Blog o’ Gnosis

Good News, Bad News

Monday, March 17th, 2008

A friend of mine lives right down by Ocean Beach in San Francisco. From the picture windows in her third floor apartment you get a panoramic view of the wild surf that animates the City’s miles-long beachfront promenade. The place is simply stunning. To sit there for an afternoon meeting and have as a backdrop the crashing waves and rip currents, sailboarders and sandcastles, while the sun makes the metal-gray water glisten like ivory, is just a sublime experience.

Every time I go there I remember and then forget to bring my camera. But this weekend I remembered and then put my camera into my bag before I forgot again. I wasn’t after a picture of the surf, because really that is too vast an expanse to translate well onto film, least of all my point-and-shoot camera. No, it was to capture this sight which greets the stray visitor who happens to tear her eyes away from the ocean and look east up the gently sloping hills of the City.

Does a sign like this fill you full of confidence, or make you feel vaguely nervous about where you are standing? For me, it evokes all the dreams I have had where I am at the ocean and suddenly there’s a huge wave coming and I barely have time to grab the children and make it to safety before it hits.

I spent years working on these dreams, until I finally was able to recognize while sleeping that the more fearful I felt, the worse the wave would be. Now I have ocean dreams where nothing bad happens. But to be confronted by the spectre of this dynamic in waking life, in broad daylight, when I still have so much to live for? Frankly, I find it ever so slightly unnerving.

If, heavens forbid, a tsunami ever does hit the San Francisco coastline, will people really search for the streets which have the helpful “Tsunami Evacuation Route” signs posted on them? Won’t any street headed uphill suffice? Or are these for the benefit of those who lack the basic instinct to head for higher ground when a wall of water approaches?

I live near the ocean, but separated from the surf by a peninsula which would bear the brunt of any freak wave that happened to hit. Choosing this location was not entirely a matter of chance, either. I suppose living right on the ocean would sharpen one’s instincts to the point that if the event were to occur you would somehow be out of town for the day. Intuition and premonition are marvelous things, not to be underestimated. Still, I am glad I don’t have to worry every day about sharpening that particular instinct.

I guess the fact that San Francisco has had the forethought to create tsunami evacuation routes is very good news. Hopefully this little sign signifies a whole shelf full of emergency response plans and procedures that have been taught to all the staff of all the relevant agencies. That alone could set the mind at ease. On the other hand, the bad news? San Francisco has a tsunami evacuation route.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Dreams, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Good News, Bad News”

Marjie Douty Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Yep. My Dad lives in Schallotte North Carolina and they have hurricane evacuation route signs. I figure, the hurricane will hit on Saturday at 11:30 am when all the tourists are leaving and the bridges will be bumper to bumper anyway. So, why worry. Cause I would probably be on the beach anyway. AND it’s North Carolina where the high ground is miles and miles away. But it does give one pause for thought. If the insurance company didn’t already.
steward Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Both visitors and panicked locals will likely go around in circles without the sign. In my area in NJ we have two sets of signs, one to go inland for major hurricanes and the other to go north if something happens at Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant. If an evacuation happens, I hope people around here don’t get confused about which one they’re running from…

Good News, Bad News

2 Responses to “Good News, Bad News”

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