# My mom just called me during an earthquake in Hawaii **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 15, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552 "2006-10-15T18:34:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/21 "2006-10-16T04:21:44Z")
Just got power about 30 minutes ago. No damage to our house, unless you count a crooked picture frame. Electricity being out all day was pretty much the only real bummer. The two shakes early in the morning had a way of waking you up! ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/22 "2006-10-16T06:52:59Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Oh, and Fern Forest, do check in when you guys get power again (I assume power in Puna/ Ka’u went out? Used too if you sneezed too hard. . .). [/QUOTE] Actually I live in Waikiki. I was born and raised in Puna. I had almost started a thread on the quakes is but the power went out as I was composing it. Ah well, I did manage to report it to the USGS. If I lived in Puna I wouldn’t have had to walk up and down the 14 fleights up and down 3 times. I was awake when it happened. Had to hold my tv and pc monitor to keep them from toppling over. My poor cat was freaking out trying to find a place that wasn’t shaking. Almost everything was closed. The convenience stores were allowing in a few people in at a time to pick up supplies. The lines were crazy. They did the calculations by calculator. Luckily I knew this little convenience store nestled in the side streets and I just walked in and bought what I needed. A few restaurants were open if they could at least cook something. Chinatown was bustling! They even had a few noodle shops open. Surprisingly with no traffic lights traffic was very light and everybody was being very polite but still moving easily. The busses never stopped running. And with their freezing AC it was a nice place to sit for an hour. Power is still out for places like Tantalus and Manoa. When it did come on in our area everyone cheered real loud. Earthquakes on the Big Island are very common. When I lived there in the 70s and 80s there were about 400 a month that you could feel. I was one when there was a 7.2. That one threw our house off its foundations. I remember a 6.9 when I was 3. Most earthquakes in the islands are weak. We did have a 3.7 last month north of Molokai that caused some gentle rocking I felt. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/23 "2006-10-16T07:02:06Z")
[QUOTE=AudreyK] We grew up listening enviously to all the East Coast kids who occasionally got snowed out from school, so I guess we’ve learned to take what we can get. 😃 [/QUOTE] Were you in school in the late 80s? I remember being sent home a couple times when power went out. Although they did make us wait about an hour before giving up. This earthquake would have occured in the bowels of the volcano Hualalai. It last erupted around 1800. They built the airport on the lava field. They must have known pretty quickly there would be no tsunami since they never sounded the sirens. The 1975 earthquake caused a tsunami because a large part of the land slumped a bit. It must have been a shallow one. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/24 "2006-10-16T07:06:44Z")
I keep forgetting to ask you guys this. I’ve been out of touch all day so what was the news on the quake like?. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/25 "2006-10-16T09:34:47Z")
The news reaching NZ of the quake showed the structural damage, one of our Iron Man competitors at Kailua-Kona somewhat freaked (he spoke of the sensation the ground was going to swallow him whole), and that the quake knocked out the baggage scanners in the airports. Pictures of folks in long queues, both at the airport and outside grocery and convenience stores. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/26 "2006-10-16T10:32:23Z")
[QUOTE=Fern Forest] Earthquakes on the Big Island are very common. When I lived there in the 70s and 80s there were about 400 a month that you could feel. [/QUOTE] _An average of 13 earthquakes a day!_ That might’ve made it hard to sleep. Darn. I’ve been to the Big Island a couple of times, and I’ve never felt even one. BTW—I was at the Royal Kona Resort last August, and that was one of the places on the news that was shut down. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/27 "2006-10-16T16:14:58Z")
Thank you **Ice Wolf**. Now I wish I had internet on my phone. Or my DS. Most quakes occur within Kilauea or Mauna Loa. I’ve heard that the Kona side is sturdier and so is less likely to feel them. We lived on Kilauea so we felt a lot. Since the island is fairly large I don’t see 13 a day as unlikely. But most of those you wouldn’t notice unless you know what to feel for and even then you’d miss if you were sleeping, driving, amorously engaged and other whatnot. Hmm, USGS just bumped up the quake to a 6.7 and the aftershock up to a 6.0. What’s weird is I didn’t notice the aftershock. I guess I was too busy being pissed about losing my power. ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/28 "2006-10-16T16:16:15Z")
[QUOTE=Fern Forest] I keep forgetting to ask you guys this. I’ve been out of touch all day so what was the news on the quake like?. [/QUOTE] Well, apparently some fluff-headed chick on FOX news was babbling on Chicken Little style about the island(s?) sinking 6.8 inches, because ya know, that was the magnitude of the quake. 😕 :dubious: Unfortunately, I turned the channel too late to catch it myself, so unless someone else managed to watch it… Other than that, the reports seem to have been more alarmist than anything else and they tended to emphasize that the state had been declared a disaster area and the long lines as people waited for supplies intersperced with that footage of a landslide and various cracked roads, boulders on the roads, etc. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/29 "2006-10-16T16:32:10Z")
[QUOTE=Fern Forest] Hmm, USGS just bumped up the quake to a 6.7 and the aftershock up to a 6.0. What’s weird is I didn’t notice the aftershock. I guess I was too busy being pissed about losing my power. [/QUOTE] Our place didn’t get electricity back on until 11pm! It was pretty frustrating that an earthquake that couldn’t knock pictures off wall seemed to knock out the ENTIRE island’s electricity. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/30 "2006-10-16T16:45:28Z")
Definitely alarmist. I’ve seen other channels than Fox talking about how the island is sinking, and they all like to talk about the power outages, and roads being blocked, and the airports being shut down. Frankly, I think the news drones are all secretly annoyed that the Big Island didn’t vanish in a gigantic Krakatoa-style blast. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/31 "2006-10-16T16:46:31Z")
A couple of my friends are out there on a vacation. He’s from HI, and she’s from the East Coast. In April, when there was lots of local coverage on the 1906 earthquake’s 100th anniversary, she was getting really paranoid about earthquakes and what could happen when the Big One hits. I find it hilarious that after all that, she travels thousands of miles away and gets slammed in Hawaii. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/32 "2006-10-16T17:14:55Z")
[QUOTE=Tragically Dip] There is no excuse for this. I am one hundred percent sure that my parents have never copulated, although I’m still working out the details of me and my siblings. In fact, I work under the assumption that neither parent has genitals. [/QUOTE] I got news for you sweetie… 😉 I’m glad your folks are okay. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552/33 "2006-10-16T19:40:43Z")
[QUOTE=Fern Forest] Were you in school in the late 80s? I remember being sent home a couple times when power went out. Although they did make us wait about an hour before giving up. [/QUOTE] I was finishing elementary school in the late '80s, on Oahu. My grandmother lived within walking distance of my school, and I was already home when the 1989 quake happened. The only times I can recall staying home from school due to a natural disaster were for hurricanes Iwa and Iniki. The last time we had a tsunami warning in effect, I and the majority of my classmates showed up for school. (I had a one-hour commute, and I’d heard about the warning too late to turn around and go home; I’m not sure why my classmates were there.) IIRC, that “tsunami” turned out to measure 1/2", or something. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-just-called-me-during-an-earthquake-in-hawaii/376552.md?page=1)