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TSUNAMI warning hits the islands...
 ...but that's not the reason i stayed home and missed the Makahiki at Kahoolawe. :-( Around 10:30 last night, during the weather report, the anchorman solemnly told the audience not to worry, but a 7-point-something earthquake that had just rocked Papua, New Guinea might result in a tsunami warning with arrival projected sometime at dawn the next morning. As, by that time of night it was clear that I was in no condition to go on a rough 4-day expedition to an uninhabited island with unexploded ordnance littered on it, the warning was just another sign from the universe that perhaps Kahoolawe this year was not in the cards for me. My brother on the other hand, felt that no measly tsunami would stop him from THIS rare trip, and we morbidly joked that the tidal wave might even get here just as the immersion ritual on the beach at Kahoolawe would be taking place. *chuckle* Said ancient ritual, incidentally, requires the participants to strip naked and plunge into the sea while it's still somewhat dark and the sun hasn't emerged from the horizon yet. Kanes (guys) on one end of the beach, wahines (gals) at the other. Alas, I would have found this quite cool.
As it happened, by the time my bro and dad (designated driver to the Makena Landing meeting site) got up to go, around 4:15 a.m., no tsunamis or even tsunami warning blasts (from those ubiquitous siren poles scattered all over the islands) were to be observed anywhere in the state. Later on during the day, I found this bulletin generated by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and I quote in part:
AN EARTHQUAKE, PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE 7.7, OCCURRED 16 NOV, 0742 UTC. COORDINATES: LATITUDE 5.0 SOUTH, LONGITUDE 153.3 EAST VICINITY: NEW IRELAND REGION , P.N.G.. EVALUATION: NO DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS. HOWEVER, SOME AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES. THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.
"Small sea level changes," eh? Great. I'll just crawl uphill only a few feet, then. That picture above (click for larger look) is of a building in downtown Hilo, Hawaii, which was devastated by a tsunami in 1960, the year of my birth. For some horrendous stories and lurid photographs, the terminally curious may peruse the archives at the Pacific Tsunami Museum's home page. (The website also has a Hilo Bay streaming video cam, which would be a boon to those who would ever want to witness a tsunami live and in progress... so long as you look while it's still daytime in Hawaii. *yuk-yuk*)
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