<p>I’m so happy to hear you are okay, HImom, and that there were no serious injuries or deaths. I can only imagine how nervous everyone must be around there.</p>
<p>HImom, I am so glad to hear the good news!</p>
<p>HImom I’m happy to hear you and yours are okay. 6.7 is very scary! We went through the Northridge earthquake in '94 and had no power or water for almost a week. I’m curious about the Four Season’s on Kona, one of our favorite places. Do you know if they suffered a lot of damage?</p>
<p>Aloha HIMom! So glad things were okay and that you can rejoin us. </p>
<p>Living in a geologically active place is so interesting, don’t you think? We honeymooned on Kauai at what was then a brand new hotel on Poipu Beach, the Waiohai. It was destroyed in the hurricane a few years later. I still can’t get used to the fact that it was just gone. I can imagine that Kona is a mess and hope that things get put back together without too much economic impact to the island. </p>
<p>Aries and theDad, I still don’t think it is what you say it is, it is just calm in the midst of the storm…</p>
<p>Himom:</p>
<p>Welcome back to the land of the CC-connected! I’m so glad you escaped with minimal damage.</p>
<p>Good to see your report, HIMom.</p>
<p>Patient: <glyph of=“” bemusement=“”></glyph></p>
<p>Himom,</p>
<p>Glad to hear that all is well with you and yours</p>
<p>Im glad you let us know how things are going HiMom</p>
<p>Lots of the structures on the Kona side of the Big Island of Hawaii have indeed suffered structural damage. The 100 FEMA personnel who are headed here (if they haven’t arrived) will be helping with damage assessment. Some properties are very obviously heavily damaged, including 11 or more schools, LOTS of roads, some of the many bridges, some hotels. and at least one palace/museum.
Damage reports are still very preliminary and likely to be far over the $40 million estimated for some of the schools + some roads given so far.
The islands further from the quake have fared better, but damage assessments are still continuing on the refineries & other infrastructure.
I had never thought about how many quakes we’ve had even in my lifetime. I was not particularly concerned when it hit, just figured it was another one (we had one last year as well) & continued to sit on the couch reading the Sunday newspaper. Was slightly more concerned when the power went out 30 minutes later, but still not alarmed (no sirens or Civil Defense announcements).
There have been no tidal waves that have ever hit the part of the island where our home is to date & we’re fairly far inland. The Big Island has more seismec activity than the other islands–tho they say it isn’t related to the active volcanoes, I believe there is SOME connection. We are also fortunate that there is a good reef that mutes the wave action near our home.</p>
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<p>Our church had a dry run on Sunday–we were to pretend that a power outage had occured and that we would be without power from 12:30 pm to 8:00 pm. I learned some interesting things–some sources of light that I had counted on really didn’t produce much light (threw them away and bought new light sources), we really need to have a bigger stash of batteries and matches, we ought to invest in an alternate source of cooking heat, and maybe one of those crank radios wouldn’t be a bad idea (no entertainment).</p>
<p>The irony of the situation was that I didn’t check the TV and computer before 12:30pm and didn’t bother to check the computer and TV after 8pm, so I didn’t learn about the HI earthquake till the next morning. My parents live on Oahu–they must have thought I was so uncaring!</p>
<p>Actually, they probably thought you were considerate & allowing the phone lines to be used primarily by 1st responders (that’s what we were told to do). I didn’t make or receive many calls, just to keep the lines open for the 1st responders, as the Civil Defense folks urged us all to do.</p>
<p>Costco has some very inexpensive hand crank flashlights that also have limited radio capacity (2 minutes cranking = 12 minutes radio). You can buy a two-pack for $24. I guess you can have two radios–one to use & the other to crank (or one to use as a radio & the other to use as a flashlight). I bought several today.</p>
<p>We used to have an inexpensive cookstove that we were given for our wedding about 20 years ago but it broke during our last tidal wave alert & power outage. I guess we’ll have to replace it next time they have a sale – they’re about $20 or less & use a cannister of fuel. Good for simple heating & boiling water. Didn’t really need it this time, but it could be useful in an extended outage.</p>
<p>Starion</p>
<p>Damage estimates continue to climb–now at $73 million & counting. We are grateful that folks remained calm & cheerful throughout the earthquake, with the police being able to devote their energies to directing traffic. We have fortunately never had any problems with chaos, looting or unrest during outages or disasters and count our blessings.</p>
<p>The inexpensive butane canister cookstoves are selling out at a rapid clip in Hawaii these days. I’ll probably wait for the next sale, as I only use it about once every 5 years or so. Fortunately our power outages tend to be infrequent and of short duration.</p>