Tweet about devastating tsunami was not what it seemed. Washington officials apologize
To promote an upcoming documentary, a Washington agency tweeted about a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that would impact communities along the state’s coastlines.
Hours later, Twitter sent an alert on the tweet — and some users thought it was a real threat.
“This just came through as basically an alert on my phone (based on the limited text in the tweet preview) just now,” one Twitter user posted at 10:27 p.m. on March 24. “I thought a 60-foot wave was coming to take out me and my family.”
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources published the tweet around 4:03 p.m. Pacific Time on March 24 to promote a new documentary about a major earthquake that is expected to occur on the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the next 50 years.
“Within 20 minutes of a 9.0 quake, tsunami waves topping 60 feet will reach Washington’s beaches. High ground is too far away for people to escape,” the first part of the tweet read.
The second part of the tweet, which was not shown in the alert, highlighted the new documentary about the earthquake and tsunami.
The agency issued an apology on Twitter the morning of March 25, saying: “Our deepest apologies to anyone who received this tweet as an alert last night ... We had no intention for Twitter to promote it as an alert. We’ll be more careful moving forward knowing that Twitter could do this.”
A spokesperson for the agency told McClatchy News the information it tweeted was not an emergency notice.
“We treat public information on emergency preparedness with extreme care and caution,” the agency’s communications director Sarah Ford said.
McClatchy News reached out to Twitter for a comment.
Twitter users were not amused.
“Hey. I just got to my beach front hotel. Maybe don’t tweet stuff like this, I got an alert on (my) phone. Thanks,” another user tweeted at 2 a.m.
Here’s how earthquake and tsunami warnings work
A tsunami warning will be issued through the radio, television, marine radio, Wireless Emergency Alerts — such as through a text message to your cellphone — and the NOAA Weather Radio, according to the Emergency Management Division in Washington.
An earthquake warning will also be sent through as a ShakeAlert message to your cellphone or through the new MyShake app.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Tweet about devastating tsunami was not what it seemed. Washington officials apologize."
