Evacuate....NOW!

We were ready for bed at about 9:00 p.m. when the phone rang and Brother Inouye asked," Are you watching t.v.?" "You bedda turn it on!" When we did, we saw the unbelievably, horrible scenes of the destruction from the earth quake in Japan. Then they showed the tsunami. What a shock! Our t.v. gave a warning signal and said that we could have a tsunami ourselves because of where we were and how it would travel because of its speed and size. They told us it could travel the 3,000 almost 4,000 miles and reach here at 2:59 a.m. They expected 6 foot swells. We couldn't believe our ears. It could reach us here! We are 5 minutes from the beach and we would be wiped out. We were now receiving calls from ward members who were worried about us and how we would handle the situation. Brother Karratti came over and told us what to pack and he would pick us up in a little bit to car pool up to Koke. It is up in the canyon and would be safe. We started to pack the car and I said to Wally "What do we take when we don't have anything?" It was interesting to think about what we should take in case we had to be gone for we didn't know how long. We packed water, crackers, peanuts, pillows, blankets, t.p. and paper towels. We packed a flash light and found out later it didn't work. At about 10:00 the tsunami horns started to blow and we were told we had to leave right now. Our adrenalin was working over time. We called the elders to see where they were going and they said to Kalaheo to the chapel. We got thinking about it and told Brother Karratti that we would go to Kalaheo to be with the elders. We wanted to make sure they were ok and the building had a bathroom. Whew. We spent a long night in the car. There were lots of LDS tourists who came to spend the night at the chapel too. The tsunami warnings blasted every hour all night long. We kept the radio on all night to see how things were going. They had bouy reports all night long to let us know the progress of the water and the wave heights. Luckily there was no damage right here. We learned later that we have a reef around Kauai at this end and it slows the water down. A few harbors had some swells that damaged boats and Maui got water up in the streets. What an experience but we now know the importance of having 72 hr. kits even in the mission field. Originally they told us that the all clear would be given at 7:00 a.m. and we could go home. We started to go but the radio said that the all clear was extended to 12:00 noon. We had had it and decided we would try to go home. We got down to Ele' ele and we had to go back to Kalaheo because the road was blocked. We waited another 1/2 hour and decided to try again. Yea, the road was open and we went right home. My, oh my, home never looked so good.