Waiting to get back home...police not letting anyone into Kailua, even into the areas outside the evacuation zones. I guess they were trying to prevent looting. The boys are snoozing, finally, to the soft sounds of cars running periodically and rain falling. Really was quite relaxing if you don't try to fight the whole process and just go with it.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Japan. The images of that wall of water forging 6 miles inland, and the trucker trying to outrun it are just gut-wrenching. I can only imagine the fear of parents wondering about their kids, just getting out of school. Thankfully it was a very mild impact here. For posterity’s sake, here is what our night went like. . .

Dave went to the command center at Pearl last night around 9pm just as all the warnings started coming in. (He gets messages from his work, and I have signed up with USGS for earthquake notices as well as with the PTWC for tsunami warnings.) I stayed up with mom and Richard (who had to evacuate their cottage as it’s in an inundation zone). When the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center chief didn’t come back out with an update for the press after the wave passed Wake Island and Midway Island (the two islands in line before us), I decided I didn’t like all the uncertainty of the “models” and their lack of specificity re offshore topography. So while Dave said to stay put, and all the data indicated we were in no danger, I went with my gut and decided to head for high ground. There are a few things in life I am totally ok with being wrong about. And evacuating is one of them if I feel it is warranted. So I packed a bag, jackets, blankets and I woke the boys up at 2am, an hour and 21 min before the wave was supposed to hit. We went for a little drive to one of our favorite trailheads which happens to be at mom’s church. There we waited. I couldn’t call or text anyone – my smartphone must have gone into a panic and became a dumbphone. I found a wifi connection and was able to check the PTWC website, but they weren’t updating past 2:30am. With no real news I decided to start heading back at 3:57am. I realized I might not be able to get home as they were worried about people roaming around and looting. So I parked on the side of the road along with hundreds of other people in line to get back into Kailua. The boys snoozed a bit (as did I) after I sprayed them with bug spray (mosquitoes sneaking in to eat us alive). I had plenty of snacks and water for a 24 hour adventure, blankets, jackets, gas. (Dad, I had half a tank as you always say to have!) We finally were allowed back into Kailua at about 6am. They handled everything so well – I was quite impressed. They really go with the flow and just hunkered down in the truck for 4 1/2 hours in their seats while we chatted and ultimately dozed for a bit. All their travel and camping makes them pretty easy going I guess. We just called it our truck tent. There were people literally camped out in the median before you get onto H3 – a huge sun shelter erected, cars all around on the grass, lanterns on, beach chairs out. So interesting to see what everyone does. When we finally got home I gave the boys milk and a granola bar and sneaked them back into bed just as dawn was breaking. I hoped that they’d fall asleep before they realized the birds were up. They slept until 9am. So, thankfully I got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night. Ha! Dave arrived home at 0630 after a long night in the command center (still not sure exactly where he hunkers down) and slept until noon. I am about to go nap now if I can. When I took Ben out for a jog at 1130 am, I noticed that the water was still receding and surging. Very spooky. Ben got some nice new sand toys out of the deal – the tsunami washed them up on the sand. Oddly, one of them was an Asian soup spoon.

Thanks to all of you who checked in via email and text, avoiding the phone lines. Everything was calm here, and very well run. I am thankful that the surge was isolated really to harbor areas and seems to not have caused a lot of damage. Glad to live well outside an inundation zone, just wish the wave had come during daylight so we could have hiked up to see it like last time. This one definitely had more energy and did surge further inland than the one last year.

Aloha to all…