Tsunami scare

I experienced my first scary moment living on an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean last night - a tsunami. Having seen many videos of the damage and loss of lives in the last tsunami which ravaged India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia in 2004 made me wonder if I would now have a personal experience of it. As soon as the 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Northeast Japan at 8:30pm, sirens started blaring into the quiet night. Elton immediately recognized it as a tsunami warning and turned on the TV to see warning interruptions on all channels about a tsunami possibly reaching the Hawaii coastlines at approximately 3:30am, just six hours away. He tried in vain to get a hold of his sister who lives with her family by the east shore, hoping to warn her to take refuge at our house as it was on top of a hill. A few minutes later, his brother walked in with his fiance's mother who lives downtown near the beach. She had driven her own car over and brought along all her essential belongings to salvage in case the tsunami hits Hawaii. We were all plastered to the TV, silently watching in horror as the news escalated with live videos of the devastation of the tsunami with 10 meters (30 feet) high waves engulfing Iwate, Sendai, Fukushima and Yamagata on Honshu, north of Tokyo. It's the biggest earthquake ever to hit Japan. As Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan came on air to address the press, I wondered how he was choosing the right words to say as the devastation swept through the cities. The videos were heart wrenching. Sometimes, there's just no right words to say.

In the midst of all this, I started feeling a little troubled about the possible ordeal we might be going through in a matter of hours. I even wondered about the worst case post-Hurricane Katrina scenario in 2005, recalling all the chaos, crimes, displacement of people and robberies that occurred all throughout New Orleans. However, to my surprise, everyone was quite calm, behaving like pros, even as we watched the local news channels broadcasting interviews with the Hawaiian governor instructing residents to stay home, away from the shore, reassuring people that all necessary steps have been taken and encouraging people to refrain from over-reacting at this juncture. People living along the shore were told to evacuate. Tourists in the Waikiki area were evacuated or moved to buildings above the 6th floor. Newscasters were recanting characteristics of a tsunami and how it may come in a number of waves over an extended length of time. Some news channels were interviewing residents who were pouring out into the supermarkets and gas stations to stock up in case of impending isolation, loss of food supplies or necessities. 


Despite all this, everyone in this household calmly watched the television until about 11pm when I too dosed off with the TV on. I woke up this morning to news that California was now on watch for the tsunami to reach its shores around 8am. I had missed multiple calls and messages from concerned friends and family in Asia, US and Europe calling between 1:30am and 6am. Turning on the TV, it seemed Hawaii has been spared besides some property damage on some piers because of a surge of one meter high waves. I later realized this is the fourth tsunami in the past 10 years. The last major scare occurred just last year. The TV announced that all public schools, offices and universities were closed. Outside, everything looked normal. It was a perfect sunny day and people seem to go about their business as if it was a holiday. In fact, everyone behaves like it is a holiday eventhough the entire state is still on state-wide alert for the rest of the day! Nothing on TV mentioned what had happened as the tsunami passed through Hawaii! After a couple minutes of frustration clicking through the TV stations, I had to go online to find out that nothing was newsworthy enough on Hawaii to report on. As uneventful as this scare was, this is one experience I will definitely remember.