News
Hawaii Earthquake
Posted October 15, 2006 06:24 PM
Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are fine. Sending this through my website is probably the fastest way to reach the most people...
What a terrifying experience. We had planned on a doing a 10km fun run this morning and had just parked at the local library and picked up our race packet and were pinning on our race numbers onto our t-shirts, on the trunk of the car, when the rumbling and shaking began. The cars in the parking lot were literally bouncing in their spots - looked like they were jumping jacks. The rumbling lasted for maybe 20 seconds - we had run into the middle of the lot away from cars, buildings, trees etc. The athletes down on Ali'i Drive (we were about 1 block away) started running up the street. Someone yelled out in a big huge voice "TIDAL WAVE!!" and everyone began running as fast as they could inland. We were unable to see the ocean so we just jumped in the car, peeled out of the parking lot and up one of the main roads that we know leads high into the hills.
From there we pulled into a small strip mall that has a Starbucks Coffee Shop. We knew that we would have a clear vantage point of the ocean and harbour. All the power was out, and all the local radio stations were off the air. Just after we arrived there was a second quake. We were pretty scared - my right leg wouldn't stop doing a jig-a-jiggety dance of its own...!
Another fellow, in a car next to us, had called his son in Chicago and was getting updates on the earthquakes from him. There were quite a few cars in the parking lot all with the same idea as us...so we hung around talking and exchanging what little info there was. Finally after about an hour we deemed it safe enough to head home. Just then an employee stuck her head out the door of the closed Starbucks and yelled something. Everyone began jumping back into their cars and driving quickly out of the parking lot. We were too far away to hear what she said and stopped one of the cars to ask what was happening., thinking that a tsunami warning had been issued or something......Believe it, or not, the employee had called out that another Starbucks (closer to downtown) had its power back on and that coffee was now available....!!!
So we made our way back home to the condo to check on the couple staying with us during race week. They had been in bed when the quake hit, and had thrown on some clothes, grabbed their bikes and headed up the closest hilly road. The condo was fine though we've heard of a lot of damage in hotel rooms and other condos and the main race hotel (the King Kamehameha) has closed one wing for structural damage and has a number of plate glass windows in their restaurant smashed.
So that was a bit of an shocking start to the day, but thankfully we are all okay. We have been having an amazing time these past two weeks and have seen and done so much. We start our volunteer work tomorrow for the next three days and then on Ironman race day (Saturday 21st) we will be body marking on the pier early in the morning.
I'll write another update when we're home after the trip. In the meantime, aloha from Carolyn & Bob
