Sunday, December 10, 2006

chinese whisper

All was calm this Saturday morning until someone standing by the rocks noticed that the waves at Somerset (the west end) were an unusual 15 feet high. Apparently, an earthquake had occurred some many miles away last week & tidal waves were to be the after effects of this quake. So, Mr. Man got a bit worried & started to spread the word. People started to spread it further. The word got on the local radio station & after that it just went all haywire.

First, it was announced that the causeway linking Somerset to the rest of the island would be closed. Then came the news that preparations to evacuate Somerset were in place. People were just not ready for any of this. Who's really ready for any kind of disaster on a weekend? More confusion ensued as word spread around the rest of the island & people began to grow concerned for their Somerset relatives & friends. Eventually a little research was done & rumours were set straight. Yes, there was an earthquake last week miles away from the island & while we would be experiencing bigger than normal waves, it would not be a tsunami. And so a sense of peace overtook the chaos & calm was restored among those that were caught up in this rumour mill.

I am not sure how long this anxious event lasted because I was peacefully sleeping in. Even if we were awake, we don't really tune into the local radio station. Our source was MsStopYourNoise's boyfriend, MrWayans But it's easy to see how information can be distorted & magnified as it's passed around, granted a tidal wave is not something that should be taken lightly even if it may not show up.

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