Waiting for the wave

[Buuushman]

Well, yesterday was fun. Woken up at 6 a.m. to the civil defense siren which I can see out my bedroom window. It took me a minute to figure out that we weren't being invaded by the Chinese or Koreans and get the t.v. on to see what was happening. Tsunami warning- great. There is nothing but 100 yards of soccer field between the beach and our ground floor condo. Got my lady and my daughter in the car along with our valuables and sent them 1/2 mile up the hill to my buddy's place. Loaded the jeep with the emergency supplies, playpen and dog and tried to go get gas. What a joke. people were freaking out. Gridlock, huge lines at the two gas stations that were still open,and general mayhem prevailed. I wound up parking the jeep on the street and walking to the gas station, grabbed 4 cups of coffee and a case of beer, and up the hill I went. Around 8:30 a.m. the county shut off the sewage and fresh water pumping stations to protect the equipment. Nothing left to do but wait. Around 9:30 we get word that they are tentatively scaling down the severity of the event. We get into the beer. Two hours of drinking, waiting, and peeing in the bushes later we see the first effects on the big island. It was pretty tense for a while but turned out to be fairly minor, so my buddy and I jumped in the jeep and slid down the backroads to the beach to check it out. The water may have come up 8" above normal and I waded out a ways and I must say it was a bit Chile. Looks like we had a slight case of premature evacuation.

(Yes I did come up with those myself)

Bushman

 

[IOPort51]

Well, yesterday was fun. Woken up at 6 a.m. to the civil defense siren which I can see out my bedroom window. It took me a minute to figure out that we weren't being invaded by the Chinese or Koreans and get the t.v. on to see what was happening. Tsunami warning- great. There is nothing but 100 yards of soccer field between the beach and our ground floor condo. Got my lady and my daughter in the car along with our valuables and sent them 1/2 mile up the hill to my buddy's place. Loaded the jeep with the emergency supplies, playpen and dog and tried to go get gas. What a joke. people were freaking out. Gridlock, huge lines at the two gas stations that were still open,and general mayhem prevailed. I wound up parking the jeep on the street and walking to the gas station, grabbed 4 cups of coffee and a case of beer, and up the hill I went. Around 8:30 a.m. the county shut off the sewage and fresh water pumping stations to protect the equipment. Nothing left to do but wait. Around 9:30 we get word that they are tentatively scaling down the severity of the event. We get into the beer. Two hours of drinking, waiting, and peeing in the bushes later we see the first effects on the big island. It was pretty tense for a while but turned out to be fairly minor, so my buddy and I jumped in the jeep and slid down the backroads to the beach to check it out. The water may have come up 8" above normal and I waded out a ways and I must say it was a bit Chile. Looks like we had a slight case of premature evacuation.

(Yes I did come up with those myself)

Bushman

How much beer did it take to be that funny??

 

[Kane]

You guys got lucky. You could have had deep see fish sitting in your condo like the Tsunami from a couple years ago.

 

[gert]

:wasted: yeah you guys are lucky glad you didnt get a wave

 

[Buuushman]

Afterwards it was easy to laugh, and that was all we could do, but it really reminds us how important it is to be prepared and stay calm. This type of situation could happen at any time, with alot less notice. This was kinda like a test of the infrastructure and peoples ability to stay calm and act accordingly in a stressful situation, and unfortunately about half the population failed miserably.