Tsunami Warning

The past 24 hours have been crazy intense. As I'm sure you're all aware, there was a massive earthquake off the coast of Japan last night (afternoon for them), and that created a tsunami that hit Japan and made it's way East toward Hawai'i and the West Coast of the United States.

I've had many people inquiring as to my status of well-being and my experience, so instead of replay the scene over and over again, I'll write it up here for all to see.

First off, as I posted to Facebook earlier today:

To my friends & family who have been concerned and/or curious as to my status in the Hawai'i Tsunami Warning earlier today, I am well & unharmed. Thanks for your inquires, well wishes, thoughts & prayers! *Please now readdress them toward Japan.* As far as my flight, I have heard of no delays as of yet, and still plan on an on-time departure later today. Mahalo and Aloha! :)

To be honest, I wasn't even aware of the earthquake or it's following tsunami until my friend Chase text me and asked if I was in a tsunami warning. I was engulfed in Capstone writing that evening and hadn't turned on a television or looked at twitter in preceding hours. I immediately turned on the TV, and the exact second I did the tsunami sirens began to go off all around the islands. I immediately contacted my father (who works the night shift so I knew he'd be awake with it being just before 2:00am CST) to inform him of the situation so he didn't end up finding out some other way and then worrying if I was okay and wondering why I hadn't contacted him.

Then I proceeding to be glued to the TV and Twitter for the remainder of the evening. The Tsunami warning came just before 10:00pm for us in Hawai'i, and the waves weren't predicted to make it to Hawai'i until after 3:00am. Thus, there was nothing to do but sit and wait. I did panic for about a half hour as I tried to figure out if I was in an "Evacuation Zone," but I eventually figured out that I was just north of the evac zone and could sit tight. The Tsunami sirens continued to go off every hour for about 5-10 minutes, so even if I had wanted to sleep I highly doubt that I would've been able to.

I also passed the time by posting updates to Twitter and trying to calm my friend Megan down (the one who visited me over Thanksgiving) because not only was I in Hawai'i, but her parents were there on a cruise docked at Kaua'i (the first island to be hit). I spent a good amount of time trying to explain to her why it was safer for them to go out to sea instead of remain in the harbor, however I'm sure my words went in one ear and out the other. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to that wasn't overly concerned that I was going to die any minute.

The waves came sometime between 3:30 and 4:30am. It hit each island at different times and with different intensities. O'ahu (where I was) had higher tidal waves, where Maui had 8+ ft tsunami waves crash into Kahului Harbor, and Hilo (on the East side of the big island) had 3-4 ft tsunami waves. We by no means had it bad compared to Japan, but we did have damage. You can see some of the damage here: http://bit.ly/fM9YMX.

Needless to say, I was up all night, I wasn't in severe danger, I survived, I'm okay, and things essentially went back to "normal" today (I mean the "ding-ding man," aka the Ice Cream Man, was out and about today).

I'm sure there is more I could update you on, but really, I'm tired and my ride to the airport will be here soon. Just know that I'm safe, I'm unharmed, and I'm on my way back to the mainland within the next couple of hours. :)