Tsunami

Last night at around 9:00 PM we started getting calls and texts from friends around town saying that there was a really bad earthquake in Japan and that they expected a Tsunami to hit Hawaii at 3:00 am. We looked up videos of Japan and, as most of you, were shocked and saddened by the destruction.

We decided to head to Foodland grocery store with our friends Jozie and Tommy to check out the situation and get some provisions. It was pretty chaotic. The line was wrapping all around the store with people buying jugs and cases of water as well as stocking up on food.
A typical grocery cart - notice the Top Ramen and Vienna Sausages. Top priority.
While we were there, the town evacuation warning sirens started going off. Even the locals were getting pretty nervous at this point. It was an eerie sound and an eerie feeling. We caught it on this video:

Untitled from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

We didn't want to wait in line, so we went home and packed our car with what we had (Thank J&T for keeping us hydrated!)

We decided to go behind the Laie temple because it is higher ground and that's where a lot of people were headed. It was basically like a big tailgating party. We tried to sleep for awhile in the car, but it was super uncomfortable. At about 2:30 we headed up the hill to a cemetery/park that is right behind the temple. We lay under the stars and waited . . . and waited . . . and didn't really know what was going on. I guess it didn't do much damage because eventually we were given the OK to head home. Tan took this sunrise picture on the way home.

All schools and lots of businesses are closed today (we both had the day off already) so we're going to bed now. We are lucky that it didn't turn out to be much, although it was scary at the time. We are also happy that the airports will be up and running again soon, because tomorrow we head to Maui for the week! We will continue to pray for those in Japan.

Aloha