Tsunami Survival Guide

We made it back from our Hawaiian vacation yesterday, and I plan to fill you in on all the details, but it will take a few posts. We mainly did a lot of relaxing, which was so needed. I read three books, and finished the one I had begun here. (Every book I read was AWESOME, so let me know if you need a good book recommendation!) We did not turn on the tv ONCE. We slept. We enjoyed each other. We explored. Ah, bliss. But the vacation definitely didn't start off on the right foot.

We left Great Falls last Thursday morning, and flew to Salt Lake City, where we had about a three hour layover before boarding a plane to Honolulu. Once in Honolulu, we boarded a plane to Lihue on the beautiful island of Kauai. We arrived around 5 pm, and found out the bag we checked was still in Honolulu. It was frustrating, but since it was supposed to be delivered to our hotel later that night, we weren't too concerned.

We grabbed an amazing dinner, stuffed ourselves to the brim with some island goodness, and headed back to the hotel around 9 pm for some needed shut-eye. At this point, we had been up and going for over 20 hours. Around midnight, we woke to someone pounding on the door. You know when you wake up from a deep sleep, and you're still groggy and can't really process anything? We had no idea what was going on, and I told Mike to answer the door, thinking that the hotel was delivering our bag. The security guard told us to pack our valuables and evacuate the hotel, saying that a large earthquake had hit Japan, and the quake had also caused a tsunami in Japan, but it was headed straight for Hawaii. Well, that got our attention.

Immediately I felt sick. I've never felt like I physically couldn't function. Growing up in the Midwest, I've been through my fair share of tornadoes and bad thunderstorms, but I didn't know much about tsunamis. All I knew was that in the media, they are never depicted as a small occurrence. When I think of a tsunami, I picture a huge wave crashing down on land and destroying everything in its path. I was scared. And then, I thought of those in Japan. We have many friends there, and immediately we were concerned for them and their safety. I turned to Mike, and told him that we needed to pray. We sat on our hotel bed and prayed that God would protect us and our friends. I've never clung to God that way, like my life depended on it. I know now it seems silly for me to phrase it that way: "like my life depended on it," but then again, I didn't know any better.

We quickly packed small bags with some food and our valuables, and left our room. We boarded a bus with other hotel guests and waited to be transported to a local elementary school. At the school, there were about three hundred tourists from our hotel crammed into the school cafeteria. The local news was being projected onto a screen, and on it, they were "counting down" (kind of like New Years) to when experts predicted with first waves would hit Kauai. The tsunami was predicted to come in around 3 am at a height of 2 meters, which would come inland several blocks. Some of our fellow tourists slept, because they had thought to bring pillows and blankets, and at one point, Mike slept on the lunch table bench, but I couldn't sleep. I read and I prayed.

As 3 am got closer, the more anxious I felt. And the newscaster wasn't helping. He kept saying things like, "the hour of doom is upon us" and "the moment of terror" which definitely freaked me out. I thank God for the local man in charge of us at the school. He continually spoke to us, reassuring us that we were several miles away from the coast and were high up. He poked fun of the newscaster's way of putting things, saying that the news always like to dramatize everything. And in the final minutes before the predicted first waves, he told us that we wouldn't feel anything when the tsunami hit, the earth would not shake or anything, and that all we needed to do was relax. His demeanor was a huge blessing, because even though I was still scared, I somehow felt that under this man's care, we would survive.

3 am came and went, and luckily, no waves hit Kauai, and the tsunami hit the other islands to a lesser degree than was predicted. To my knowledge, the damage sustained state-wide was only slight and there were no casualties. By now, people back home knew what was going on and knew we were in Hawaii, and put it all together and were calling/texting to check on us. THANK YOU to each and every one of you! To know that you were thinking of us was a HUGE help to me, and truly helped to keep me sane. I am so grateful!

The sun coming up over King K school.

Although no waves hit Kauai, the island waited for the rest of the state to not be in a "tsunami watch" before we were allowed to leave. A bus came around 7:30 to return us to our hotel. Aside from being grateful, all I could think about was a comfy hotel bed and a toothbrush, since it had been well over 24 hours since we had last brushed. So gross. My tongue felt like a piece of carpet and my teeth felt like they were growing fur. And I wanted to floss and change my clothes.

A sign posted at our hotel once we got back. Cheers.

Not only did we "survive" the tsunami and make it back to the hotel in one piece, but our bag was waiting for us when we returned. What started off on the wrong foot ended up alright, and the rest of our vacation went off without a hitch. Throughout the rest of the week, we drove past the King Kaumualii school a few times, and we had to look at it and smile and joke about our night spent in an elementary school cafeteria with hundreds of other frightened tourists.

And do you know what's really crazy? Instead of going to Hawaii, we were originally going to visit Japan to visit some friends. I thank God that we weren't, and I thank God that all of our dear friends are safe.

Please continue to pray for Japan, and for healing after the devastation of both the earthquake and tsunami, as well as the current problems associated with the nuclear power plant. Due to our travels, I've not been able to talk to anyone recently in depth about what is going on, but I believe some of our American friends are evacuating, so please pray for them to have safe travels as well.