Bruce and I grew up in Southern California so we are no strangers to earthquakes. We've even had a couple mild ones here over the years - the most recent one centered off the island of Lana'i - that gave us a jiggle. Yesterday's shake, however, was much different.
It started off as a small rumble and I thought, "Oh, we're having an earthquake," as I stood at the counter ready to make breakfast. I even gripped the edge of the counter, because it was a little startling. But it continued, and the whole house began to sway and shake. Cody began to bark and I ran over to the doorway, and it still continued. It was actually over 20 seconds long at 6.6. Long enough and strong enough for you to work up a good fear that maybe the house wasn't going to stay standing. But it did. Thank God. Within the hour we felt what we thought was a good aftershock, yet turned out to be earthquake #2 at 5.8. We didn't feel #3, the 4-pointer, because we were on the road.
Our next concern was for Tsunami danger, even though we were safe Upcountry (at about 1,500 ft elevation), but we still waited for the siren warning which never came. It knocked out our electricity so we brought out the transistor radio, but many of our local radio stations were off the air due to the power outage. We kept flipping channels and listening and finally caught the news that no tsunami had been generated. Another sigh of relief.
Maui sustained minimal damage, some rockslides, etc. Our house is fine, but my nerves were frazzled for most of the day and my adrenalin didn't subside until about 3:00 p.m. I had a nice cocktail before dinner and that finally smoothed the rough edges. (I should have had the vodka in my orange juice at breakfast like Bruce suggested!)
The Big Island was hit hard and there is a lot of damage, but I don't know the specifics except what I see on the news. We made Good Morning America this morning, and of course it's all over our local news and newspapers. For more details, try:
KITV-4 News (our best station) at www.thehawaiichannel.com
Honolulu Advertiser at www.honoluluadvertiser.com
They have the best websites for news and information.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to our friends and family on the Big Island. Stay Safe!
7 comments:
Glad to see you're okay! Your blog is one of my favorites and as soon as I heard about the quake I ran to the computer to see if you had posted anything. I love that you had a cocktail!! Smart girl!!!
dawn
You were the first person that I thought of when I heard the news. I'm glad you're okay!!
Glad you and your family were safe, and that your home didn't sustain a bunch of damage...
I'm very glad that you and your family are all okay!
it was also all over australian tv and I thought of you ... and then told myself firmly you'd be fine
I hadn't heard about this. It's always a thrill when the house starts rocking. Our last quake in August was just like you described. That 20 seconds feels like forever when your whole world is rocking!
Glad you're safe
I am so glad that you are okay. I can't imagine living anywhere where you would have to worry about things like that, but then again, we have tornadoes to worry about.
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