Hawai'i was spared any serious damage by the tsunami generated by the earthquake which hit Japan. Some boats in harbors came loose from their moorings and crashed into one another, and a hotel in Kona on the Big Island had its lobby soaked, but nothing more serious than that. It's easy for me to say, since I'm neither a boat owner nor an owner of the hotel, but if that was indeed the sum of statewide damage I'd say we dodged a potentially horrific bullet.
Personally, I was informed almost immediately about the earthquake by a friend who posted a news item about it to my Facebook wall. I immediately turned on CNN and shortly thereafter switched to one of our local TV stations, which began All Tsunami All The Time coverage at around 8:00pm and stayed with it until 9:00am this morning.
Our house is about 800 feet above sea level and our hill is pretty steep, so we didn't worry about a water surge. What did concern us was the potential for power outages. One of Hawaiian Electric's power plants is in one of the possible tsunami inundation zones. One of their spokespersons was quickly on television telling customers that the company had shifted personnel to that plant and was already moving load to other plants as well. This was complicated by the fact that their workers are in the midst of voting on a new contract they'd just gotten after a brief strike; the workers are still out but told management they'd come back to work if needed to recover from any damages.
I filled up a water jug and made sure I had batteries for my flashlights and batteries and went to bed, thinking the state wouldn't be helped if I sat up till 3:21 A.M. (when the tsunami was forecast to arrive) worrying about it. That decision proved to be sensible.
Posted by Linkmeister at March 11, 2011 10:21 AM | TrackBackGood to hear. The news from Japan is so awful. And now problems at the nuclear power plant.
Posted by: You Don't Say at March 12, 2011 07:11 AM