Tsunami.

(http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=weather&id=7301655)

So in high school you are asked, "If there were a fire in your house, what would be the top 5-10 things you would grab before leaving the building?"

This is crap. These things completely slip your mind when a tsunami alarm is sounding and your bosses are telling you not to come in and to get high and safe, and the news is going crazy. Chris and I woke up to the alarm at 6, blew it off as nothing and then woke at 7 to his phone ringing. It was his boss telling him what was going on. Then Chris got up and turned on the news. It was alerting us to grab supplies, unplug all electricity and get up to high ground. So I started immediately filling our hurricane tub with imperishable food, necessary clothing and our valuables/sentimental belongings. I put everything that was on the floor on top of a surface while Chris gathered Tigger and his necessities. We only unplugged the microwave and the coffeepot and just left everything and started driving up the hill to the Booklands. We got there and Stacy and Michelle were about to walk up the hill (which they do every morning) so I joined them. The water was soo eire quiet. Not a whale in sight. It was the most beautiful day but so creepy. Everyone was just in the waiting mode. We got inside and were watching the TV. They were saying that they were going to turn off the sewage soon so go to the bathroom now if you can! So there we were all going to the bathroom. Then Stacy filled up her tub to the top. We still just sat and watched the news. Bill and Stacy made sausages and biscuits and eggs for us as we were waiting cause it was still early in the morning. Chris, Bill and Kai were playing the Wii for a little bit as we were still twiddling our thumbs not knowing if we would be stuck without electricity for 2 weeks or not even able to go down the hill for that long. Not knowing if we would have jobs later that day or even a house. Then I started to think "Shoot!! I forgot my CD with all our wedding photos on it, and our paintings, and I didn't bring tampons!" I also thought I left our file cabinet on the floor with all our tax information and socials and every important document that maybe could have been saved if it were only minor flooding. The boys turned off the Wii and put the news back on. We were watching a shot of Hilo where the water was starting to get sucked out and then filling back in over and over. Each time more water was sucked out and the water level raised a bit more. My thought was all this water is going out so it has to come back in!! If you saw how much water was being sucked out and how fast, it looked like a river. It was crazy how the sight of rocks multiplied every few minutes, that made me think that eventually the wave will be massive and destructive. We got kinda bored watching that happen over and over so we walked out to the canal again and saw all the boats were out to dodge what could be a crazy disaster. We could hear the cops with megaphones alerting everyone to evacuate to higher levels. Then we heard another Tsunami siren which had been going off like every half hour, but this one was the longest. All of this totally giving me a knot in my stomach. Where the tsunami was to hit is where we get all our supplies from the mainland - all the water and all the food. If that got wiped out there is no knowing how long we would be deprived from those things. I knew that Chris, Tigger and I would be safe, somehow that was the only thing that was giving me my sanity right then. When we came back inside the same image was on the screen, Hilo's water going in and out. A tsunami after a magnitude-9.5 quake that struck Chile in 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded, killed about 140 people in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. It was about 3.3 to 13 feet (one to four meters) in height, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. This part of history told us that the very same thing could happen again. The tsunami ended up happening but was very minimal, it actually hit Maui the worst - which wasn't really that bad all the same. No real damage done. We had the largest surge at 3.2ft. 61/2ft waves on the other side. They kept telling us to stay where we were though until they could give us a final ok that everything was safe. At about 2ish we were headed back home. We dodged a massive bullet. Praise the Lord. We were totally blessed. It could have been very bad. The streets were empty, the grocery shelves were empty, and the sky was the most beautiful blue. What a weird, crazy, freaky, scary, stressful, terrifying no good very bad day. That late afternoon Chris had to go back to work and I just had time to think about the day. I was so freaked and so in shock I think. I called my mom and fell apart. It was the first time that day. Especially being all alone and with no one to be there for me or to come visit. Well, it has come and gone. We have survived a tsunami. I need to move on and I hope people don't blow off future warnings cause nothing bad came of this one. I haven't been able to sleep well since and still haven't unpacked the tub we took up the hill but we are safe and well and have jobs and a home. Thank you Lord for those things. We totally took them for granted. Wow, what a day.
The next day there was a rain storm and crazy wind. And the next day after that the Tsunami siren went off because it was the 1st of the month and they always test it the 1st of every month. Poor tourists. They wouldn't know this. haha, imagine what stories they have to tell when they come home, I wonder when their next visit will be, if ever again?!