Tsunami Day

This is the LONG account of our tsunami experience in Hawaii. It was quite a harrowing ordeal for us, but all ended well. The short version is that we pulled an all nighter up on a hill while we waited for the waves to hit. It ended up being a non-event for our part of Maui. Despite the raw nerves that come with a pending natural disaster, I'm so grateful that we had time to prepare and make decisions. I recognize this is not usually the case. I'm grateful for all the detection systems out in the ocean and the smart people there to relay information. God had his hand upon us and blessed us with peace. I pray that He cares for the people in Japan and redeems the situation for His glory.


No one needs to read all this below. It is really for our benefit to remember all the details.


9:30pm - Tanya & I go to bed. There is much commotion in the parking lot outside our window. People talking, car doors shutting, and cars driving in/out. This was unusual as all previous nights were much more quiet.


10:30pm - The tsunami sirens go off. We get out of bed and turn the TV on to learn about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We find out the first waves (6-8') are not expected to hit Hawaii until 3:00am. Nana goes to the front desk of the condo complex to find out what they recommend we do. She comes back to inform us the entire property (and coast) is being evacuated. We are told to get at least a half mile inland.


11:15pm - After packing up the car with all of our stuff, food, and water, we depart for the hills. We woke the girls up and told them a big wave was coming and that we needed to drive to the hills to be safe. They were cool with the plan and didn't seem concerned. We went about a mile or so down the main road and turned up another to start our ascent towards the Kapalua airport. This small and somewhat rundown airport is for small planes only. We weren't the only ones with this plan. There were hundreds of cars lined up inching forward. The sides of the road were completely full of cars that had pulled over to secure a spot. In 15 minutes, we got about a third of the way up. An airport security person told us everything was full and we'd need to turn around and go somewhere else. As I started to turn the car around, a man knocks on the window and tells me two cars pulled out and backed in to create room for one more car. Us. What a blessing that was.


12:00am - We are settled into waiting mode in the car. The girls are starting to get sleepy again. I was not tired at all and kept checking various websites from my phone to gather more information. We listened to the radio, but didn't want to drain the car battery in case we were there for a long time. When the clock struck twelve, we wished Nana a "Happy Birthday". What a way to begin celebrating your birthday!


1:30am - I refresh CNN.com on my phone to see a Breaking News headline that says, "Officials fear the tsunami has washed over several Pacific islands." What?? What the heck is "washed over" supposed to mean?? My tired brain interpreted that as we were doomed. It seemed futile to try and get higher. More websites. More radio. No new news that would indicate Hawaii was going to get "washed over" by a mega tidal wave.


2:00am - I start getting a little nervous that we're not high enough (we were about 120' above sea level). I watched many people hike further up the road and I begin to think that was a good idea. Higher is better right? So we grabbed pillows, blankets/towels, some water & food, and start our half mile trek up to the airport. It was much steeper than it looked, which I took as a good problem to have. Huffing and puffing our way up, we arrived at the airport. Now about 250' above sea level, we felt much better. There were a lot of people up there. We found a secluded spot behind a ticket counter and laid down our blankets/pillows in hopes of getting the girls to fall asleep again. It worked...eventually.


3:20am - The first wave was supposed to hit Maui. We could look down on the coast and see lights on at all the resorts and other buildings. I figured if a big wave hit, we'd soon hear it and see the power going out. It was silent, except for the gentle breeze. The folks on the radio said, we could expect many waves to hit over a span of several hours. Often the second and third waves were much bigger. We waited for another hour or so and there was nothing.


4:30am - Tanya & the girls were asleep. Nana walked back to the car to sleep since the concrete floor was not treating her well. I crawled into our "bed" and feel asleep for about ten minutes. Nana was right, you just can't find a comfortable position on concrete.


6:15am - Dawn arrives. As the sky lightens, everyone is curious to see how much (if any) water came ashore. You couldn't really see anything from the airport. The reports on the radio indicated the tsunami hit in a few isolated spots around the islands.


7:00am - The tsunami warning was called off. We head back down to the car. Nana is sound asleep!


10:45am - The police finally let all the cars from our road leave. I guess there were many roads like the one we were one, so the police keeps everyone on them and let's folks go one road at a time.


11:00am - We arrive back at our condo to find everything in order. People are playing and lounging around at the pool. It was a weird sight. When we left the night before, I thought for sure we were not coming back.


The rest of the day was quite mellow. As we learned more about the destruction in Japan, I found it difficult getting back into vacation mode. We did all get to the pool in the afternoon. Later that night, we took Nana out to dinner for her birthday. It was a beautiful night and the outdoor restaurant gave us a perfect seat to watch another amazing sunset.