Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tsunami on the way

I woke up at 6am to the sound of the Tsunami warning siren.  The siren went off statewide to alert people to the possibility of a tsunami hitting the coastal areas around 11am this morning.  The tsunami was generated by the earthquake in Chile last night and they have already had a small tsunami in the Marquesas Islands. 

I'm high enough that I won't be directly impacted by the wave but who knows what the aftermath will be if a large tsunami does hit. It is expected to hit Hilo first and then head up the island chain. Even though Hilo is quite a distance from Kona, the Kona coast resorts are already evacuating because the waves often wrap around the island.

So it will be an interesting morning here.  If you want to follow along with us, you can check out our local KHNL news team .

3 comments:

Judi said...

stay safe Kathy.

sonja said...

Kathy .
glad your are fine as are we as we also live at an altitude that offers the veiw with out the danger. we had some beach folks e vacuate and it was too starange to watch news tv in the daytime . our island was spared this time , and for this i am grateful!!!can you hear me now???
Sonja

Kathy said...

Thanks Judy and Sonja,

It turned out to be pretty much a non-event here too. We watched the video cam aimed at Hilo Bay and it was interesting to watch the water surge in and out of the harbor when the tsunami actually struck the Big Island. It really does suck the water out, revealing rocks and things you don't normally see, and then it rushes back in, filling the same area with more water than before. Fortunately there were no major waves but you can easily see what might have happened. Some of the hotels on the coast are not three stories high so all the guests had to evacuate. I think they all headed for the Starbucks in Waimea only to find it closed too. So lots of folks just parked and pulled out their beach chair, and read or partied for a few hours. At least it was a great day for being outdoors.

All I can say is I wouldn't want to be in a Waikiki hotel during a tsunami -- they don't evacuate the high rises -- just make everyone stay on the higher floors. Too scary for me to sit there and wait for a 10+ ft wave to come crashing into the hotel!

Glad you are safe too, Sonja.

Kathy