Laupahoehoe is infamous for April 1st, 1946 when three towering tidal waves roared over the peninsula at 7:00 AM killing many residents including 23 students and four teachers. The children happily gathered fish deposited from the huge, but not deadly, second wave on the school grounds while the teachers were in their cabin changing back into dry clothes when the final huge (some say 50 feet high) and deadly wave hit. No one had noticed all the water being sucked out of the bay until it was too late. Only two children and one teacher survived. They remained in the water 10 hours while people on the cliff could get a boat for rescue since all watercraft had been destroyed by the tidal wave.My friend Beverly Moodie had three of her childhood cousins die in this Laupahoehoe tsunami, and her cousin that is the older brother of the three still lives in the town. He survived because his school was in another area. Today, there is a Pacific Tsunami Museum in downtown Hilo which has tremendous displays on this 1946 tsunami. I hope to volunteer there during the summer.
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/hi/laupahoehoe.html
In 1960, another tsunami was triggered by an earthquake off of South America, rated at about 8.4 quake, and 15 hours later the waves hit Hawaii. Only Hilo Bay was hit the hardest with waves as high as 35 feet. Eight separate waves came into the bay area, and severely damaged or totally destroyed the buildings of old down town area and many residences in the path. After that tsunami, the city rebuilt but put into place a very wide swath of parkland, parking lots, and other non-essential structures between the bay edge and the beginning of businesses. This was intended so that less personal loss would take place if another tsunami hit as directly as the 1960 one did. Today, there are soccer fields, parks, a large gazebo and bus commuter parking lots as well as the bus station located in this area. The down town area was rebuilt and retains as many of the original buildings as possible.
So….that brings me to last Thursday night! For many reasons, including the December 2004 Thailand tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System has been upgraded, improved, and more emphasis has been placed on disaster preparedness. On the first Sat. of each month, they test the siren warning system…..thank goodness! As a result, I knew exactly what had brought me suddenly to a sitting upright position at 10pm on Thursday evening. It had been a long day, and Nooli and I hit the sack about 9pm after some TV and a bit of reading….OK, and a glass of wine! When the siren went off, I knew immediately what it was. What I didn’t know was when, where, or how it would hit here. My cable TV was on the fritz, so I hit the good ol’ computer. There I was able to learn of Japan’s massive quake, and that we had several hours here before expecting THE WAVE to hit…..specifically 2:59am. (Why to they always say “approximately 2:59” – why not just say approx. 3am???) Anyway, I also knew that I was high enough not to be concerned about my home, but it was pitch black outside so that meant that it would not be a wave landing that I would get to watch…..drat!
First thing to do? Go see what the neighbors were up to, right? OK…front windows which look out over the cul-de-sac and straight down Ala Muku St. and then out over the Boys & Girls Clubhouse to the Bay. Great vantage point if it’s daytime. But I thought I would see activity on the street…logical, yes? Well, no….either they are immune to these things or just don’t do that southern thing of gathering in yards to talk. Whatever!! Not a porch light came on, no one got in the car for a quick run to the gas station or grocery store….nada, kaput, nothing! OK…. So, I’ll just stay calm too. Put Nooli on a leash so I had him with me at all times incase we had to leave suddenly….he was actually fine with this arrangement as I think the sirens upset his sensitive little ears. The streaming videos and news radio on my computer kept me well informed of the initial reports out of Japan, and of the preparations going on for the Big Island and Honolulu. Because of the preparedness drills and improvements to the system and plan over the past years, the island and the state were well in control from the beginning. The coast line homes were evacuated by 2am. No one was allowed to opt out of the evacuation. I have since talked to a second year student who was in that ‘Move or Else!’ group. They went to friends’ house so they could take the kids and dog. She said that police came down the street with bull horns and there was follow up with door to door canvassing. EMS and fire were mobilized, and I’m sure that Hilo Medical Center was put on alert too. We only have one hospital on the east side of the island, so I still wonder what would have happened had this really been another Big One.
The rest of the night was a waste. They rang(?), blared (?), set off (?) whatever…the siren every 30 minutes until 3am. That was tons of fun! It only rang, blared, or sounded for one minute each time, but 60 seconds is a LONG TIME when you are getting blasted by a siren tower that is 5 blocks away from your house…..take my word on that. The only time Nooli got agitated and clearly upset was during the siren sounding. Otherwise, he was fine because he was oblivious to the danger…..ah, the life of a dog!
Meanwhile phones were down and I could not get a call out to the girls in Texas or Colorado. It might be my generation or my age, but I just never even thought about Facebook….sorry all you FB fanatics. It wouldn’t have helped much anyway as both girls were asleep. I was able to reach Alisa at about 5:30 her time (which was 2:30 am my time) during a short break in the cell phone system. She in turn got in touch with Kathleen a bit later when K. was up and heading to work….I think that’s how it went down. But, I could get texts, and two students texted to ask if I was ok, and did I need a place to go. They were offering me a safe place if needed. I really appreciated that and it further confirmed that I have made a home here with people and students who care about me. Bev and I had much earlier in my time here talked about if I ever felt the need to get higher up from the bay, I could come to her house which is much further up hill. But I didn’t and she knew that I was very unlikely to get any damage where my house is now.
My one concern was that I had procrastinated…..surprize surprise! …..going to the grocery store so I didn’t have a lot of food in the house. Alisa told me later that all she could envision was the three bags of Chex Mix that I had bought for the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl Game Party that hadn’t been opened and were in the pantry. She figured if anything, I could survive on that, and just never eat Chex cereal in any form ever again. Thank goodness it didn’t come to that horrific ending.
The University of Hawaii closed all campuses on all islands for Friday, and the Community College here also closed on Friday. That gave us a free holiday! Yea!! But, on a side note, the clinical papers that were to be ready for me to pickup at 3pm on Friday didn’t get brought in. So, I’m going to have a lot of papers to grade next week. Oh well, when it’s all taken together, I would rather just have the delay of a weekend, than all the ramifications of a bad tsunami hitting here in the early hours of Friday morning. As it was, Hilo got some nice lapping waves of about 3 or 4 feet hight which would be good surfing waves if anyone was stupid enough to be out in the bay with a surfboard. So, no damage occured here. Kona on the West side of the island which faces Japan did get higher waves, and some flooding near the coast in the downtown shopping areas. Some of the beaches along the main tourist trail (Ali'i Drive) were closed still yesterday due to debris that washed up on them. But no loss of life here on the Big Island, coincidentally named Hawai'i.
Thanks again to all of you who were concerned. I have tried to make light of a long night watching my computer screen and trying to get some naps between sirens…..but it is a serious issue. Japan needs our prayers and our help. The video feeds since the start of the disaster have been beyond my ability to comprehend. Entire towns / cities were wiped away in one swoop of water. The loss of life is staggering. And the current issue with the nuclear power plants facing meltdowns is even more mind-boggling. If there is a release of nuclear products into the air, Hawaii is in a fairly dangerous position.
Please keep me and those of us in this 50th state in your prayers as well.
That’s all for now. The weather today is absolutely gorgeous, and is part of why I love living here. Take care where ever you are, and I’ll stay in touch too.
Janene
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