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At least six people died in the Solomon Islands Monday after two earthquakes and a tsunami hit the western part of the island-chain nation, the country's chief spokesman said. Alfred Maesulia, the Solomon Islands' government spokesman, told CNN that six people were confirmed dead and "a lot of people" were missing, which he suggested may be in the range of 10 to 20 people. Maesulia said it would likely to a day or two before more accurate information is known about the deaths and damage in the scattered island villages. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said an 80-year-old woman and a small child were among the dead in Giso. It was fortunate that the tsumani hit during daylight hours when the early warning signs of receding tides were noticed, causing people to seek higher ground, Sogavare said. In the South Choiseul, waves 10 meters high swept through the Sasamunga village northeast of Gizo, destroying villages, food gardens and a hospital, the government's Web site reported. Health centers and schools in surrounding villages were also devastated, the government said. Source: Click Here . A watch was issued for some other parts of the Pacific, including New Zealand, the Philippines, American Samoa, Guam and Fiji. You Ok out there Wolfman?

The Tsunami Warning System must be working pretty well; we heard by word-of-mouth about the possibility of a hit 75 minutes before it was to arrive. When I saw how small the tremor was I wasn't concerned. But we live right on the water, and I kept a watchful eye on the Tide Level for a few hours. Our neighbors took off, however, and my little girl thought it would be Banda Acheh all over again.
An Engineer collegue of mine from the University of Maine lives in Western Samoa. He's always going off on how we don't have an extensive shelf around our Islands (There is a Trench less than 10 miles to the South where the Sea Floor plumnges down to 4,500 feet), and how conditions here would not create a Tsunamui effect. But then, Hilo doesn't have a shelf either.

"How small the tremor?" You consider 7.0 small? You consider a 3 meter high wall of water (Solomon Islands) small?

Remind me never to go spearfish sharks with you. <g>

Glad you and the family are fine.

We get 10 surf here in December and June.

Actually, I didn't realize that the Solomons got hit that hard until I read your post. If I knew it was like that we'd have packed up the kids, the dog and the parrot, and gone a little higher up.

The Solomons, from what I can find to read, got beaten up pretty badly.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/02/quake/index.html

And given that there is nothing to stop a wave between them and you except a flock of seagulls, yeah, you should have followed your neighbors when they packed up.

Don't want to be part of a video on YouBoob showing what happened to the stupid people. <g>

It's been on the news quite a bit here of course. No evidence of tsunami reaching here as far as I know. There's been no comments of noticable waves even. Four NZers missing up there though. At least one dead, visiting his parents. Seems his family here shouted him a holiday. Bad luck. I'm always interested in Solomons. My father was through there in WWII.

By the way Wolfman I don't suppose rugby sevens is of interest in your end of Samoa?

We've had three "False Alarms" now since the Indonesian tsunami, and people are growing skeptical. The first one came at 5:00 AM, and got everybody out of bed, out of the house and up in the hills. We left in two trucks, loaded with car-less neighbors. We passed buses being loded up, it was a big "event".
Now people are jaded, "Here-we-go-again" Syndrome is setting in.

I always get a Living Room full of Fijians at my place whenever there's a major Rugby match. They love the Big Screen.

So, Wolfman, you will be aware of Samoa's recent success. Good on them.