EARTHQUAKE!


If you haven't heard yet there was a significant earthquake centered on the Big Island of Hawaii at 7:08 am this morning. I had just woken up and was in the bathroom when the house started to shake. This is the first earthquake I've felt on Kaua'i since I moved here in 1999. I used to feel them every now and then on Oahu but they were small tremors. The picture of the landslide above is from the Kawaihae area on the Big Island from the cnn.com website.

My sister on Maui left me a message that their house shook for about 30 seconds and the whole island was without power. I also had a message from my mom on Oahu that their power was out too. I've tried calling my sister back but can only leave messages. I did talk to my mom and they are fine.

Just now they are starting to show some photos of damage on the Big Island. Mostly what I'm seeing is structural damage to rock walls and landslides. One hospital in Kona is evacuating their patients to other hospitals or to Oahu. Apparently the airport on Oahu is a mess - no functioning toilets and no running water. No outbound flights although people are still showing up thinking they can catch their scheduled flights out. Inbound flights are being allowed if they were past the halfway point into their flight. An airport without power has to be a crazy scene as computers aren't working and the TSA can't function. I wonder what backup power they have???

My sister just called from Maui and they don't have power in Makawao yet but they're okay.

I'll post more pictures as they become available.

PS - No deaths reported yet but some injuries.