Pellius,
I lived in Hawaii for a good long time and can recall about five or six tsunami warnings and the sirens warning eveyone to seek higher ground.
They weren't immediate warning but one such warning came while I was in the Ala Moana Shopping Center and they told us that we had about three hours until a possible tsunami hit that side of the island.
I immediately left Liberty House and started walking into Waikiki because the traffic was already at a complete standstill.
Some official told me to go back to the 2nd floor parking structure but I was determined to get into Waikiki to check on a very old relative who lived directly behind the International Marketplace.
By the time I reached Kuhio Avenue, it was a madhouse with stalled traffic and abandoned cars everywhere.
But instead of a panic, there appeared to be a party like atmosphere.
But still there were people stuck in cars with little kids; so I'd stick my head into the window and advised them to leave the car and go to one of the higher floors in any of the surrounding hotels or condos.
The folks with kids did that but the party revelers mostly said, "Shut up! Do you know if we can buy any beer around here?"
And a lot of those people left their cars and grabbed their surfboard and started heading to the beach to wait for the big one.
The big one did eventually arrive but it was somewhat like a very wide and very deep rolling wave .... kind of like a high tide with a super swift arrival.
It rolled over Waikiki Beach and into the beach front hotel parking lots which were lower than the beach so those parking lots filled up with foamy sea water and covered every car six inches over their tops. (I saw that at the Outrigger Waikiki.)
The only other damage that I personally witnessed was the grass and folage damage that occured at Ft Durussy when a dark gray, foamy wave swept over the beach all the way up to Kalakaua Ave. All that greenery was completely destroyed but the palm trees simply leaned over a little bit and then continued to act as though nothing happened. I didn't even see a fallen coconut. Just dead grass and shrubbery.
Another tsunami occured while we were living in a beach house directly across from the old dairy farm. Back the we had the option of staying in the house or leaving for higher ground. We elected to stay in the house but "camped out" around the brick fireplace having been told that that fireplace would be the last thing in the house that would be destroyed if a big one did roll through.
And the big one did come that night but for some miraculous reason it rolled up to the back yard door and continued to roll around the house and across the road through the dairy farms.
Once we felt we were safe, we went outside to check the damage and the road was impassable due to huge boulders strewn along the road and flopping fish.
We never could figure out what that wave never came into the house because it sue had the opportunity to do so.
Kind of like Madam Pele avoiding one home and taking the one directly next door.
Back then some of the pro surfers (Buzzy Trent for one and possibly Buffelo and Rella) had major studion contracts (or TV network contracts) to assault any major wave hitting Hawaiian shores for filming purposes.
And I am sure that Waimea Bay was full of surfers regardless of any effort to keep them out of the water.
Good to hear all is well. Do you expect any more warnings?
SOme Hawaii earthquake stories coming up if there is any interest/
