saanich, police began going door-to-door to alert residents of low-lying properties. An emergency evacuation centre was set up in the Gordon Head Recreation Centre and at St. Mary’s Anglican church in Metchosin.
The West Shore RCMP cleared parked vehicles away from the Esquimalt Lagoon and blocked the road to Fort Rodd Hill. Residents of houses along the lagoon were notified of the warning.
Esquimalt warned residents of low-lying areas to evacuate, advising them that the Esquimalt Recreation Centre was open to them.
View Royal Mayor David Screech posted that his fire department had evacuated about 60 homes.
In Port Alberni, which was devastated by a tsunami in 1964, a disaster siren roused residents from their beds at 3 a.m.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps was in the emergency operations centre in the Victoria Fire Hall 1 on Yates Street, surrounded by the fire department’s senior leadership and the city’s emergency management co-ordinator.
Volunteers were called in to prepare the Fairfield Community Centre as a muster point.
The city’s Vic Alert system sent a text message at 2:44 a.m. which warned people of a tsunami alert for Vancouver Island. It advised people to evacuate two blocks inland or to higher ground beyond designated tsunami hazard zones.
Vic Alert sent another text message at 4:40 a.m. advising that the tsunami warning was cancelled.
Helps said firefighters and police officers were getting ready to sound the evacuation alarm when the warning was cancelled.
“Just as the trucks were about to deploy the warning was downgraded and cancelled,” Helps said. “It was a huge relief.”
Helps said it was difficult to gauge the tone in the community in the middle of the night, but “there seemed to be a sense of calm prevailing.”
Helps said it’s important to remind people not to call 911 to find out what’s going on, because that line needs to be reserved for life-threatening emergencies.
Real-time information was being provided on the city’s Twitter feed, @CityofVictoria or through the Vic Alerts emergency notification system, which will text message or call people with updates. People can sign up for the alerts here: http://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/public-safety/emergency-preparedness/vic-alert.html
Just by coincidence, the District of Saanich is hosting an information session Tuesday night for people who want to become volunteers for Saanich’s emergency program. Volunteers can be called on to staff emergency reception centres or assist with other tasks during an emergency.
The session takes place at the Cedar Hill Recreation Centre, 3220 Cedar Hill Rd., at 7:30 p.m.
Oak Bay is hosting an emergency preparedness information session on Feb. 21, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., at the Monterey Centre, 1442 Monterey Ave.
