Yet another use for the Internet

So Alex called and left me a message this afternoon, asking me to check Google Earth to see if I could find the property he's working on, out on Costa Rica's left coast. I found it and E-mailed him a screen snapshot:


saving him, apparently, a bit of work in some way.

Then at some point during the afternoon, I saw passing mention of an earthquake in Peru. Huh.

Once the girls were in bed, he called again, figuring I would be interested to know that the earthquake had precipitated a tsunami warning for Pacific coastal regions and, of course, particularly for people who are less than a block from the beach in said regions.

I found the CNN article while we were on the phone, then looked up the actual text of the warning and called him back to read it to him. It confirms the estimated arrival time, and tells how local authorities will know it's safe to give the all-clear, but it doesn't say anything about how high the waves might or might not get.

Fortunately, Costa Rica is right at the edge between "warning" and "watch." Also fortunately, it's scheduled to hit around 10:00 p.m., so it's no hardship to stay up, alert and mobile in case he needs to move.

Most fortunately of all, as of now the CNN article says the warnings and watches have all been canceled. Of course, the text posted on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's website hasn't changed, so we'll see what's what in another hour or so.

Interesting tidbit of the evening: I liked the Al Jazeera article on the quake better than the CNN one.