Tsunami would have affected marine interests most – Lyew Ayee
IF JAMAICA had experienced a tsunami, the scare of which sent some residents fleeing their homes on Tuesday evening, Dr Parris Lyew Ayee said that it would not have resulted in devastating damage.
The head of the Mona GeoInformatics Institute of the University of the West Indies, however, said that he was very uncomfortable that Jamaicans would become complacent, and he warned against lack of preparedness.
Jamaica had been monitoring the situation after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between the coast of Honduras and The Cayman Islands on Tuesday night, causing officials to warn people around the region to be alert to the threat of possible tsunami surges.
“If it came to Jamaica, my concern would have been for the marine interests, especially the coast guard, with their boats docked. This tsunami wouldn’t have toppled any building or resulted in major displacements. It would have caused boats to rise up and bounce things but nothing that would result in widespread destruction,” he explained.
“For God’s sake! This is not the same as the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand. I’m not ruling out something like that happening in Jamaica, but we have to remember that those parts of the world are seismically more active,” he explained.
Thailand was one of the countries that was hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on December 26. The Thai authorities estimate that at least 8,150 people died.