the president being briefed on the situation. back to the tsunami. wave of energy, zipping across the pacific ocean at 500 miles an hour. expected to arrive at the island of hawaii sometime around 4:05 eastern time, about 11:05 local time. we re told by experts on the highland they expect that the wave will be six, maybe seven feet, it s an inexact science, but that s what they re preparing for and they don t think it will be devastating, but nothing to take lightly. a wave from a tsunami, we re told, has different characteristics and different dynamics from a wave that would just come along in a storm. so, this is something that they need to take very seriously, that they are indeed trying to monitor the situation and prepare for that, low lying areas are being evacuated and the sirens have been blasting in hawaii now for hours and warning people to get to higher ground and they re taking that situation very seriously. we re going to talk to laura ingle when we come back about what sh
right now. now, the people of hawaii are used to these tsunami warnings, they know what to do, don t they? yeah, hawaii is very well prepared for this, and hawaii on average gets tsunami s about everyone seven years in the geologic record and being in the middle of the bulls eye so to speak, hawaii is no stranger to tsunami. brian: as i was explained to, if you were in the boat in the middle of the pacific ocean and the tsunami goes past you, you might not notice, it s when you re closer to a land mass you notice the wave. that s correct, it s proportional to the depth of the water. when the water is shallow, the tsunami waves pile up on each other, that s why it gre grows, in the deep ocean you can t notice it. and in hawaii people are stacking up at gas stations like we do for a big snowstorm for a tornado in this part of
we have just been told, this is a fox news alert, we re just reaching us here in washington that the president will have something to say at 2 p.m. eastern. that is 2 p.m. eastern, he ll be talking about the earthquake, he ll be talking about the tsunami warning and of course, you can count on us here at the fox news channel to carry that live for you. now, chief meteorologist rick reichmuth is at the fox news weather center and he s been following the tsunami danger and will be talking what more may be ahead as that wave of energy jets across, it literally goes across the ocean at 500 miles an hour. rick, what can you tell us? yeah, roughly around 500 miles an hour, brian, these waves move out across the entire ocean. we re obviously focusing on hawaii because it s one of our states, but anyplace in the pacific basin owe tensionally is going to be dealing with this or likely dealing with some sort of effect about a tsunami or water rise.
6700 miles between the epicenter and hawaii. the guest you had on was describing this well and another important piece, if you see one of the tsunami waves come on shore and think, well, the wave is done i can get back in or go and explore and see what happens. you can t do that. it can be anywhere from five minutes up to about an hour before you can see another wave come in and this can go on for hours and hours. so, the threat remains for quite a long time after that. the way the tsunamis form you get that disturbance underground and it displaces that water and that water energy then begins to push across the ocean, you don t see much effect of it across the open position because it s got all of the depth to absorb this displacement of water as it gets to the shallow line, that s when you start to see the waves almost more dramatic. brian, one last thing we ve been talking about hawaii, but also, there is a tsunami advisory still in effect across the mainland u.s. coast line for cali
secretary robert gibbs issuing a statement saying, we re closely monitoring the situation including potential for tsunami, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of chile and we stand ready to help in this hour of need. there are 118 u.s. personnel, brian, stationed at the u.s. embassy in chile and according to the state department, all are safe and accounted for, except one or two people and that s the latest from the state department a short time ago, a spokesman saying it s just a matter of time that they reach the one or two people that work for the u.s. embassy there. the u.s. embassy in chile is also, has also activated system to communicate with all americans in chile and make sure they re okay, there are about 10,000 americans living in chile and more who are travelling there as tourists. if you re worried about loved ones in chile, the state department is giving out this number to call for information, it is 1-888-407-4747. 1-888-407-4747. and finally, brian, secretary