By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Tsunami: Should coastal Georgia residents be worried?
Placeholder Image

Tsunami safety rules

• An earthquake felt in a low-lying coastal area is a warning of possible, immediate danger. Move to higher ground away from the coast.
• A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves. Stay out of
danger until an “all clear” is issued by a competent authority.
• Homes in low-lying coastal areas
are not safe. Don’t stay in such buildings if there is a tsunami warning.
• The upper floors of high, multi-story, reinforced concrete hotels can
provide refuge.

Source: wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov

After seeing and hearing newscasts about the terrible devastation in northern Japan since the Pacific island nation was rocked by an earthquake and submerged by a tsunami last Friday, many people here on the coast have asked, “Can it happen to us?”
One Skidaway Institute of Oceanography marine geologist’s reply to this question was that it is possible, but not likely.
“Our history here isn’t one that suggests we’re in much danger of a tsunami,” Dr. Clark Alexander said. Alexander is the director for Georgia Southern University’s Applied Coastal Research Laboratory at Skidaway.
Still, county officials aren’t taking chances. Liberty County is rated a “tsunami-ready county.”
Liberty County EMA Director Mike Hodges said preparing for tidal waves is part of the county’s general evacuation plan.
“It’s the same evacuation routes as for a hurricane,” Hodges said. “Liberty County has an east-to-west evacuation.”
Residents would head west inland and to higher ground, along state highways 84 and 196, which would be “opened up” for evacuees by local law enforcement, he said.
“You’d get out of the way of the water completely,” Hodges said. “(Tsunamis) are a tremendous force.”
Alexander said he has past experience with earthquakes and tsunamis. The California native did his undergraduate work at Humboldt State University, just south of Crescent City, Calif., where the recent tsunami brushed the continental U.S. after having put Hawaii on alert and into evacuation mode. Crescent City’s harbor was heavily damaged and several people were swept out to sea after 8-foot waves pummeled the port town.
Alexander said there is no history, no deposits associated with tidal waves found to support the occurrence of tsunamis along the east coast. There is evidence, however, of earthquakes occurring in the southeast.
Alexander said nearby Charleston, S.C., experienced a large earthquake in 1886.
“We have about 375 years before we need to worry about (another earthquake there) too much,” he said.
“It’s a slip fault,” Hodges said. “It wouldn’t be as devastating tsunami-wise.”
Since the epicenter for the South Carolina quake was located under what is now Orangeburg, which is a land-based fault line, it would not create a tsunami, Alexander explained.
“The Charleston quake was maybe 7.3 to 7.5 on the Richter scale,” he said. “It would be similar (in magnitude) to earthquakes in the 1990s in California.”
Alexander suggested the southeast address strengthening buildings for earthquakes and implement stricter building codes like in Japan. The marine geologist said most of the recent Japanese victims were swept away by the tsunami and that the earthquake alone did not kill or injure as many people as did the tidal wave.
“Most of the loss of life in Japan wasn’t from the earthquake; it was from the tsunami,” he said. “Their building codes are accommodating the kind of energy they’d experience.”
Alexander said man has not yet found a way to “engineer your way out of a wall of water.”
He explained that Japan is in an area where there are tectonic plates shifting under the ocean. The island nation is located in the Pacific ring of fire, Alexander said.
“When they (plates) move, they move quickly and release a lot of energy (into the Pacific),” he said.
The Atlantic ocean basin is different; it has a passive spreading center, Alexander said.
“Japan is very aware of its geologic setting … they have an early warning system they set up in the last seven years or so,” Alexander said. “It measures the ‘p’ waves, which are direct waves from the initial event. It’s enough to start the sirens and get people moving before the ‘s’ waves come. These are the waves that start shaking the earth. Even a minute may be enough to start saving lives.”
“There’s been more earthquakes and volcanic activity than there’s ever been,” Hodges said. He said residents need to take evacuation warnings seriously, whether a tsunami or hurricane is expected.
“We go through this every hurricane season,” the EMA director said. “Some people don’t believe it will happen. They have a right to stay if they want to do that.  But it comes to a point when it is no longer safe to assist them. Once we reach that point, they’re on their own.”
EMA Deputy director Larry Logan suggested local residents invest about $25 in a NOAA weather radio.
“Getting information out to people is key,” he said. “People should have their evacuation plans ready and not wait for hurricane season.”
Hurricane season officially begins June 1.

Sign up for our e-newsletters
HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

Latest Obituaries