Hawaii Earthquake

At the Time Machine studios when the clock read 7:07 AM, not too long after the sun rose this morning, an earthquake of 6.7 shook our tall stacks of CDs but did not knock them over. At first we thought that North Korea sent a missle into the sea near Hawaii due to a power outage immediately after the ground shook for what seemed like twenty seconds but could have been five seconds. The weather was overcast so there was no way to see a mushroom cloud. The phones weren't working up to speed. We were able to get a phone call to Oahu where the power was also out and the quake was felt. We knew for sure that it was a quake when an aftershock of 5.8 came shortly after at 7:14 AM and knew in our hearts that it was nature and not mankind that shook the islands.

Three felines that hang around were acting very odd just a minute or two before the quake hit. A Florida reporter with his fiance' witnessed fish jumping out of the water on the big island of Hawaii before the earthquake so there must be many stories around the island chain about the reactions of animals.

While most of the power appears to be out on all of the islands, we are fortunate enough on Maui that pockets of power have come back on. West Maui is shut off from East Maui due to Honoapiilani Highway being closed from a landslide that resulted in boulders landing on the highway. Other roads have been closed around the state, but details are still sketchy.

The top photograph has already appeared on network news. It was taken by Peter Orelup (KonaBoy) and he wrote in his Flicker blog, "This was taken this morning a few minutes after the big earthquake that rocked Hawaii. As you can see a large chunk of the pali at Kealakekua Bay gave way, and splashed down in the bay, sending up a huge dust cloud."

"We shook very violently here, and our local hospital is damaged, the highway has boulders all over it, and our power was just restored. Everyone I know here is ok and I feel very lucky for that, although we sustained some minor property damage. My thoughts are with all of Hawaii, and I'm hoping no one was injured or killed."

At this time, the airports are still closed. The authorities are letting the planes land but no planes are allowed to take off. This post will be outdated as more news comes from Hawaii and power is restored but we wanted to pass on what little we could. Naturally the power outage knocked off television and most radio stations were off the air. What radio stations were broadcasting after a half hour of the quake were just unattended radio stations with prerecorded programs that usually fill up the airwaves around the country on a Sunday morning like public service programming and relegious programming. The remaining stations that were on the air were satelite music formats. Once again, another example of where radio has failed us by cutting corners, a discussion for another time.



Although we were lucky not have any damage, there are many areas around the island chain that have minor to major damage being reported. Gov. Linda Lingle issued a disaster declaration for the entire state of Hawaii. Below is a photograph taken by Joseph Kaczmarek in Kihei here on Maui where people were waiting in line for food at a roadside chicken stand.


Below is a photo taken by Samalolo who resides on the island of Hawaii. It is one of many photos displayed on his Flicker site with this photo showing some of Kuakini Highway's damage:


No fatalities have been reported and no tsunami warning generated (the only action repored was a rise of four inches of water).