It's 3:04am and I've been up listening to reports and watching footage of the devastation from the tsunami that hit Japan several hours ago. I can't imagine what it's really like to be living there right now.
The tsunami is expected to hit the island of Kauai in a few minutes so I'll probably get some early reports on whether there's been any damage and that may signify what could happen here. Fortunately, most of the main Hawaiian Islands rise relatively sharply from the sea, although I think Kauai is the flattest. My apartment lies above the evacuation zone, but I'm still relatively close to the sea, just high enough so that even a very large tsunami would not reach this height. Still, if any damage happens to downtown Hilo, I'll see it as it happens.
Anyway, it's been bizarre. The tsunami sirens have been going off every hour for the past 5 hours or so. I went to the grocery store with my neighbors at about 10:30pm and it was packed with people buying up all the water and preparing for the worst.
They had a similar warning last February if you recall. I remember hearing about it and watching on the news but not much happened. This is different because it's happening in the middle of the night. It's quiet but you can tell everyone's still awake (how can you sleep with the sirens?). I'm sure people will start going outside in a few minutes as the expected landfall time approaches (about 20 minutes from now). People here may have a false sense of security since the last one was small.
I'll post again later this morning. Hopefully everything will be fine on the islands. Things are not fine in Japan.
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