# 5 miles from 6.6 Earthquake



## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

In case some of you have not tuned into the news or heard the radio recently, The big Island of Hawaii (and the state) was hit by a 6.6 earthquake around 7 this morning. It hit off the coast no more than 5 miles from where I live. It sucked.

7 am - I feel a slight rumbling, quite common on a volcanic Island. However, this time it was not normal. The shaking got worse. I felt the ground shake thundorously below my feet as I scrambled out of bed to the nearest doorway. Crashes and baging and rumblings were all I could hear besides my mom yelling "Get underneath a doorway!" from the living room. Apparently my dad woke up too, 'cause he came running out of my parents bedroom not quite awake or clothed. I quickly threw on some shorts and a shirt and grabbed my panic-stricken corgi-terrier mixed muts Xena and Otis. Both were trembling almost worse than the quake.

7:15 am - My family is downstairs, after another 5.something quake, with all three dogs in hand. My stubborn 15 year old dog is still upstairs, not wanting to come down (our house is on stilts, you see). Up the street a neighbor's german shepard got loose and collided with a little boston terrier in the middle of the cul-de-sac. There was a lot of screaming as the terrier was shaken round like a rag doll. I think it's okay though. That was scarier than the actual quake. A real, from-the-heart scream is blood-curdling...
After inspection of the posts, there appears to be no structural damage. Yay. We heasitantly go upstairs after waiting for more aftershocks. No power, we still have water. My dad and I are on the porch listening to the radio for any details. While my mom is clearing the kicthen.

-Assumed 6.5 earthquake 6 miles southwest of Puako
-No power, not sure for how long
-people calling in the radio station asking about the football scores, where to get food, interviews with various state officials.

10:30 am - My mom has cleaned up most of the glass in the kitchen. Lots of small shards and debris still left until we get power to vaccuum it up. I start to clean my room (about 5 inches of water sloshed out of my 60p tank, I was going to clean it anyway). I notice our large 29 gallon in the living room has slid a full 6 inches to the left. The last 4.something earthquake hit while my dad was on the crapper. "Wrong time to be on this!" I heard him yell from his bathroom. My mom is taking a nap, she'll sleep through damn near anything. We're pretty sure that the aftershocks are done.

1 pm - Power again! Bless HELCO and thier stoic workers. 6 hours without power is nothing compared to some disasters. My 30" hdtv still works, but some of the image is distorted from when it fell. I'll call our local wal-mart tomorrow to exchange it (but apparently their roof caved in, so it might be a while). I watch the news for an hour before I fall asleep.

4 pm - I establish communications with my friends via messenger. Everyone's okay, but their homes are all shaken up too. I feel nausea and a headache, probably stress. The dogs are all fine. The house is near-normal again (thanks to my dad and his almost ocd superpowers) and the phones are back up. I'll keep you fellas posted on anything new that develops here in the Aloha State.

Notes: My mom has taken pictures with her camera phone for insurance reasons. I'll get to work trying to post the damage. Local shops have some structure damage and I can bet it'll be a day or two before the market 5 mins away is open. On the bright-side, I didn't have to go to work today.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Good luck to you. I'm glad to hear that you're ok. I'm betting some aquarium owners won't have been as lucky. A cracked tank in the middle of an otherwise bad situation just makes it that much worse.


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## sarahbobarah (Sep 5, 2005)

Wow, I'm also glad you made it through the whole ordeal with your family. For anyone who has never experienced an earthquake, it's more than just the actual "quake" that affects people involved. A lot, if not most, of the trauma is picking up the pieces of your life afterwards. 

I'm glad to hear that your animals made it through also. Good idea to keep them at hand. Too many pets get lost in the chaos of natural disasters.

Please keep us posted, and my prayers are with you.


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## SnyperP (Dec 10, 2004)

I'm glad you're okay. Things could have been much worse. I'm not big on prayers, but I'm sending out a prayer tonight for all those over in Hawaii. Hopefully everything gets sorted out. Have a goodnight!


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

Good to hear you're alright. 

That was something, this morning. They way it started off slow, and then got more and more intense. I've experienced some when I lived in Tacoma WA, but this was the biggest. And I am all the way on Oahu! Can't imagine one over 7.0

Oh yeah, the tanks are okay.

It was a crazy day. Not only did we have a quake, there is a big weather system over the island and have had flash flood warnings over night.

I work at an Art museum in town and coordinate a monthly "art festival" thingy. It was scheduled for today and even though we had the quake and the power went out, I head to the museum anyway. I arrive there at about 9:00 and make it downstairs to my office, only to find that the sewer overflowed and the entire basement is flooded! There I am, standing in "unclean" water, in the dark, trying to call people to not come in, but due to the fact that everyone has cordless phones these days, I can't get a hold of anyone. security is there along with the operations staff to clean up the stink, and I tip toe out of there. 

So no family fun day at the Museum. 

I go home and the power finally comes back on at about 5:30, cable and internet at around 9:00pm. On the news at 10, they say about 50% of Oahu is still without electricity! That's nuts!!!


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## aquariageek (May 27, 2006)

Good Luck to both of you and your families 

Sure is good to hear your tanks are okay!


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## Inspire91 (Jun 20, 2005)

sounds like a fun day with poop! 

hey we over here in HK got nothing until 12am, no lights, no internet, no cable...just darkness  12+ hours...yeah..my family was part of that 50% without electricity :-(...we were listenin to the radio and we heard that they got power back up to central oahu/pearl city 1st, and then eventually waianae...kapolei...and im like.."crap..theyre going the wrong way...we're gonna b the very last arent we..." so all in all a fun day of no-limit texas poker and listenin to the hits of 80's 90's and now ;-P


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## Inspire91 (Jun 20, 2005)

on a good note, not sure bout those people close to the epicenter, but...at least it was a side-to-side quake, not an up-down quake, those are hella scary and dangerous!


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Glad to hear you're ok. I've never been through a quake, and don't ever want to. I'm in FL and I have friends who live in CA who say quakes are better than hurricanes. I can't agree, at least I know when a hurricane's coming. Good luck to all who've come through the quake and hope all your loved ones are fine.


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

Thanks for all of your support, I'm glad to hear others in the islands are all right. This was my first quake over 4, I've never seen things shake off shelves and counters like that.
I'm staying home with my dad to repair some support beams under the house and check for other problems. I've never seen 90 degree nails before . Thanks for your prayers and support.


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## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Its good to hear that all of you are ok, even better that no serious injuries or damage was done. I realize that even minor damage does suck. But things could be a whole lot worse. Still my heart goes out to all that had to go through the ordeal.


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