Geoff Johnson will be moving to higher ground after broadcasting all night since news broke that an earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan, and a possible Tsunami could slam the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The corporate of the District of Tofino issued an Emergency Information Statement at 2:50 am PST which said, “Marinas, beaches, and other areas that are below the normal high tide mark should immediately evacuate.”
Now Long Beach Radio and Geoff Johnson are moving to higher ground.
“Our radio station is located literally at the end of pier in the harbor I’ve taken the precaution of leaving it with some recorded public service announcements and try and sit up a remote place where I can access it through the internet and keep people informed about developments but now right there is no indication of anything coming visibly here on the coast,” Johnson said.
Tofino, Uculet, and other communities along Vancouver Island’s west coast are familiar with Tsunami warnings. The most recent tsunami warning since this latest advisory was February 2010 following an 8.8 earthquake in Chile.
“We have had warnings like this in the past where people have been known to grab lawn chairs and go sit down on the beach to watch but never of one this scale,” Johnson said.
Johnson described Tofino as “pretty much a ghost town.” However, since the Tsunami warning happened so early in the morning local time, area residents are only now becoming aware of the situation. Johnson continued, “I believe a lot of the people in town are complacent we do live in a very seismically active area, the Cascadia area.”
The Cascadia subduction fault area is an area prone to earthquakes. It runs from Vancouver Island to northern California.
Understandably, Geoff Johnson was in a rush moving his radio station but ended the interview with this, “I”˜ve got a condo on top of the tallest rock in town. I’m going to sit up there and plug everything into wireless internet and stuff as I can and trying and keep the world connected to what is happening out here if anything should develop out here.”
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