Monday, March 1, 2010

Tsunami warning 2010!

Maui was AMAZING and beautiful (go figure) and I can't wait to post pictures of everything we did! But first I wanted to fill you all in on the tsunami warning that took place on Saturday. About 6:00 am on Saturday we awoke to an alarm in the hotel. The alarm sounded and directed us to listen to a voicemail message on the phone. It was kind of odd and quite frankly I was MAD. It was our last real day there and I had planned to sleep in. I kind of figured that some unattended kiddo pulled the fire alarm and then the resort sent out a message letting us know that it was a false alarm. Sooooo...we didn't even bother listening to the message, but rather slipped quickly back into slumber. About that time the Schachers (our traveling companions) rushed over to share the news. The weather forcasts were predicting a tsunami to hit Hawaii at 11:00 local time due to the recent earthquake in Chile. According to our calculations we had several good hours to spend at the pool before evacuations would begin. Naturally we got booted out of the common/pool area of the resort shortly thereafter so we spent a portion of the day sitting, waiting and watching the news from our room and the other part of the afternoon up in the hills in a coffee plantation. We were above the 3rd floor so technically we were allowed to stay in our room (as opposed to evacuating). To back up, earlier that morning we had gone to get gas (the line wrapped around the block) and get bottled water (pretty much empty shelves at Safeway). The quiet panic that was around created a tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. Sort of eery really...this amazingly peaceful, but usually bustling with excitment place was a ghost town of sorts. Our typically PACKED resort pool area had not one lawnchair in use. A gorgeous sun-shining day in Maui and not a person in sight! The resort had sent all of the employees home, completely closed up the glass doors of the lobby (for those of you who visit the villas)....it was nuts. We ended up at the coffee plantation directly out and up from our resort...about 400-500 feet with TONS of other people. Annie and I layed our towels out on the side of the road (haha) to catch some rays while the guys played hacky sack (spelling?) and explored a little. All in all, it ended up being little more than a wasted day. On the other hand we were so fortunate and BLESSED that the outcome weren't different. And of course it is better to be safe than sorry... So that being said, we had quite the experience in Maui, and like I said there will be photos and fun stories to follow this post (whenever I get the chance).

2 comments:

Kim said...

Ooooh! I can't wait to see pictures! We are going in June...us and all 3 kids! Oughta be crazy but fun! ;) Hope yall are great!

Unknown said...

Wow! That is insane! I remember a tsunami warning last year out at our coast. It was to hit 6-12 inches. I wanted to drive out and stand in it so I could say I was in the ocean during a tsunami. Too far for just a little story. Glad u are ok!