Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tsunami Predicted to Hit Hawaii Today

I was all set to write about the best prime ribs I’ve had, but Mother Nature tossed something more interesting into the pot last night.

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake near Santiago, Chile, generated a tsunami that’s expected to hit Hawaii late this morning. The first place to be affected will be Hilo, on the eastern shore of the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Oahu TV stations are full of images this morning, of cars lining up at the gas stations, and people crowding into supermarkets – a typical over-reaction by the populace. When an alert of any kind has been issued, they run to fill up gas, and buy batteries, rice and toilet paper.

I’m not concerned about the tsunami, except for Hilo, because I grew up there and lived through the 1960 wave that practically demolished the bay-front commercial district and killed 61 residents.

Anybody who was going to fly out of (or into) Hilo this morning won’t be able to. They closed the airport as a precaution.

We live in the upper Makiki area of Honolulu, high up and far from the Waikiki shoreline, so we’re nowhere near the designated inundation zone.

I’ll post updates later today.

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