Tsunami Scare

*the above was supposed to be a video. clearly i don't know how to post videos here yet. and i don't know how to fix it either. sorry.
 
I wasn't going to write about this since nothing really happened. But it became a pretty funny morning to me after the fact. So I wanted to share it with you.

I got a phone call at 4:30am from an unknown number. I ignored it. I seem to get a lot of calls in the middle of the night whether that be from wrong numbers or people on the east coast that forget about the time difference. Anyways, I ignored it, heard the beep for the voicemail, and decided to just check it later when I woke up. Well, about 10 minutes after the call, I got a text message from Rebecca that said something like 

"Have you evacuated? If so, call me when you can to let me know you are safe". 

That got me out of bed to figure out what exactly was going on. I listened to my voicemail, which was from Stephanie Beaty (a friend from Georgia going to school at BYU-H). Her message said something like .

"Hey, just wanted to tell you there is a tsunami warning for Hawaii. My boyfriend's dad works for the warning center, and he said they'll be evacuating Waikiki, north shore, and Kaneohe. My roommates and I will be driving to Mililani to get more to the center of the island...." 

Well, it was something like that. I don't quite remember it all, but it was enough to get me a little worried. Especially when she said Kaneohe, the city I live in. So I went and turned the tv on and found out about the earthquake in Chili and the tsunami headed for us. The news made it very clear that this was a serious issue, and not to take it lightly.

Let me first say that I was going off of about 3 hours of sleep. For some reason, I went to bed the night before at about 1:30am. So 1:30am to about 4:30am was all the sleep I had. I was slightly delirious. I started packing my bags. First I went for our bright blue case of important documents. I put it in a trash bag and closed it tight. I got a bunch of bottled waters and put them in a grocery bag. I also got an apple, granola bars, fruit snacks, and granola. A little random, I know. I remember thinking I should bring bread, but it would get smashed. So I decided granola was a good replacement. 

I started thinking about what else I didn't want to get ruined. I noticed my Michael Kors bag and decided that I would rather bring that along with me as opposed to my $7 Target bag that had my stuff in it. So I did a quick purse switch and then started looking for more things to bring. I grabbed a quick change of clothes just to have on hand, my earrings that Spencer got me for Christmas, and some cash. I thought as I walked past my computer that I wished it would get washed far far away. Luckily today is it's last day of use. New lap top gets in tomorrow. Definite reason to celebrate!

When I went to the bathroom to get ready I reached for my contacts, but then realized it had only been 3 hours since I had taken them out. And I just started using this new solution that says you need to let it sit in the solution for at least 6 hours. Just a side note, I HIGHLY recommend buying it. Anyways, I didn't want my eyes to burn off, so I went with my glasses. My whole thought process at that moment makes me laugh.

I posted something on facebook at about 5:30am saying something about evacuating. Soon after, I got a call from my friend here saying that I didn't need to, and that my house was in a safe zone. My house is far enough from the water and on high enough ground to not have to worry about it. I wanted to make sure from some other locals, so I left a message on a friend's phone asking what their plan was and advice on what I should do. Should I drive UP the mountain or through the tunnels to the middle of the island? Later, my friend who I left a message with has told me that she listened to it a couple of times saying how cute and helpless I sounded. I'm a little embarrassed about it, but again, I was slightly delirious. Another friend called and asked if I wanted to go surfing. That had me cracking up. He actually did go try to surf, but they were closing down the beaches. Crazy locals. He also assured me that my house was in a safe zone.

I decided to go get some gas just in case. My friend had told me she went to fill up around 4:45am, and the lines were already forming. So I went around 5:40am. I must have been in line for about 20 minutes, because at 6:00am I was pumping gas and the warning sirens started going off. I tried to get a video with my phone to catch the siren along with the long lines/chaos, but I guess it didn't save. Instead, I got the sirens going off again at 8:00am. They also went off at 10:00 and 11:00. 

All these details are getting a bit ridiculous. The tsunami was supposed to hit at 11:25am. I stayed glued to the tv waiting to see what would happen. Turns out, nothing did happen. I watched video on the Big Island of the water receding into the ocean like a white water river, so that was interesting, but not big waves ever came. At the end of the day I was a little annoyed that I had wasted my whole morning worrying for no reason and not getting anything done. I at least wanted to see a few big waves. Not anything damaging, but just something. Is that selfish and even heartless for me to wish for that? Probably. But I am grateful that there was no damage and no fatalities. We were in fact very lucky. I am heartbroken for Chile and continue to send prayers their way.

Maybe this post doesn't seem as funny to you as it was for me. I just think back and think of how tired and clueless I was. There were times when I would pace the house, look out the window, pace again, look out the window. I don't know why I kept looking out the window. It was just small things like that. And most of the morning I was just thinking how I just wished Spencer was there to make the decision for me. Remember how I react in stressful situations? That kicked in for sure. 

Overall I thought I did a pretty good job reacting to an emergency situation. What would you be packing if you were in a similar situation and running off of 3 hours of sleep?