West Coast Tsunami and I'm in LA!
By Kade
@akruser13 (475)
Los Angeles, California
January 15, 2022 12:50pm CST
Welp. This wasn't the "first post" I was imagining. But I woke up to the news of a volcano erupting in the ocean and how the ENTIRE west coast is on a tsunami warning. I'm far enough inland where it won't affect me but mostly it's making me think. My siblings and I did the PCH Highway road trip only a few months ago. We went because we were afraid one day the coastal highway would be wiped out and we'd regret not doing it. Now I'm sitting here on Twitter watching videos of places on our stops flooding over.
Now I realize the volcano was far enough out where it's fairly minor flooding in comparison to what it could be, but still. It's damage that's going to take some time to repair and it's very much a reality that could be a lot worse someday. This is reminding me that we should live in the moment a little more. If you want to take that trip, take it. Don't wait. You never know.
14 people like this
12 responses
@sabtraversa (13014)
• Italy
15 Jan 22
Woah, I will never go to live close to the coast. I can't even swim.
Glad you'll very likely to be safe and hopefully nothing severe will happen this time. And the next times too. I don't know if it'll ever be possible to prevent disasters like this to happen in the future. 
1 person likes this
@sabtraversa (13014)
• Italy
15 Jan 22
@akruser13 I thought it was too cold to have a swim in the ocean anyway. Okay, I guess it's normal to also go for strolls nearby. Now that I wrote it down, I think the problem is the ocean, the wild ocean. You should consider moving close to the safe Mediterranean sea. 
1 person likes this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
Haha, you found me over here!
I grew up on the east coast initially where we had hurricanes, but it didn't usually flood. I like the beach but I'm terrified of the concept of drowning and just the word tsunami scares me. The news update is that our closest beach here shouldn't flood too much but the riptides will be really bad. So nooooo going in or near the water for me until it's safe.
2 people like this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
@sabtraversa The Pacific Oceans IS cold! Even as far south as California! The Atlantic Ocean was actually pretty warm and had almost no waves (I was in Virginia so sort of that middle part of the country where even when the hurricanes hit they'd slowed down a lot by the time they reached us).
I would actually like to travel over that way some day. I've never left the U.S. minus a short trip over the border into Canada once. I'm 50% Finnish on my mother's side and now that she's finally retired we're all pitching in to take her there to see where her family came from. It'll be my first big adventure overseas!
2 people like this
@sharonelton (25143)
• Lichfield, England
18 Jan 22
I heard about that volcano erupting. They say you could see it from space!
1 person likes this
@MALUSE (69409)
• Germany
15 Jan 22
@akruser13 What does PCH mean? I don't know American abbreviations.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
@MALUSE Oh! It's short for Pacific Coastal Highway, which is just the other name for State Route 1. I almost said "The 1" and then remembered it's apparently weird that here in CA we use "the" in front of all the freeway numbers lol.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
It's great! My siblings and I all live in different states so we flew into Medford up in OR, rented a car there and drove all the way down. The redwoods before we hit the coast were one of my favorite parts of the drive.
On the other end, that road is small and very curvy, lol. Once on PCH was enough, I probably wouldn't take that route again, but it was worth doing it for the adventure.
@oahuwriter (26778)
• United States
16 Jan 22
Wow! California was that much affected, sad to hear about it! I live on Oahu, not much happened so the early news reported.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
I think it wasn't as bad in most places as the news made it sound like it could be, but that's a good thing. Better to be prepared and not need it than not being prepared at all. Some of the coastal cities got hit harder than others, but ours in LA was okay. Some rough water out there but not so much flooding.
1 person likes this
@oahuwriter (26778)
• United States
17 Jan 22
@akruser13
Sad some places got hit hard, but glad your State and mine ok! Hawaii expected 1-3 ft if water from volcano explosion, so, no warning alerts.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
17 Jan 22
@oahuwriter That would be scary for sure. Let's all just hope this wasn't a small sign of bigger things to come in 2022. I don't think we need a whole trilogy of bad years, lol.
1 person likes this
@Kouponkaren (5495)
• United States
15 Jan 22
I am so glad you and your siblings took that trip when you did. Welcome to myLot and stay safe.
@Kouponkaren (5495)
• United States
16 Jan 22
@akruser13 I actually did it many years ago, by myself when I was 23. I had to keep pulling over at many of the rest areas to see the views because I was afraid if I looked over while I was driving, I would run off the road and die!
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
@Kouponkaren Omg, yes! And one of the days we were driving it was raining and hard to see so we had to take it really slow.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
Thank you! It was a phenomenal trip, one I'd recommend everyone doing if they can. Hopefully they still can after this!
1 person likes this
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
17 Jan 22
That's scary. We've had a several small earthquakes since I've moved here to LA but they've all just been little rumbles. Not even enough to knock things over on my shelves. There's always risk of a big one happening someday but so far I've been lucky enough not to be here for any of those.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (134663)
• Roseburg, Oregon
16 Jan 22
We went to be beach two years ago and could not go for the last two years. But I do want to go back we had a good time.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
Oh you're in OR! I lived up in WA for a few years a little north of Vancouver. The water is so cold up there! I liked visiting Astoria and especially Cannon Beach.
@JudyEv (326155)
• Rockingham, Australia
15 Jan 22
The tsunami is affecting parts of Australia's coast too, not to mention a lot of the little islands around. And you're right. If you want to do something, don't put it off.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
I am! I'm inland a little ways so I'm fine here. I just have to not drive out to the beach for a few days. Thank you!
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
15 Jan 22
It looks like for now most of the flooding is sticking to boardwalks and parking lots right on the coastline itself. I saw in Santa Cruz some of the water was surrounding the restroom facility buildings by a few inches. I'm just glad this didn't happen about a week or so again when we were having flooding already from heavy storms.
1 person likes this
@CarolDM (203451)
• Nashville, Tennessee
15 Jan 22
@akruser13 Stay safe out there.
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@reikonakama (41)
•
16 Jan 22
So sad and worry when I heard the news. My sister lives in Australia near the beach. Stay safe.
@akruser13 (475)
• Los Angeles, California
16 Jan 22
Oof, that was probably much scarier over there. The volcano was way closer to them. The danger here has pretty much passed already I think, thank fully. I'm sure by tomorrow any damage done will be all over the news.
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