Aloha,
Well, I'm not sure if you heard the news or not, but yesterday at about 7:07 AM there was an earthquake in Hawaii (the epicenter was approx. 7 miles away from campus). The earthquake was rated a 6.6 (which is apparently quite high) with the aftershock being a 5.4. We had over 30 tremors since then, but luckily no sign of a tsunami. If the earthquake had been further out in the ocean we would have had a tsunami. That was good news! Most of the students on campus were asleep as it was the weekend, so waking up to an earthquake was quite startling. For the first three seconds I didn't know what was going on - I thought a large truck was driving by, but suddenly I realized what was going on. One of the girls in my room actually leaped out of her top bunk in a Superman-type fashion yelling, "RUN!" At that point we all jumped out of bed to stand in the doorways. My Korean roomies didn't know what to do, so they were running around in circles in our kitchen area. Windows were breaking, things falling off of shelves, and some buildings collapsed. The Wal-Mart in town had part of the roof cave in, and some buildings here on campus have a lot of cracks in them. Our room only had part of the wall buckle a bit, but some of our neighbors had a large crack going all through their room and down onto the first floor (we are on the second floor of the building). No one was hurt, but the hospital was evacuated, the power out, and the tourists had to leave their hotel rooms. Rocks falling and mudslides were also present. About 90% of the people/students on campus had never been in an earthquake before, so many people were in shock. Since the power was out, and the phone lines blocked, it was pretty hard to figure out what was happening, people were calling home to try to find out what was on the news. The earthquake hit all the islands of Hawaii and there was quite a bit of damage. Thank goodness no one was hurt! On a happy note, after the earthquake, the sky was so clear and I was able to see a lot more of the island -usually there are a few clouds blocking the view. The water down by the pier was incredibly refreshing and while the world was hearing/writing news stories, we were on the beach trying to relax, and praying for others affected by the quake. There were a few warnings of more coming, so last night many students had a bag packed with all their important documents, a change of clothes and slept with their shoes and a flashlight near their bed. Some people slept outside, not wanting to go back in their dorm rooms in case of a larger earthquake.
You know, before coming to Hawaii I had no idea that they had earthquakes here because the last one was around '83. The crazy thing about the earthquake was the night before a bunch of us went out to sleep on some cliffs at The End of the World (that's the name), because the wave swells were the highest of the season that day - some reaching over 66 Ft. tall. Apparently it is a great place to go cliff jumping, but we decided it was too dangerous so we just camped out. There were centipedes there (they can bite you, and it is poison), and large cockroaches (just gross). After awhile, we started to feel uncomfortable being there -not because of the bugs - but because of some voices people were hearing, and eerie things. So we got a cab and reached campus after 2:30 in the morning. If we had stayed out on that cliff all night and the earthquake had hit, there is a high possibility that we would have been seriously hurt, or more. I don't think I'll go back to The End of the World for awhile...I've had enough of that place.
We all have a lot to be thankful for here on the island. I hope all is well with each and every one of you! Enjoy each day, don't sleep on cliffs, love your friends and family and be thankful for life!
Cheers,
Amy
