Tsunami Evacuation - Feb 27th, 2010

After the Earthquake in Chile a Tsunami Warning was given for Hawaii. We were given the choice as to evacuate or stay put but the bridge to and from Ford Island would be closing and once we made our decision there would be no changing our minds. We would either be stuck on the Island or stuck off of it for the remainder of the day. We had planned all morning that we were going to stay home and ride it out but at the last minute Sterling's boss called and convinced him that we needed to leave. I didn't want to go, but what an adventure it turned out to be.

Lady tied to Ursula's van

We went up to Aiea Trail State Park, along with all the rest of Oahu. We had talked to our neighbor earlier that morning and that is where they had planned to retreat to. So once Sterling decided we were leaving we thought we should go find them.

The kids thought they had gone to Heaven. There were trees and all kinds of things to climb and collect, sticks to make swords out of, bugs to be found. What could be better than that?
(Pictured in the tree: Emma Pratt, Philip Keith, Paul Keith On the Ground in Blue: James)

Emma, Philip, Paul, Daniel working on their "boat"

This was the view of Ford Island from the park we were at. It was pretty "voggy" so you can see the bridge pretty well but Ford Island isn't very clear.

Philip, James, and Paul what more could you ask for?

Did someone say we were evacuating and we should be worried about something.. cause this is pretty fun!

They were up in the tree for over an hour.

How many different ways can YOU hang in a tree?

Once they finally came out of the tree it was on to the bug hunt. James found this baby praying mantis. It was pretty neat.

Daniel, after being in the tree for hours came down to get some water. He is clearly all sweaty, it was a pretty warm, humid day. Daniel can't resist making faces for the camera. You can see behind Daniel all the 72 hour kits and games and food stashed in our truck to ride out the evacuation process. We weren't sure if the tsunami was going come and if it did if it was going to be bad enough to get up to our house. We didn't know if we were going to be allowed back to our house so we had enough stuff to last it out for a while. We did learn a few things that we need to add to our evacuation list and we were blessed that the tsunami didn't come. For now we just call it a day of adventure and a good trial run if we do ever need to be ready in a short amount of time.