Your stories from the Hawaiian earthquake

As a native Seattle Seahawks fan in Hawaii, we had just awoke to watch the game. All of a sudden the biggest shaker of my life. It started with when St Louis scored that first TD. A 4.6 shake shake shake, break then a 4.2 shake shake shake and break.... should you run out of a 10 story building in Waikiki.? Oh no here it comes again....a 6.5 LONG shake shake shake shake holy shit!! Never felt one like this. Thought now what??? Time to grab some shoes and the six pack from the fridge (it is Sunday football after all) and run.......again shake shake shake (I think a 2.5 or so). There were 10 total spread out over about 5 - 8 minutes. Certainly the 6.5 was the worst and most scary, but it was hours before we felt safe to really stay in the building. Power out for 17 hours (just now back on) and worst of all sounds like I missed one hell of a Seahawks game. No power anywhere and it wasn't on the radio, but I did have cell reception for awhile, so my dad was calling with the play by play and telling us that there was not a Tsunami warning so far. In the end yes all is well...funny thing about Hawaiians, ANY occasion is a reason for a large ass bbq. On the beach, in the street, in the park and in the yard. And there is no better reason for a large ass bbq then the power being out and thinking everything in your freezer might go bad. Can we say (or imagine) island wide BBQ!!!! Bring the meat from the freezer and find someone with a lit grill...yeah that took all of 3 minutes. Not to make light of our scary experience. But the people of Hawaii always end up treating everyone like they are family and especially in times of crisis......you are more than family. --Michele Dobie (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

Submitted by Patrick Bida Kitchen cabinets are flung open and glass bottles litter the floor in this picture submitted from Patrick Bida.

I live in Kamuela HI, on the Big Island of Hawaii, 15 miles from where the epicenter was located near Puako, Hawaii. At approx 7:07 Am Hawaii Pacific time Sunday we felt a major earthquake, it came in two large seismic waves and was continuous for approx 20 seconds. I was inside the master bedroom of our house, in which the damage was significant, electronics and furniture were thrown about easily, the TV was smashed along with other items by large closet doors thrown off tracks by fallling debries. As debris were falling I went to cover in a door jam to brace through the remainder of the quake. Kitchen cupboards flew open dumping contents, broken glass and personal items were everywhere, shelves collapsed and buckled throwing books and other household items about. Our house structure was intact but recieved minor damage to trim and exterior panneling. We recieved no injuries and are still missing a cat! I have lived in Hawaii my entire life and we have small tremors a few times a year. This is by far the strongest quake (also the only one to ever cause damage) I have ever felt in my 26 years in Hawaii. --Patrick Bida (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

On Oahu it was mostly a carnival ride, at least for those of us who have lived in LA. I was on the 20th floor of the Hilton on Waikiki just finishing breakfast when the floor began to roll. It seems like there was an aftershock only a minute afte the main shock. Freaked out the Europeans, but the Californians and the Japanese took it in stride. The power went off about 15 minutes later, I suspect form an automatic shutoff of the only power station on Oahu, Power didn't return until 10:12 pm. I didn't want to spend the day in the dark or with a thousand tourists on the Hilton grounds so I took off for the North Shore. No power anywhere on the island but the each was nice. --Maurice White (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

About 7 am sunday morning, i was getting out of bed as i felt the first one hit, it felt as if a very strong wind had pushed against the building, I was not completely awoken, but I could hear my wife saying "OH MY GOD", in japanese. As I was started to wake up, that is when i felt the BIG ONE. I quickly got out of my bed. I could see throughout my six floor apartment balcony window, all of Honolulu swaying from left to right, very violently. It was very terrifying to see other high-rise condos that tower over, and around me sway left, to right. It made a metal, iron, and concrete banging sound, as if some small airplane had crash somewhere near my apartment. The sound went on about 5 times. It was so bad it seemed as if my building as well as other buidings was about to break and fall. As i soon realized we should get out, i told my wife "put anything you can on and lets get OUT!!!". As we ran towards the front door, we could see everything in the kitchen cabinets as well as the things on the shleves, and the pots and pans, crash to the ground. Once we got to the door we saw towering Waikiki hotels, and condos, shaking and swaying. Once we made our way to the stairs, the shaking had stopped. We escaped the building safely. Following the quake we had a power outtage that lasted till 10:15 pm. --koa castillo (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

Yes, I was in Honoka`a, on the Hamakua Coast. It felt like the worst turbulance you can imagine on a twin engine plane. The noise was a deep rumbling and it lasted for over a minute and a half. I was just getting out of bed and I stayed where I was because all the things in my house went crashing to the floor and glass was breaking all around. My animals really were spooked and ran off and hid. The aftershock was pretty severe as well. My road to town is blocked by huge boulders. My cement foundation is cracked in several places and my sheet rock walls have two foot cracks. Tiles popped off the steps and sliding glass doors opened by the force of the rocking. A double wall oven came out of the built in cabinet and a pot bellied stove moved about eight inches...it was quite awesome. --Judith Chandler (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

I'm a student at the University of Hawai'i here in Honolulu, but I'm a California native, so earthquakes are the norm. I was very surprised to feel one here on Sunday morning however. My house felt very, very shaky and we lost power soon after. It felt so strange to have everyone in the same boat: without power and unprepared for this situation. I tried to live the day normally, but it was hard without a gas stove. My roommates and I tried to keep the food in the fridge from spoiling and got candles to prepare for the evening. I was able to attend church in the morning, which was held by lantern-light and was so wonderfully intimate that way. We spent the day reading and relaxing. I felt sorry for the tourists that had no food to rely on. I went into a convenience store at a gas station and it was so eerie; the shelves were either messy or empty and who knows if the clerk charged us correctly. I feel that as a people that live on an island, we should definitely be better prepared for emergencies. I know that tomorrow I will be going out to purchase food and water in case something like this happens again. It could have been much worse. --Aubrey MacLeith (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

I live in a senior housing building. The upper floors here had things flying off the shelves and there was no power from this morning until after 9 pm tonight. Our resident manager, Don Crescimano, went out and bought camp stove fuel and fixins to make stew and feed 75 people in our building out of his own pocket! The Aloha Spirit LIVES!! --Loretta Allen (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

Woke up this morning to a rainy day. So i just got dressed and went to church. During the middle of mass, i felt the benches rattle and thought a kid was jumping on the bench. I looked around and everyone was looking all over. I finally realized that it was an earthquake and a big one at that. Just as i thought it was over, an even bigger one hit and shook the whole church. People started yelling and running and alot of people left. As the 2nd cleared out another one hit and wow was everyone really shaken up. Amazingly enough there were still people at mass even though the earthquake had hit the power and everything. THe whole day people are goin crazy trying to find food and trying to pass the time because power is out to the whole state. Now powers back up after an amazing 15 hours. Wow what an amazing experience. --Matthew Chong (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

I was sleeping when the quake hit, the first one woke me up, and I finally realized what was going on when the main one hit and was followed by the aftershocks. I turned on the tv, but power went out about 5 minutes later. After making sure everybody else in the house was ok, I went back to sleep. Later in the afternoon I went to work at a grocery store where there was a a line of customers going down the block waiting to go in. We were already sold out of ice and most bottled water, whatever we had left would be quickly snatched off of our wagons as soon as we brought them out of our warehouse. By the time I got to our bottled water section, I barely had anything left on my wagon. All of this was happening as our store was running on our emergency generator. At about 5pm, we had to close as there was maybe only about 2hrs worth of gas left in our generator. The power came back on in the store at around 6pm, and was still on when our manager sent us home at 7pm. It is now 10pm oct. 15 and I guess the power went out again between the time I finished work and was eating at a friends house that has electricity and now because I am typing this from my laptop in the dark from somebody's wireless connection because it sure isnt mine. --Eric Leong (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

I live in Waikiki in a concrete building and we thought our ticket was up. We live on the 25th floor and ran all the way down the stairs with our dog to try to make it down before the building collapsed (it didn't thank goodness). It was terrifying - it is now 9:30pm and power was just restored. We cooked BBQ at the pool for dinner om a charcoal grill. It was fairly terrifying. --Jennifer Taylor (submitted on Oct. 16, 2006)

MORE FROM LIFE

Life Section Front

Gulf Coast residents stay put ahead of Ida   Dropout, 21, wins $8.55 million poker event Suicides raise worries about recession’s real cost Recession’s good news: Burglaries fall Trucker dies as rig plunges off S.F. bridge Obama marks win, but challenges mount Philly transit system running as strike ends Utah girl’s pierced nose brings suspension Jobless: 10 percent is tougher than it used to be Life Section Front   Add Life headlines to your news reader: