About a week has past since I started this initial post about our tsunami in Hawaii. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan has now been surpassed by a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima plant. We luckily have gotten a ticket for my father in law to get out of dodge this weekend. Whether he will escape is a matter of the airlines, the governments, and Godzilla.
Below is my first take on our HNL tsunami:
North East Japan is destroyed. Video and still coverage of the earthquake and tsunami damage is astounding. Rather its unbelievable. When we first saw the initial reports on NHK, we couldn’t believe it. It seemed as if Godzilla was just down the road smashing all in his wake. Some images even reminded me of Doolittle’s bombing raid on the once wood and papered Tokyo. It was, as I said, unbelievable.
Its hard to imagine this natural disaster destroying so much so quickly, yet, Banda Aceh was devastated within 20 minutes of their major earthquake.
Really…its unbelievable.
I’m tempted to get to Japan to take part in covering this disaster but I’ve got nothing to offer. I’m not a rescue worker. I could be. But I’m not. I can’t do it. I couldn’t do it in Indonesia and I know I can’t do it now.
The Japanese tsunami hit Hawaii with a wallop. A small one in scale, but a wallop. Houses on the Big Island were wiped out, the Four Seasons and the King Kam Hotel, along with many shops and the likes, were hit very hard Loads of property damage. Several boat harbors on Oahu were severely damaged and there was damage as well on Maui. Things turned out well but not that well. Yet…it wasn’t really a big deal…not like the destruction in Japan.
The waves were scheduled to hit around 3am and Hawaii anxiously awaited their arrival. 3am passes and no major waves. I (again) stationed myself at the Illikai Hotel and watch the harbor to see if anything takes place. About 3:30 I run down to the harbor and see loads of boats sitting in the sand. Water drained out of the harbor and many of the boats were sitting dry out of the water. That spooked me a bit but I ventured out to the beach catching loads of people sitting around, drinking beer, and getting out into the beach where the water had run out.
I shot these fools and wondered how foolish I am for being with them. “Who’s more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him? At one point, the water has drained way off the shore, exposing reef, rocks, and whatnot and it quickly floods back in splashing up against a seawall where the guys above were standing.
Once that took place, I knew it was time to boogie outta there. So after a few more hours of darkness, the sunrise made us aware of the damage that took place in Hawaii. But its nothing like the devastation of Japan: thousands of people were killed, entire villages and towns destroyed, and the Japan economic muscle comes to a halt. What happened in Hawaii pales to the destruction in Japan.
To write any more about Hawaii is really saying too much. We had a few docks destroyed and there was millions of dollars of damage. Homes were washed out but no lives were lost. We survived again.