TSUNAMI!! (insert thunderclaps and intense music)

It's hard to define our tsunami. It wasn't a non-event, because it certainly did happen, thus making it an event. Besides, we have a bunch of scary-smart people who kept calling it a tsunami EVENT! But, it also was not a ready-for-Irwin-Allen-movie-with-B-actors Disaster flick. So let me describe our day...of the TSUNAMI!!!(insert more ominous music).

So let me set the scene...
#2 son, Gregory, was visiting with two of his friends from Portland, Robby and April. Said Robby and April had never been to Maui, so their days were pretty well packed full with fun stuff. Friday the 26th, Don and Greg headed to O'ahu's North Shore for a Calvary Chapel Men's retreat, with R&A staying back with me. Sounds great!!

Friday, our two newbies rented vespas and spent the day exploring the island, with the plan that Saturday, I would take them around a bit more. We planned to see Kealia Pond Natural Preserve, Kehei, South Maui - all culminating in the consummate adventure: Costco. Again, the weekend was shaping up in a fabulous way!

Normally, I am asleep by 10:00 or so. Yes, that's what I said. This place has changed a person allergic to mornings into someone up with the birds. But I digress...as usual... Anyhow, this was the second to last night of the Olympics, and I was already beginning my separation anxiety about them going away, so I was not about to miss one minute. This meant I would have to stay up past TEN-THIRTY!! egad. the recklessness. While the competition was awesome, what caught my attention was the teaser for the late news: a massive earthquake in Chile. I did some quick geography (thanks, world map placemat!!) and realized that their could be a watery event to follow. Sure enough, about 11:00 they said that we were under a tsunami Advisory, meaning that conditions were right, but they have to wait for some buoys at sea - or Leslie Nielson - to confirm a tsunami. This had my attention. The scary-smart guys thought that they would know by midnight, but it turns out that they didn't know until about 12:30. I had snoozed off in my comfy bed only to wake up about 12:45 to see, in bright letter across the screen: TSUNAMI WARNING. This means, get tidied up and make sure the toilets are flushed - company's coming.

It's important to understand, and crazy enough, they had to repeat this CONSTANTLY throughout, a tsunami is not a formed wave, great for extreme surfers and boogie boarders. It is a surge, a raise of the level of the water. They estimated that this was a 12-foot surge. If you think that this isn't so bad, take a tape measure, and stretch it to 12'. Then imagine a wall of water with all the force of the sea behind it. Now, we live up on a hill about 3/4 of a mile from the ocean, so we were good - but two of my men were camped out on the beach on O'ahu. I immediately sent a text, but heard nothing. I knew I wouldn't be sleeping too much until I heard. Besides, this was amazing to watch. Folks all around the island chain had gotten the word, and grocery stores and gas stations opened up, with lines immediately forming. The news anchors from the previous evening's news were still there for the marathon. But what was remarkable was the calm and good cheer of all involved. In the midst of the long lines at the gas stations, there were folks getting out of their cars to help direct traffic. There were no reports of hoarding at the grocery stores. Can you say "Aloha Spirit"?

I was still watching and waiting, with an occasional snooze, when there was a knock at my door, and young Robby poked his head in, "Denise?" he said in a quiet but a little bit scared voice, "there's a report on the news that there's a tsunami coming." Oh, yeah. I have guests. I assured him that I was watching the same thing. He assured me that he would be awake keeping his eye on the news, too. Abut 30 minutes after that, I got the text I had been waiting for- Don telling me that they were being evacuated to higher ground. Very good to know. So, they were heading up to Calvary Chapel's retreat center in the mountains. At this point, I was not sleepy in the slightest, so about 4:00 a.m. I headed to my office to post a little something on Facebook. It's always fun to spread panic wherever possible. As I entered the living room, I could see my vigilant watchman, Robby, completely snorged out on the couch. I guess he got over his anxiety. So, I posted a simple thing about the tsunami and that the first warning sirens would sound at 6 a.m. Good thing I'm a morning person, now, but I prefer the songs of mynahs and doves to the spooky wail of sirens. I trudged back to bed, and was getting comfy, when my phone rang: #3 son calling asking about my post. They have a 2-month-old. They don't sleep....ever. My kids share my same fascination with all things Creation and Natural Phenomena, so I promised to call when the sirens sounded. A few minutes later, Don called from O'ahu, saying that they were still at the beach and they were waiting for some fresh made fried rice but Greg was sleeping in the van. Bottom line, all was well and they were still slated to return that evening as scheduled. By this point, it was after 5 a.m., and we were getting close to siren time. I woke April and Robby, because being jarred awake by a siren is even more unpleasant that the awake kind.

6 a.m. - I called Kyle so he could hear our sirens. Silence. A bunch of silence. So, I hung up and said that I would call him when they did sound - which was of course, about two minutes after we hung up. I guess even warnings are on Maui time. While not loud where we are, these could be heard long and steady for what seemed for ever. They held just one note, instead of the up and down wailing you hear on tv, and the in once a month testing they do. At any rate, it was very chilling.

The three of us sort of wandered around the house, watching tv and the next team of reporters. Highways and roads were closed, so the island exploration was not going to happen. Resorts were evacuated. I heard that there were some hotels on Waikiki that moved folks to an upper ballroom where they fed and entertained them! I still needed to walk FloJo so I headed for our regular coffee place, which is still at a safe elevation. The place was packed with evacuees from the Ka'anapali resorts down the hill, and the mood was quite festive! And the young man (named Young) was doing business like never before. Tsunamis are goooood for business!! I chatted with a few _ FloJo is a great conversation starter - then headed back to my young company for more tsunami entertainment. On the way back, I saw that the highway was utterly abandoned - my first eery feel. Then I noticed that the golf course were equally devoid of life. double eery.

By the time my doggy and I got home, the guys on the tube were telling us to fill our bathtubs as both Maui and the Big Island have their water processing close enough to the shore that they would be shut off if the tsunami came as predicted. By this time, they had downgraded it to 6 feet, but again, that is 6 vertical feet. Scores of businesses and homes could be damaged or lost, and salt water in the processing machinery could mean our water could be shut off for a couple of weeks. Yeah, i'll take a couple of hours of flushing my toitey with water from the tub. I did opt to kill two birds, as it were, and take a bath. Now, don't go "eeeeuuuuw", since the saved water was for toilets and not imbibing. After a nice soak, I lay my little head down on the bead, only to be awakened by the siren again. They had been sounding every hour since 6 a.m. (or thereabouts), but this was 10:30. The surge was expected shortly after 11 (11:05, to be insanely exact), and so the sirens had more of a feel of urgency. At this point, my blood was running a little chilly. The implications were hitting me, and I could sense the apprehension in Robby and April. The three of us sat quietly, each of us in our own thoughts and prayers, as we watched the camera that was aimed at Hilo Bay. 11:05 came and went - nothing. Or so we thought. It turns out that there were changes that were imperceptible to the eye but the instruments set up by the scary-smart people marked the beginning of the event - at 11:05.

I won't describe what it looked like when it finally looked like something, but I strongly suggest checking out youtube/tsunami 2/27. Pretty awesome footage on some. But we spent the next hour and half or so watching the surge in and out of Hilo Bay, praising God at once for the preservation of life and property (except for an idiot in Waikiki who was probably still about enjoying the 23 mai tais from the previous night as he went wading), but also getting to witness such a demonstration of His power!!

The scary-smart people had said that this could go on all day, but again, God was merciful, and the warning was lifted about 1:40 or so. Robby and April still had to return their vespas, so we decided I would pick them up at a nearby Starbucks. When I got there, the mall was virtually empty, and Starbucks was (ulp!) CLOSED!! Now does that tell you the seriousness of our situation?!!?!?

To wrap it up, Maui's Kahului Harbor marked the biggest surge of 3.3 feet. Enough to strand a few fish, damage the hulls of some moored small boats, and give us the prize for this tsunami, but all in all, it was a dodged bullet.

But made for some great stories and "I survived..." t-shirts...