Tsunami Warnings and Flash Floods
Well we've had some pretty crazy weather events while we've been here in Hawaii. Last Thursday, March 4 we were sitting on the lanai doing online school when my mom texted me asking if we had heard about the tsunami warning for Hawaii? We had not. I immediately looked it up and sure enough there was a tsunami warning issued for parts of all of the Hawaiian islands, including the North Shore of Oahu. We weren't sure how to take it but we figured we'd better be safe and prepared just in case. An hour later I got a call from the owner telling us that we needed to evacuate because we were in the "Red Zone" of the tsunami warning area. So we each packed a small backpack with a change of clothes and headed inland for a few hours. The kids' reactions were varied. Kira said, "if I die in a tsunami, I want to have straight As!" and brought her computer. Mikey said, "If I die in a tsunami, who cares about my grades!!" and was careful NOT to bring his chromebook. ;) We cleaned up the house, loaded the cars and headed to higher ground and some Dole Whip at the Dole Plantation. By the time we had our ice cream and wandered the grounds for a little bit, they had canceled the tsunami warning so we headed back the the house and headed to the beach!
We have had downpours every single day since we've been here but this week it went to a whole new level. A level Hawaiians haven't seen for over 50 years! An intense, prolonged storm dumped over a foot of rain in less than 10 hours. Here on the North Shore roads and homes were flooded and parts of the Kam Highway were impassable. We had been out surfing at Ali'i Beach in Haleiwa and had been getting flash flood warnings throughout the day. We decided to pack it up and head home. We got home just before the worst of it. We had to drive through some flooded areas of the Kam Highway but all was passable still. An hour or so later we went out in front of our house and the road was flooding. We walked through the flooded areas to check out the damage. Our house is on a little frontage road called Ke Nui Rd, that runs parallel with the Kameamea Highway. Fortunately our house is built up a little and the driveway is sloped so there was no water up against our house but it flooded up to the gate and the road right in front of us was completely flooded. A few cars tried to go around the stopped traffic on the Kam Hwy and barely made it through. We were walking through floodwaters up to the tops of our legs! It was crazy! Fortunately no one was hurt in the floods but there is lots of property damage for sure.
By the next morning most of the waters had receded and drained to the ocean leaving the ocean stained a chocolate milk brown several hundred yards out. They say it will stay brown for over a week! That was 3 days ago and it is still a dark brown along all of the coasts near our house.
We have still found ways to enjoy Hawaii. We've still surfed and boogie boarded and body surfed but it's been mostly in brown water among lots of debris. Because the crowds have been so low with the weather, we were able to find parking at Waimea and spent several hours playing in the brown shorebreak there. A guy there told us if went underwater we could hear the whales and sure enough we could! If you ducked under the water and were really quiet you could hear the humpback whales singing off the coast!! It was so cool!
I've been spending lots of time with Isaac this week. I've been his designated school buddy and we've spent hours doing homework and getting everything finished for the end-of-term. After online school each day, we've taken our surfboards out and tried to catch waves at Castles, Chuns Reef, Ali'i Beach, and even in front of our house on a small day at Pipeline. (Jeff wasn't feeling well earlier this week otherwise he'd have been with us every day). In all the hours of paddling, I've only caught 3 waves but gotten a heck of a workout every time! Surfing is exhausting!! Isaac has caught dozens and is getting better every day. But you are always at the mercy of mother nature and here on the North Shore in March, it seems like there are either tiny waves or HUUUUGE waves. Not a lot in between. The small waves don't quite have enough oomph or speed to get up on and the huge waves are just plain terrifying! But we're trying everyday and learning and getting stronger every day. It's been so fun to be with Isaac. He has endless energy and doesn't want to sit still for long. Honestly, he probably gets a little of that from me so we're usually on the same page. Except as I'm getting older I don't have the stamina to keep up with him out in the water. At Chuns in particular, you had to paddle out several hundred yards to get out to the break and I was exhausted just paddling out! But we did see a giant sea turtle on our way out. I had to be careful not to touch him with my arm while I was paddling out, he was so close!
One thing we've loved is working on homework/work on the lanai. I'm sitting here now while I write this up. There's a little bar-height ledge right at the edge of the lanai that you can sit at and look out over the ocean and watch the surfers and whales while you work. The whales are amazing today! They've been jumping and spraying and splashing their tails over and over. Right off the beach from our house! It's incredible!
Comments
Post a Comment