Because there was so much in the tsunami warning post, I moved the non-tsunami related activities to this post. Since the alert came so late in the day, I had already been doing a lot before all the tsunami activities began. This is what the tsunami report looked like at 10:10 am. An earthquake had occurred south of Fiji just before 8 this morning, but no tsunami was triggered by it; this is what usually happens with the multiple earthquakes that normally occur each day around the world. Not sure why I took a screen shot; I usually do not do that if there is nothing happening. But I'm glad I did so you can see what a normal day looks like. (If you look closely at the map you will see that there was an earlier earthquake near the location of the one that caused the tsunami.)
Duo, the Duolingo owl mascot, gives you encouragement along the way to keep practicing. Today Duo informed me that if I completed a lesson I would move up in my Duolingo Score. I completed it & did move up! Now only 100 more levels to go!
Last night a baby gecko fell in to a peanut
butter jar that I had just scrapped out but not washed. It was too
small to be able to jump out so it was trying to climb the walls of the
jar. I left it alone to see if it could. But it was still in the jar this morning. Apparently gecko toe pads
cannot cling to peanut butter. 🤔
I shook it out in the yard a little while later.
I had been thinking the ʻumiʻumi ʻo Dole was looking a little
flatter as it lay on the table. I did not think gravity would have that
much of an effect on it. This morning I found out that it is Paʻipaʻi,
not gravity, that is causing it to become a little flatter!
Trying to look cute & cuddly.
This was gravity & wind.
I was going
to prep the ʻumiʻumi ʻo Dole for hanging this afternoon when it got cooler, but the
tsunami also put that on hold since I had to go to Lapakahi. But
I did get to walk around about noon before the alerts started coming in to check out potential areas to
hang them. I looked for areas shaded by the house or other vegetation
like the persimmon tree & the mock orange bush. I'll be ready to do
that tomorrow!
Right side of gate will be shaded by garage.
Room for 2 bunches to hang in shade of persimmon tree.
One on either side of mock orange should do well here.
Another look at shade provided by mock orange along fence.
On fence right next to house should work well.
"Hej från Sverige!" That was the subject line of an email I got this morning! It was from my good friend Bo who is in Sweden right now. He was visiting Karlstad which is about 2&1/2 hours away from their cabin. While showing a visitor around they saw a sushi restaurant! Unfortunately they did not have enough time to stop & try the food.
(Photo by Bo)
(Photo by Bo)
I finally got around to folding the futon couch back up. But before I moved it back in to place by the window, I cleaned the area
behind & under it; I had not done that since it was put in place
back in March!
It was quite dirty there!
Roomba doing its job!
But still have to move that pile of cat hair out of there.
I had put one of the potted hapuʻu in my car to drop off at
Trudy's before we were to go to dinner. It was in my car when I went to
Lapakahi; I dropped it off at Trudy's on my way home. She was at Takata's getting
supplies to make dinner at home since we had postponed our night out at
Patricio's. I also got to check out the new address sign that Lem made. Pretty cool!
It could be another umbrella for Mr. Frog!
There are geckos on it!
Besides all the activity surrounding the tsunami, we are also watching out for hurricanes! Although
both Hurricane Iona & Tropical Storm Keli are well south of us,
they are affecting our weather. On Sunday morning the winds were around 9
mph & looked like they might get up to about 15 mph later in the
week; which is why Tomiko chose that day to fly her drone. But today the
winds are about 20 to 30 mph. Tomorrow the forecast is for winds to
increase to 25 to 35 mph & remain that way through Sunday when they
go back down to 20 to 30 mph. Hurricane Iona is about 765 mile southeasterly of Honolulu; moving westerly at about 13 mph. It has sustained winds of about 125 mph, making it a Category 3 hurricane on the Safir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Hurricane force winds extend out from the center about 25 miles; tropical storm force winds extend out to about 80 miles.
Tropical Storm Keli is about 890 miles southeasterly of Honolulu, moving westerly at about 13 mph. It has sustained winds of about 40 mph. Tropical storm force winds extend out about 35 miles.
And in the Eastern Pacific area there is a disturbance (the red X in the 1st Hurricane Center graphic above) with a 70% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in 7 days. It is located about 1400 miles east-southeast of us. If it becomes a tropical storm before it reaches 140 degrees longitude it will be given an English name; if after 140 it will be given a Hawaiian name like Iona & Keli.
And, of course, we still have an active volcano here. Kīlauea is still on pause after the end of Episode 29; another episode may resume in the latter half of this week.
Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jim & Jennifer! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki ʻeiwa e Anne & Mary Kay!
While I was preparing an email to share information about our Hālawa Camp hike on Sunday with others who might have additional information for us, my phone went off; there was a Tsunami Watch issued at 2:26 pm. There had been an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Kamchatka about an hour earlier & experts were evaluating whether a tsunami would be generated & whether an evacuation would be necessary. (It was eventually upgraded to 8.8.)
Title says "Warning", but color code & bulletin say "Watch".
About 20 minutes later at 2:43, a Tsunami Warning was issued with a tsunami ETA of 7:17 pm. I received alerts to my phone from both the State & the County.
This is 1st alert that came to my phone.
This one arrived a minute later.
At 2:58 Dane called & asked me to go to Lapakahi State Historical Park & clear the tourists out & lock the gate; they were all busy at the Parks' maintenance yard moving vehicles & heavy equipment out of the inundation zone. He was unsure if the security firm would send someone. I put on my State Parks shirt & ran down to the park; it was about 3:30 when I got there. I found a car there; it took me about 10 minutes to locate the couple. I told them why the park was closing & they quickly agreed to leave. As we were walking back to the parking lot, Nicole from API Security came down & met us. Though she was in her marked work truck, she did not have her work shirt on & mentioned that she heard about the tsunami from her uncle who was calling from the continent! I think she came down on her own to make sure there was no one there at the park. Hūlō for Nicole!
At 3:03, while I was on my way to Lapakahi, Skyler the Hawai'i Island Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator, sent out both a text & an e-mail. MRC was on standby to assist with the evacuation centers.
At 4:16 the County Civil Defense alert popped up on my phone. The Hisaoka Gym listed in the Public Evacuation Shelters would be the one I would volunteer for if MRC is requested to help at the shelters.
About 5:15, the 1st warning sirens began to go off; the alerts that arrived at my phone also had an audible, very annoying sound even though I have my phone set to "silent". The Tsunami Warning was also updated. It was now expected to arrive a little earlier on Kauaʻi, at 7:10 pm. People were asked to evacuate the inundation zone by 6:15.
If you don't reply "Yes", they call you. If no response, they email you.
In the meanwhile, around 5:30, I opened up the Hawaii News Now live feed to see what they had to say. It was interesting to see the amount of energy that was released by the earthquake; way more than most anything humans can come up with. I also found it interesting that it was the Hawaiʻi County mayor's interview that aired along with interviews with Governor Green & City & County of Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi. Maybe it's because Hawaiʻi Island has the possibility of having the most damage? Honolulu experienced a lot of traffic issues due to the number of people living in the tsunami inundation zones.
News anchors Mark Carpenter & Stephanie Lum talk about the tsunami.
Mayor Alameda at Hawaiʻi County Emergency Operations Center; staff being briefed in background.
Honolulu traffic was a big mess!
During a tsunami boats are safer out in deep water offshore than in harbor.
Around 6:10 another siren went off. It was now 1 hour before the tsunami was anticipated to arrive.
HIEMA is state Emergency Management Agency.
About 6:15, the tsunami passed through Midway Atoll. It was reported
to have an amplitude of 3'; the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center keeps
track of the wave heights as the tsunami moves past monitoring buoys. Hopefully, cuts made at the Federal level did not cause lapses
in data transmission to all places that needed the information. HNN also showed a graphic comparing different magnitudes of earthquakes & how frequently they are expected to occur worldwide. There was also another Civil Defense alert a few minutes later.
At 6:40 the final siren was sounded; the 1st wave was anticipated to hit Kauaʻi in 30 minutes. One of the most important pieces of information given out during the live press conference was to wait until the "all clear" was given to return to an evacuation area. This is because a tsunami is not just a single wave; it is multiple waves across several hours causing water to "pile up" & flood low lying areas. The tsunami in 2011 1st arrived about 3 am, the "all clear" was not issued until about 7 hours later at 11 am; during that period it caused considerable damage.
At 7 HNN started showing live shots of Hanalei Bay since Kauaʻi is the 1st main island that the tsunami would reach. Other key areas they will be keeping an eye on are Kahului Harbor on Maui & Coconut Island in Hilo Bay on Hawaiʻi Island; these are areas known to have a lot of impact from tsunami because of the configuration of the sea bottom as it approaches shore. They also have live cams.
At 7:10 the Hanalei Bay live cam on Kauaʻi showed ... not much; it was getting dark & difficult to see what was happening. About 15 minutes later Dr. McCreery of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center gave a live report; the tsunami had arrived & was about 1 foot in height (so was easy to miss on the live cam in the fading light). Dr. McCreery said the Midway data showed that the 3rd wave was the largest, though that would not necessarily be the same here. During Dr. McCreery's report, the newscasters had been watching the live cam & saw the water level drop & some parts of reef become exposed with water coming in a little more on the shoreline. Later a time lapse replay showed more clearly the action of the water being drawn out quite a bit farther than during a normal tidal fluctuation over about a 30 minute period.
During the next hour or so, HNN provided reports on other areas & a lot of educational information about tsunami. HNN Chief Meteorologist Jennifer Robbins provided most of the coverage.
Whether flood caused by river, storm surge, or tsunami its still powerful.
During the 8:20 update, government officials stressed that they would be observing for at least another 2 or 3 hours to ensure that the tsunami had passed before giving the "all clear". It was also noted that they are getting data & advice from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on when it was safe to issue the "all clear". They indicated they will be watching for the amplitude of the waves to be getting smaller & smaller.
It looked like it was getting smaller.
Then there was spike higher than 3rd wave; that's why they watch for several hours.
The 8:50 update shared data from all the islands. Hilo had almost a 10' amplitude, the highest in the state, likely due to the shape of the bay; it's like a funnel. They have only seen a couple cycles in Hilo and are waiting for more to determine what's happening. On Kauaʻi they have had quite a few more cycles & might be getting ready to downgrade to "advisory" in the next update.
Coconut Island in Hilo Bay at 7:22 pm.
Water flooding Coconut Island parking lot, 8:42 pm.
Water begins to recede from parking lot at 8:47 pm.
I was still getting alerts at 9:10 pm, this time warning people not to go back in to the evacuation zones.
During the 10 pm update, Dr. McCreery said it appeared that maximum heights had been reached in Hawaiʻi. (They will be monitoring all night since they also provide data to South American countries along the Pacific & the tsunami has not yet reached those shores.) In the next couple hours they hope to be able to downgrade from a Warning to an Advisory but would only do that if they see consistent decreases in the amplitude to less than 3'. After that declaration it would then be up to the county officials to declare the "all clear" & allow people to head back to their homes.
At 10:38 the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center downgraded from a Warning to an Advisory. Basically that means there are no longer high levels of water expected that could come onshore & cause damage; however, there was still enough water volume to cause surges that could change currents & make it unsafe to be in the water. I went to sleep after that.
Kai had texted about 6:45 pm HST, wondering, "How's the tsunami warning being handled over there? Curious because we're technically in the zone here, but I haven't received an official warning yet." I told him my phone had been blowing up with alerts since 2:30 or about the last 4 hours or so. I also told him I thought Hawaiʻi Island had a robust alert system since our emergency services have to deal with volcanoes sort of daily & hurricanes annually from June 1st through November 30th. (Hurricanes come in from the east so Hawaiʻi Island generally gets hit 1st.) Where Kai lives was in a Tsunami Advisory zone.
Kai is in Juan de Fuca Strait coast area.
As noted above, that was in the Advisory area.
About a month ago Trudy said she'd take me out to dinner at Patricio's Taqueria as a thank you for all the building materials I gave her. I told her she didn't need to do that since it was only the materials from the crate the new windows came in; she did not want any of the old windows or screens. But she insisted, so we planned to go to Patricio's tonight since most of my visitors have left & things have quieted down. I also got a $5 off coupon from Patricio's for my birthday that has to be used by the 31st. But the tsunami put that on hold; the tourists at Lapakahi were staying in Waikoloa Village which is quite high up on the hillside & not in any danger from the tsunami. But security guard Nicole told them to go back via Waimea since the coast road was jammed with people leaving the resorts at Waikoloa Beach, Mauna Lani, & Mauna Kea. We would have to go through that traffic jam to get to Patricio's (which is also out of the tsunami inundation zone) so we postponed until tomorrow night.
I did get several texts from friends in other areas worried about the effect of the tsunami on me. Mahalo for your concerns! I put this post together for you so you have an idea of what happens when I have to deal with a Tsunami Warning. I was in no danger, where I live is at about the 950' elevation; if I get water at my house we are all in a whole lot of trouble! Like 40 days & 40 nights of rain kind of trouble! I am also in an area that has no floods or landslides. The biggest threat for this area is a hurricane. So don't worry about me ... unless there is an impending hurricane that is expected to make landfall in North Kohala!
