Earthquake on the Hawaiian Islands!!

A week of exciting weather here on Maui! Our weather is usually pretty boring... highs in the 80's/lows in the 60's. Well, not this week! Sunday, October 15, I was awakened by a rumbling sound and the whole house shaking. I live in the back of a large house and my place is on stilts. The shaking was quite violent and the sound just as alarming. Jack was as freaked out as I was! This shaking lasted approximately 20-30 seconds, but seemed like a lifetime. Our power was immediately knocked out which made it difficult to find out what was exactly going on or what to expect next. I called my mom who did some research online. It took several minutes before she was able to get any information. There was one radio station on the air in all of Hawaii during this time, an a.m. station on Oahu. Thankfully my beach radio is battery powered! It turns out the actual quake originated about 9 miles off of the west coast of Hawai'i. Maui is the first island north of Hawai'i, and I live on the south western coast of Maui. Our power was restored several hours later and my fears were calmed after many reports assuring that there would be no tsunami! I have never experienced an earthquake before. My first thoughts were to go into my bathroom because that's what you do in VA if there is a hurricane. Thankfully it didn't matter because there was no structural damage to the house. Now I know to go outside away from the house or at the very least to stand in a doorway. It seems kind of obvious now, but at the time it was like, "what is happening?!"

We had a ton of rain this week and now they are warning of flash floods thru Sunday. My poor baby car is so soggy. My back window doesn't close on my convertible, so it's hard to keep the rain out. I haven't gotten it fixed b/c it rarely rains here. (For real, Hagen!) Actually, on the topic of my car.. someone tried to steal it a few weeks ago!! I had to have it towed to a garage and they removed whatever object was broken off in the keyhole of my ignition. Thankfully they didn't steal it or do too much damage!! I live in one of the safest areas on Maui!

Here are a few sites with info about the earthquakes here in Hawaii. All of the major damage is on the island of Hawai'i (the Big Island) so I am lucky to be on Maui! Thanks for all of your concern about my well being. Aloha!

http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=24387

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/10091734/detail.html

http://us.cnn.com/2006/US/10/16/hawaii.quake/index.html