Everything's fine...

The quake that struck this afternoon was powerful enough to get us out of our houses and quick. I was at one location and drove across town soon thereafter. There seemed to be no injury or structural damage, however, panic was ensuing. The streets became quickly clogged with people trying to get out of town as rumours of another tsunami spread. Things have calmed down a little now and we're all fine. But...it does, again, highlight the fact that the tsunami warning system is an utter failure and that the NGOs have far more information than the local populous who are most in danger of injury in a tsunami - or injury in the ensuing mad crush of panic even if there isn't one.

Interestingly, I did interviews with both BBC and SkyNews but was told to standby for live as they were simply 'monitoring the story to see if it develops'. In media-speak that is, 'waiting to find out if enough people die to make it interesting.'

And thanks to everyone who has sent e-mails and texts. I'm fine!