John Schettler - Meridian

“This is the BBC…” There was a wash of static as the signal faded briefly but the announcer came back on as Nordhausen jiggled the antenna.

“Get an AM station,” said Kelly, frowning at Nordhausen as he adjusted the antenna. “Will you let go of that?” Kelly shot him an exasperated look.

“I’m improving the damn reception.” Nordhausen’s body acted as an extension of the antenna when he touched the slim metal and Kelly hushed up, leaning in to hear the news.

“The eruption reported on the island of Palma in the Canary Islands has now been confirmed. Seismographic signatures reported at receiving stations in London set the time of the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja Volcano at a few minutes past four in the morning, Greenwich Mean Time.”

“That would be eight-o-clock our time,” said Paul. The signal faded briefly and Kelly shot a warning glance at Nordhausen, still convinced he was somehow interfering with the reception. Maeve went over to the sink at the coffee station, still listening as she rinsed the towel off under a stream of hot water. No one noticed as she eyed the telephone on the wall, picking the receiver up for a moment before putting it back in its cradle.

“…Damage reports are still sketchy at this time, and we have no official news yet from Santa Cruz de la Palma. Authorities have declared a state of national emergency in Morocco where tsunami waves struck a little before six in the morning, Greenwich Mean Time. It now appears that coastal cities and towns have been hit very hard there, and at Casablanca, a wave series exceeding 30 meters in height struck the city and harbor causing extensive loss of life and catastrophic damage. The tsunami is expected to strike the Straits of Gibraltar within the hour and all citizens are advised to seek the highest possible ground. Meanwhile, authorities in London estimate the speed of the tsunami sequence moving west from the Canary Islands into the Atlantic to be in excess of eight-hundred kilometers per hour. A high water tsunami warning is now in effect for the entire north Atlantic, and a severe flood warning has been issued for the Azores. Authorities also believe the coasts of Portugal, France and even the UK are in for extreme tidal surges in the morning hours of Wednesday. Evacuation orders are now being issued for all areas below fifty meters in elevation where citizens are advised to seek higher ground inland and migrate away from coastal regions immediately…” A burst of static interfered with the transmission again.

“They won’t get hit very hard,” said Dorland. “The Iberian Peninsula will take the steam out of the northern wave fronts. They’ll just catch secondary sequences rebounding from the coast of Portugal.”

“I’d hate to live in Lisbon,” Nordhausen put in. “The 1755 tsunami that hit after an earthquake in the Atlantic was estimated to be no more than 15 meters, but it still killed some 60,000 people.”

“Not to mention the tsunami after Krakatau blew its top in the late 1880s.” Dorland had always had a fascination for natural catastrophes. “That event produced wave run-ups of 30 to 40 meters above normal sea level. In flat-lying areas the water swept inland for many miles—right through dense jungle! There were over 30,000 killed there.”

“Wasn’t there an event in Alaska in recent times?” Asked Nordhausen.

“Lituya Bay,” said Dorland. “July, 1958. It was a combination of many forces after a strong earthquake in the eight-plus range. The ground motion of the quake triggered a giant rock-fall at the head of the bay. It was as if an asteroid had hit the bay and this caused a massive upwelling of water that actually lifted huge segments of glacial ice. The wave splash was thought to be over 1700 feet! Thankfully, the damage was mostly confined to the local area and it was sparsely populated.”

“What about us?” Kelly reached out to adjust the reception dial. “Can’t you get any local stations on that? I’m sure every station in the world has picked up the story by now.”

“What’s wrong with the BBC?” said Nordhausen. “Imagine what’s just happened, people. They’ve got nothing out of Palma because everyone’s dead. God only knows how they got the news on Casablanca!”

“Must have been reported by incoming airline traffic,” said Dorland. He was squinting at his map again, still calculating. “The Madiera Archipelago has probably been wiped off the face of the earth,” he said. The Azores and the Cape Verde Islands are next. Anyone who can’t get to high ground there had better find an airplane.”

“Those are all volcanic islands,” said Nordhausen. “They’ll have plenty of elevation, but I doubt the residents had much warning.”

“What about us?” Kelly asked again. He switched the reception dial to the AM position.

“Leave that alone!” Nordhausen was after him in a minute, reaching in to re-set the dial.

“We’re in no danger here, of course,” said Dorland “But the east coast has about six hours.”

“What?” Kelly had lost his battle with Nordhausen and folded his arms in resignation as he half listened for the shortwave signal again. Nordhausen adjusted the dial.

“You don’t think it will be that bad out east, do you, Paul?”

“Are you kidding?” Paul spun the map around so they could see better. “Most of the energy is heading west into the Atlantic. The wave front that hit Western Sahara was bad because it was so close to the initial eruption, but the damage in this hemisphere is going to be appalling. Wave heights will probably be well above fifty meters in northern Brazil. It’s likely they’ll see water that high coming ashore in Florida, New York, Boston, hell, all the way up to Greenland! It all depends on the initial velocity of the landslide during the collapse. If it exceeded a hundred meters per second we could see wave run-ups of at least ninety meters on the east coast. Water that high, with that much force behind it, will push inland for miles. This is going to be very bad.”

“Christ, no wonder everyone’s in a panic out there,” said Kelly. “They’re all running to get home and call grandma! Anybody have relatives on the east coast?”

“It will take eight or nine hours after the eruption for the tsunami front to cross the Atlantic,” said Dorland. “If the eruption occurred just after 4:00 AM, GMT, that would be 8:00 PM our time—just when we arrived here for the meeting. Add six hours and that would put high water on the coast of Brazil at about 2:00 in the morning our time, and the Eastern Seaboard of the US will get slammed about two hours later. Probably around 4:00 AM our time, or just about dawn back east.”

“But won’t the waves have time to dissipate as they cross the Atlantic?” Kelly was hopeful, but Dorland knew the worst of the disaster was still ahead.

“I’m afraid not. Actually, the waves won’t seem so bad as they cross the Atlantic—at least to ship traffic in deep water. They’ll notice the increased ocean swell, but not much else. When all that water begins to hit the continental shelf, however, we’ll begin to get real wave formation. The water has to go somewhere as it approaches the coastal shallows. The deep ocean swells will begin to build as wave run-ups.”

“You mean it actually gets worse as it reaches the coast?”

“Much worse,” said Dorland.

“It’s the end of the world!” Nordhausen chimed in.

“Hell, it’s not going to be funny, Robert.” Paul didn’t like the hint of levity in Nordhausen’s tone. “Do you have any idea how much damage a seventy meter wave sequence will do to the Eastern Seaboard? If it’s ninety meters or more this is going be a real catastrophe.”

“A lot of people live on that coastline. Can you imagine the panic back there? The roads must be jammed!” Nordhausen thought for a moment. “I mean, there they were, sleeping quietly while we were sitting here waiting for Kelly. Then word comes in that the entire Eastern Seaboard is threatened by a ninety meter tsunami—Lord, that’s approaching three-hundred feet—and everyone within twenty miles of the coast needs to be evacuated at once!”