Latest news with #Simmers
The Herald Scotland
13 hours ago
- Climate
- The Herald Scotland
How close to disaster did we come after tsunami warnings in US?
Earthquakes roughly the size of the 8.8 magnitude quake off Russia's coast have triggered deadly tsunamis before, including the one that struck Japan in 2011, killing 18,000 people, and one in the Indian Ocean in 2004 that killed more than 200,000. The giant waves haven't materialized this time, although some parts of Alaska's Aleutian Islands remain under a less urgent advisory. Many factors go into whether a tsunami will devastate communities or become mostly a false alarm. AccuWeather Meteorologist Peyton Simmers said forecasters didn't expect the Russian earthquake to generate waves in the United States as large as Japan saw in 2011. Still, Simmers said it could have been extremely perilous. "It could have been a far worse situation, that's for sure," Simmers told USA TODAY. "It could have caused a lot more damage." Authorities said those returning to their homes should exercise caution and keep an eye out for damage. In Alaska, forecasters said tsunami waves could continue their impact for days and make currents dangerous for anyone at the beach. How close to disaster did we come? Experts didn't expect a catastrophe akin to the tsunamis caused by some of the other largest earthquakes recorded - such as the 1960 Chilean quake of 9.5 magnitude that sent a tsunami to the United States, killing 61 in Hawaii and two along the West Coast or the Japan tsunami from a 9.0 magnitude earthquake - Simmers said. That's probably what many were worried about when they heeded evacuation orders and moved to higher ground or higher levels of buildings the afternoon of July 29. Forecasters predicted waves between 3 and 9 feet with a projected maximum of 9.8 feet to hit Hawaii. Instead, the highest wave amplitudes recorded were just about 6 feet, Simmers said. By way of comparison, Japan's tsunami generated waves that reached about 130 feet in the prefecture of Iwate. Part of the reason it wasn't worse here, Simmers said, was the distance. The tsunami wave generated by the Russian earthquake caused some damage there but had to travel thousands of miles before it could reach Hawaii, which is in a uniquely vulnerable position in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where it can be reached by tsunamis originating from all directions, he said. Why it's hard to predict a tsunami Earthquakes cause tsunamis when they're big enough and close enough to the ocean floor, causing their energy to displace the ocean floor. When the ocean floor suddenly rises or falls, so does the water above it, creating a tsunami. A distant tsunami is generally only a threat when an earthquake's magnitude is at least 8.0, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But as the tsunami travels, it loses energy, Simmers said. Other factors that impact how serious a tsunami is include the shape of the coastline and the shape and size of a continental shelf, Simmers said. In this case, the size of the tectonic plate rupture and subsequent sea-level rise was not as large as comparably sized earthquakes that have caused much more damaging tsunamis, Simmers said. Brandon Shuck, a solid-earth geophysicist at Louisiana State University, said it's important to note that the size of the quake doesn't directly correlate to the size of a tsunami. He said factors affecting the amount of water shifted can include where the quake occurred, what other nearby faults might have been triggered or if an underwater landslide happened. "The tsunami that's generated is connected to how much of the sea floor actually moved," he said. All that makes a tsunami's trajectory and danger hard to predict. "Nevertheless, the earthquake did produce a trans-Pacific tsunami - a tsunami that can be detected from traveling all the way across the Pacific Ocean. This is still a huge and notable event, placing it firmly in the top 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded, and the tsunami warnings were all warranted," Shuck said. "We all should be thankful that this was not worse, and there's a lot of lessons we can take away from this." Even though this tsunami didn't turn out to be devastating, it was still a good idea to warn the public, said Prof. Anne Sheehan, the chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. One tsunami-warning buoy six kilometers deep in the north Pacific recorded a 3-foot-high wave passing shortly after the quake - a reflection of the staggering amount of energy released, said Sheehan, also a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. "For open ocean, to have that six-kilometer water column move a meter, that's huge and it made a lot of sense to put out a tsunami warning," she said. Sheehan recently helped with a research project in which a NOAA ship based in Alaska has been testing how to use onboard GPS to measure tsunami waves. If widely deployed across thousands of commercial ships plying the oceans at any given time, she said, such technology could eventually give an even clearer picture of wave movements. "If we can harness that position information, we can use that for tsunami forecasts," she said Could a catastrophic tsunami happen in the US? Hawaii, Alaska and some areas of the West Coast have a long history with tsunamis. Hawaii is one of the most susceptible spots in the world for tsunamis, and, on average, it experiences a destructive tsunami once every 11 years. It's not a matter of if, but when, another one happens there, Simmers said. Hawaii sits in a zone infamous for seismic activity known as the Ring of Fire. Huge, destructive earthquakes are rare, but it only takes one to trigger a tsunami that could have extreme devastation in Hawaii or the West Coast, Simmers said. "There's always that chance," he said. "In theory, it can, and probably will one day. When that is: who knows." In 1946, an 8.6-magnitude earthquake in the Aleutian subduction zone generated a tsunami in the Pacific that reached as far south as Antarctica, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The April 1 tsunami that year devastated the town of Hilo, Hawaii, on the Big Island. More than 150 people were killed when the tsunami, with runup wave heights between 33 and 55 feet, struck. Most of the deaths were in Hilo. A formal tsunami warning system wasn't established until after the 1946 catastrophe, but the Coast Guard issued warnings to many communities. In some communities, though, the warnings had the reverse effect, drawing onlookers to the coast to observe the phenomenon, according to a 1993 account from the NOAA. "This event happened on April 1, April Fool's Day, and some mistook the warning and reports of a tsunami as a hoax," the NOAA report reads. Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver
USA Today
a day ago
- Climate
- USA Today
Tsunami warnings caused panic. How close to disaster did we come?
The earthquake that hit a Russian island was among the most powerful ever recorded and forecasters immediately feared it could spur cataclysmic walls of water thousands of miles away in Hawaii, California and Alaska. But hours later, evacuation warnings were lifted for nearly all of the United States. Damage was determined to be minimal ‒ at least in the United States so far, with Honolulu's dangerous traffic gridlock the main impact. Earthquakes roughly the size of the 8.8 magnitude quake off Russia's coast have triggered deadly tsunamis before, including the one that struck Japan in 2011, killing 18,000 people, and one in the Indian Ocean in 2004 that killed more than 200,000. The giant waves haven't materialized this time, although some parts of Alaska's Aleutian Islands remain under a less urgent advisory. Many factors go into whether a tsunami will devastate communities or become mostly a false alarm. AccuWeather Meteorologist Peyton Simmers said forecasters didn't expect the Russian earthquake to generate waves in the United States as large as Japan saw in 2011. Still, Simmers said it could have been extremely perilous. "It could have been a far worse situation, that's for sure," Simmers told USA TODAY. "It could have caused a lot more damage." Authorities said those returning to their homes should exercise caution and keep an eye out for damage. In Alaska, forecasters said tsunami waves could continue their impact for days and make currents dangerous for anyone at the beach. How close to disaster did we come? Experts didn't expect a catastrophe akin to the tsunamis caused by some of the other largest earthquakes recorded – such as the 1960 Chilean quake of 9.5 magnitude that sent a tsunami to the United States, killing 61 in Hawaii and two along the West Coast or the Japan tsunami from a 9.0 magnitude earthquake – Simmers said. That's probably what many were worried about when they heeded evacuation orders and moved to higher ground or higher levels of buildings the afternoon of July 29. Forecasters predicted waves between 3 and 9 feet with a projected maximum of 9.8 feet to hit Hawaii. Instead, the highest wave amplitudes recorded were just about 6 feet, Simmers said. By way of comparison, Japan's tsunami generated waves that reached about 130 feet in the prefecture of Iwate. Part of the reason it wasn't worse here, Simmers said, was the distance. The tsunami wave generated by the Russian earthquake caused some damage there but had to travel thousands of miles before it could reach Hawaii, which is in a uniquely vulnerable position in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where it can be reached by tsunamis originating from all directions, he said. Earthquakes cause tsunamis when they're big enough and close enough to the ocean floor, causing their energy to displace the ocean floor. When the ocean floor suddenly rises or falls, so does the water above it, creating a tsunami. A distant tsunami is generally only a threat when an earthquake's magnitude is at least 8.0, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But as the tsunami travels, it loses energy, Simmers said. Other factors that impact how serious a tsunami is include the shape of the coastline and the shape and size of a continental shelf, Simmers said. In this case, the size of the tectonic plate rupture and subsequent sea-level rise was not as large as comparably sized earthquakes that have caused much more damaging tsunamis, Simmers said. The relationship between earthquake size and tsunami size isn't quite straightforward, either, according to Brandon Shuck, an assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Louisiana State University. Add that to the near impossibility of knowing just how much an earthquake has caused the sea floor to shift, and it makes predicting a tsunami's size and impact difficult, Shuck said. "Nevertheless, the earthquake did produce a trans-Pacific tsunami ‒ a tsunami that can be detected from traveling all the way across the Pacific Ocean. This is still a huge and notable event, placing it firmly in the top 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded, and the tsunami warnings were all warranted," Shuck said. Could a catastrophic tsunami happen in the US? Hawaii, Alaska and some areas of the West Coast have a long history with tsunamis. Hawaii is one of the most susceptible spots in the world for tsunamis, and, on average, it experiences a destructive tsunami once every 11 years. It's not a matter of if, but when, another one happens there, Simmers said. Hawaii sits in a zone infamous for seismic activity known as the Ring of Fire. Huge, destructive earthquakes are rare, but it only takes one to trigger a tsunami that could have extreme devastation in Hawaii or the West Coast, Simmers said. "There's always that chance," he said. "In theory, it can, and probably will one day. When that is: who knows." In 1946, an 8.6-magnitude earthquake in the Aleutian subduction zone generated a tsunami in the Pacific that reached as far south as Antarctica, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The April 1 tsunami that year devastated the town of Hilo, Hawaii, on the Big Island. More than 150 people were killed when the tsunami, with runup wave heights between 33 and 55 feet, struck. Most of the deaths were in Hilo. A formal tsunami warning system wasn't established until after the 1946 catastrophe, but the Coast Guard issued warnings to many communities. In some communities, though, the warnings had the reverse effect, drawing onlookers to the coast to observe the phenomenon, according to a 1993 account from the NOAA. "This event happened on April 1, April Fool's Day, and some mistook the warning and reports of a tsunami as a hoax," the NOAA report reads. Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver
Daily Maverick
6 days ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
‘Single biggest project' launched for Cape Town inner city housing development
The second of three mega social or affordable housing projects within the inner CBD of Cape Town, launched by the provincial government this year, will see 1,476 social housing residential units built — all within walking distance from the public transport interchange, as well as the famous Artscape Theatre. Western Cape MEC for Infrastructure, Tertuis Simmers, has described the launch of the Founders Garden site in the Cape Town CBD as the 'single biggest development by this provincial government', which will see about 1,400 social housing residential units built in an area the provincial government has been previously criticised for over a lack of development. Simmers was speaking at the official launch on Friday, 25 July 2025. According to the provincial government, the tender to procure a developer as well as a social housing institution for the development was advertised on 25 July. The site — situated next to the Artscape Theatre in the CBD and within walking distance of the public transport interchange — will eventually see up to 1,476 social housing residential units and 1,162 open market units, according to the government. Simmers said this project would 'be the single biggest development by this provincial government in terms of quantity, well worth over R2-billion, with just under 2,700 units'. Inner city affordable or social housing has been a contentious issue between provincial and local authorities, with activists often criticising the City for the lack of affordable and social housing within the inner CBD area. Protracted court case During a protracted Tafelberg court case (over a government-owned property that was sold rather than used for housing) in 2019, it emerged from City of Cape Town lawyers that there had been no social housing built in the inner city for 25 years. Now the province and City have attempted to directly address this need. Speaking on Friday, Simmers said: 'So this isn't a housing project on the outskirts which this provincial government is so normally criticised for; we're developing in the inner city.' In April, the Western Cape announced the first site — Leeuloop (located in Loop Street in the CBD) — which Simmers described as 'historic' — two tower blocks with about 850 housing opportunities that will have 350 units specifically allocated for social housing. On Friday, Simmers said the tender processes were under way, after the tender application closed earlier this week. Together with Leeuloop, Prestwich Precinct and Founders Garden, three mega projects will be launched this year. Simmers said these projects were part of Premier Alan Winde's vision for his second term of changing people's lives. 'How do we create opportunities, but most importantly how do we bring a level of dignity back to our communities that we seek to integrate?' he asked. When asked by Daily Maverick about the financing of the development, which will see both public and private housing across four buildings with two allocated for social housing, Simmers said: 'A portion of it will come through the social housing grant for the social housing component, and the balance will come from the private sector.' In terms of timelines for when people would be able to move into their new homes, Simmers said: 'In terms of the clear project timeline, once the successful bidder has been appointed later on this year, then we will communicate the specific timeline.' Previously, activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi, which has been calling for affordable and social housing within well-located areas including the inner city, claimed that the 'Founders Garden site and the Prestwich Precinct were earmarked for housing as far back as 2014'. DM
IOL News
27-06-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
Springbok Women's Sevens captain Mathrin Simmers hangs up her boots
Mathrin Simmers, carrying the ball, has decided to hang up her boots after leading SA with distinction in the sevens arena. Springbok Women's Sevens skipper Mathrin Simmers, South Africa's most experienced women's sevens player, has decided to hang up her rugby boots. The 37-year-old represented the Springbok Women's Sevens since 2012, playing in 21 HSBC SVNS events, three Rugby World Cup Sevens, two Commonwealth Games and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, as well as nine Rugby Africa Women's Cup events and five World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series tournaments. Simmers also represented the Springbok Women in six matches, including four Tests, between 2013 and 2019, scoring three tries in the process. 'Representing my country on numerous occasions has been one of the greatest honours of my life. Wearing that jersey, standing beside my teammates, singing the anthem – those are moments I'll carry in my heart forever," she said. 'Rugby has given me so much more than just a game – it has given me purpose, passion, and a second family."
The South African
03-06-2025
- General
- The South African
Betty's Bay residents welcome reduction in speed limit on R44
The Western Cape Provincial Government has announced the reduction of the 80km/h speed limit on a section of the R44 through Betty's Bay in the Overstrand Municipality in the Western Cape. The Western Cape Department of Infrastructure received a request to lower the speed limit to 60km/h on the commercial section of the roadway known as 'The Hub' and at the entrance to the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens to enhance safety. In response, an investigation was initiated to evaluate the situation. At a meeting with local councillors and stakeholders, Western Cape MEC for Infrastructure, Tertuis Simmers, said the investigation by the department had shown that a decrease in the speed limit on this section of the road was viable. 'I am pleased that my department and the Department of Mobility can work together to respond to the concerns of our communities. The new speed limit sign boards will be installed in due course.' However, Simmers warned that the posted speed limit was not a target or endorsed safe speed, but rather the maximum legal speed, and, as on all roads, it remained the responsibility of motorists to keep to the legal limit. Western Cape MEC for Mobility, Isaac Sileku, said the safety of all road users was a priority for the provincial government. 'By reducing the speed limit through this busy section, we are not only protecting lives but also supporting safer access for both residents and tourists. This is a perfect example of how Departments of Infrastructure and Mobility work hand,' said Sileku. Meanwhile, Simmers said as smaller towns in the Western Cape continue to expand, the road networks need to accommodate growing populations. 'Tourism also plays an important role in these local economies and contributes to job creation, and as the sector continues to grow, it is important to ensure that roads in the Western Cape are safe, accessible, and enable a growing economy that creates job opportunities for all.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
