Tom Paine is having an interesting vacation. He’s in Tonga, site of yesterday’s 8.0 earthquake, and he learned something about Tonga’s earthquake preparedness: Er, there is none.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, which issues the alerts, said Tonga - a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti - failed to receive the warnings because of a power failure. The cause wasn’t known. Gerard Fryer, the center’s acting director, said changes may be necessary.

Why did the warning never come? Well, according to an email Tom sent me — there’s no emergency backup generator.

But still, Tom’s safe, and I cannot wait to hear him riff on this in his next Shire Network News podcast.