Tsunami 2011

I am not a professional blogger...that is for sure. I haven't posted since November but our life on Maui has been good since then. We have created great friendships, enjoyed exploring the island and when not having to work, we have relaxed on the beach. On March 11, we got a little surprise we have never had to deal with before...a tsunami warning. We were sitting down for dinner when we were about to turn the tv off and noticed a yellow ticker-tape message on the screen informing us of a huge earthquake in Japan and putting us on tsunami "watch." Our eyes were glued to the tv from then on...Abbie has been studying tsunamis since we got to the island by checking books out at the library and knowing her facts about them. She was so excited to experience a tsunami watch/warning that she said she couldnt' wait to tell everyone about it! At around 9 pm, we were put on tsunami warning. We had made plan since we were on the borderline of the tsunami evacuation area and we decided to not take a chance! After being worried about whether or not the Safeway or the Sharkey's (the local chuck-e-cheese type place) buildings would be safe, we put RJ to bed. Abbie stayed up late with her eyes glued to the television and fell asleep on the couch around midnight. Our plan was to head up the hill at around 2 am since the tsunami was supposed to get to Maui around 3 am. Before then, we had all of our important items and some clothes and food packed up in the car and ready to go (just in case). I stayed up and watched the news while Terry took a little nap because he had just gotten home that day from Washington. At 2 am we all got up, stuck the kids in the car and headed uphill. We parked on a side street and Abbie, Terry and James got out the lawn chairs and waited while RJ and I slept in the car. We listened to the radio and when Terry thought it was all clear, we headed home at around 5:30 am. South Kihei/Wailea didn't get hit but the water came up pretty far in North Kihei and in Kahului Harbor (at least 1/4 mile). There was some damage but not as much as in Japan. We pray for the people of Japan and hope they can recover quickly from this natural disaster.