tsunami and hoolaulea

What a day this was! Got up at 4 am because we needed to pick up breakfast and get up to school for my 6 am shift in the band's malasada booth.

But the night before, at around 8:45 pm, there was a news flash that there was a tsunami advisory for Hawaii due to an 8.8 earthquake in Chile. There have been so many of these types of advisories in the past so I didn't take it that seriously (though we did stay up to hear the update at 11 pm, which still hadn't been upgraded).

When we were getting ready to leave, Ryan said to watch channel 7, KGMB news - we found out we were under a tsunami WARNING, which meant that it was coming at around 11:19 am. Our house would be ok since we are on high ground so we decided to head out, since the school is up on the hill too.

On the way, the radio announced that the Hoolaulea was still on. In fact we later heard that it was announced that people should stay off the roads, but if they needed to evacuate they could head up to the school since it was safe up there and we had food and drinks for sale! One tourist who came to buy coffee from the malasada booth said that his hotel announced to their guests that they could relocate to higher floors or get in the bus waiting downstairs to be taken to the Hoolaulea! Cool idea!

Darrell was supposed to stay off his feet and was going to just hang out in the car, but he wound up working in the malasada booth - serving coffee and then taking malasada orders on the front line. I usually work with the dough and was put to work transferring the risen dough to the frying racks. Way less strenuous than in past years when we had to roll the dough and get it into the press.

My next shift was to help the junior class with the Hawaiian plate in 'Akahi dining hall. Thought I would have kitchen or serving duty, but they put me as a scrip collector. Another cushy job, got to sit outside where it was cool, and sell plate tickets for three hours (though my shift got done early).

Though it was less crowded than usual, the area still seemed pretty busy. Got my haole brownies this year though and there was still food available at the end of the day. Also got to eat malasadas for the first time! Usually I'm working and by the time I'm ready to buy some, they're sold out or the line is way too long. They were really yummy, and I'm not usually a malasada fan.

Ryan "worked" a bit too - he got drafted to drive Aunty Germaine's truck from the booth to 'Akahi to bring the dough up to the booth. I was worried about his driving someone else's truck, especially since he had to back up and he's hardly ever had to do that. But he did good and impressed his friends (Kaala, Michael and Joel in the above picture). He also hung around with his friends Pili and Lauren (who got stuck briefly in the malasada suit). The band performed their "Rhapsody" music again and it was so nice to hear it; loved that show.

So it wound up being a pretty good day and disaster was averted, thank goodness. Could not believe all the people who headed to Pali Lookout though...it would never have even occurred to me to go there, either to literally "head to higher ground" or to watch the potential wave action.

Darrell and I both were a little relieved at not working for hotels now...we would have had to report to work at 3 am and take care of the guests, relocating them as well as our offices. Got to make malasadas instead!