How To Ride Out A Tsunami

Dawn broke with the final burst of an overnight tropical storm, and the dark news of a major seismic event in Japan. Although many thousands of miles away in the South Pacific, we on Easter Island were in the path of the resulting tsunami. Our plans for a leisurely day outdoors among the Moai ruins were modified to include a mandatory evacuation, along with the local population, to higher ground.

There are three prominent volcanic craters on the island. I would have thought emergency planning would have moved us to one of these, but when tsunamis hit, as they sometimes do, local islanders go to the airport. No Super Shuttles here. With typical island nonchalance the natives drift toward the landing strip, built by NASA for backup space landings, which can easily accommodate the assembly of 3,000 locals and tourists, and is safely above the open sea areas.

Since we had nine hours announced lead time before scheduled impact, we somewhat surrealistically resumed our normal touring activities around the island. We did stop at a market to pick up emergency water, peanut butter and cookies (all food groups thus covered, with the exception of chocolate), just in case. Our tour guide also thoughtfully assembled sandwich fixings, because inadvertently missing a meal would be socially unacceptable.


The ceremonial sites around this island are unique, and stand as testimony to a highly advanced civilization that deteriorated to extinction. The Moai stone heads of Easter Island, identically carved from the same quarry over a period of many centuries, represented homage to individual tribal leaders, whose identities are lost.


Hundreds of these multi-ton monuments exist, although all were thrown down during tribal civil wars that decimated the population. Competing chieftains, over the course of five hundred years, depleted every natural resource without thought of replenishment. Ultimately, not a tree was left standing on this now-lush island. The soil, over-harvested and eroded due to deforestation, produced insufficient food. A highly technical and scientific society of interrelated clans was reduced to barbarism, even cannibalism, in competition for food. By the 1700's, less than 10% of the natives were left; many were subsequently wiped away from diseases provided by Western missionaries.

The island now is a treasury of unique monumental heads and ceremonial platforms. Most are at the ocean line, facing the shore as the spirit of depicted ancestors gaze benevolently out over the clan, as I do here.


So here we sit, in the airport departure lounge. Most of the islanders opted to remain outdoors, with tourists camping in here. The one snack shop/bar has done a brisk business in foreign trade, to the background accompaniment of continuous island music. I expected at least a strong change in barometric pressure at the appointed hour, but the tsunami came ashore peacefully at low tide. The authorities will keep us sequestered for a few hours more, to assure against followup aftershock events, then we resume festivities.

An all-around unanticipated, adventurous day, whose key unanswered question remains: what's open for dinner?

Location:Easter Island