As part of Guam's effort to brace for the increased wave conditions brought on by the tsunami advisory following the 8.7 earthquake in southeast Russia, we found one of the best vantage points to see the ocean's rising activity, and ran into an old friend with deep experience in crisis management.

Paul Suba, a former police chief with the Guam Police Department, says the island's emergency responders were already well-equipped for situations like today's very uncommon tsunami advisory. "There was plenty of coordination between the Guam Homeland Security, the folks at the patrol level and the park rangers, and particularly in Tumon. The Visitor Safety Officers and the Beach Safety Officers all clearing the beaches and evacuating the tourists and any other swimmers," Suba described of the effort.

The mid-morning hours were bustling with activity across Tumon, most of which sits at sea level, where crisis professionals kept visitors, locals and businesses informed and got them to safety. Suba continued, "On top of what's already here [because of the recent unfavorable weather], the water levels can be a lot higher than what people are already used to.

"And when the water recedes, the current can be a lot stronger. And that's why we gathered as many of the troops as possible to encourage folks to quickly follow the protocol."

But with the surge approaching Guam's west coast, Suba says this doesn't mean families and organizations on the opposite side shouldn't stay sharp. "In the next few hours, we hope everything will go well with the arrival of the first waves, but we're also looking at if there's nothing significant, we can't keep our guard down and it may take a few hours or a day or two to subside," he said.

But Suba, a veteran law enforcer and security expert, cautions that just because surges out in the water appear to be minimal or return to semi-normal states doesn't mean that we're in the clear. He warned, "We need to remember that Guam's a small island in the big ocean. So when something like a tsunami comes, and God forbid it wraps itself around the island, so even in Pago Bay and the southern part of the island, people must be careful."