While Preparing for Hurricane Flossie Earthquake Hits the Big Island

As if spending a "wild monday" preparing for Hurricane Flossie (category 3 storm) bearing down on the Big Island wasn't enough, Mother Nature made it even crazier by shaking up east Hawaii with a earthquake trembler this evening!

Yesterday my husband went to Pahoa Town to fill up extra 5 gallon containers of drinking water, fill up the car with gas, fill our other propane tank (for hot showers and baths!), and dumped the garbage at the dump. There were already lines and crowds everywhere but people weren't in a frenzy. He did have a delay on the highway though because a car was on fire on the side of the road, and the police, ambulance (although he didn't see anyone in the car), and fire engine came to put it out.

What a difference a day makes! Woke up early today to take our dog to the vet in the morning, and while he was there having a biopsy done, I had to do all the errands that every other frenzied person in Hilo also had to do today. Namely grocery shopping at KTA ( a total mad house but I heard that Walmart was worst), going to the bank (long lines), returning books to the library, picking up take out dinner at the mall (I know I would be too tired to cook dinner), stopping at the post office to mail out orders, picking up our pet to take home -- and all of this meant two round trips to town in one day. (1 hour each round trip) Even though today was hectic, tomorrow all the public, private, and charter schools will be closed, along with the beaches, libraries, and probably other businesses -- so things needed to be done today.

A strange thing happened after I visited the bank and was backing out of the parking stall. A fire engine blared its horn at me to move so he could come into the bank's parking lot. At the back of the lot was a vehicle on fire! What does it mean when my husband and I both see the same bizarre sight within a day of each other, and never having ever seen something like that in our lives before?

After I get home, I start doing more chores then sit down at the computer to check my email. I am tired, stressed, sweaty from the humidity, hungry for dinner and then a unseen force hits me, I mean literally hits me. The house is shaking and the patio door is rattling, my bird is freaking out and I stand up and freeze. It is an earthquake and it is a big one, at least a 5.0 My husband was upstairs and he said the floor felt like it was swaying. The quake lasted at least 10 seconds long.

It was a 5.4 magnitude at 7:38 p.m. and centered somewhere 6 miles below sea level near Kalapana, about 25 miles south of Hilo. Luckily there has been no initial reports of serious damage.

It is 3:00 a.m. tuesday morning right now, and I am blogging! It has been raining heavily and steadily outside for hours. I want to post my blog post now because who knows what Flossie will do to us later in the day. The Big Island is expecting heavy rain, strong winds, high surf, flash floods -- hopefully we will not lose electrical power, phone service, or our DSL service so I can't get online, aughhhh! Please send good thoughts our way or pray for us and the safety of our Hawaiian Islands. Mahalo for your care.

You can keep track of the storm with the National weather Service Forecast Office.

5 Comments

Yesterday an earthquake, tomorrow a hurricane. Any thing planned for today?

Good luck! & Best wishes, Ken

Posted by: Kenyo | August 14, 2007 at 06:50 AM

earthquake and hurricane, how bad can it get?! we have moved off island last year but our son still lives on the hamakua coast and all our friends on the kohala coast! we checked back with everybody yesterday but then things seemed still peaceful. now everybody on the big island is on high alert. let's pray for the best. aloha, pua

Posted by: BestHawaiiVacations | August 14, 2007 at 10:01 AM