It had been a normal day in Hawaii. Clear skies, a few clouds over the mountains with a light trade wind blowing.   It was about 4 PM and I was on the rig working some DX on 40 meters into Phoenix, Arizona using a vertical antenna. I was using my trusty ICOM 746 pro with an amplifier using about 300 watts and getting through with a 59 report. Conditions seemed to be really good today on 40 meters as I had worked 20 meters earlier but it wasn’t great yet as 20 meters usually comes up after dark or near the gray line.

     Don and I had been rag chewing for about 10 minutes when my cell phone beeped indicating a text message. I was listing to Don, AA7DI, tell me about his station and didn’t look at the phone.  The beeping got on my nerves so I grab the phone and gave it a quick look as I was updating my log. It was from the Department of Emergency Management (DEM). I subscribe to the DEM for emergency announcements for the state of Hawaii. Normally I receive weather warnings, siren test, and some brush fire announcements. This text said an Earthquake had hit about 23 miles North East of the Bikini Atoll. A Tsunami warning had been issued for the Hawaii and it would arrive on Oahu in about 5 hours, 9 P.M.!

     Hey Don, we just received a Tsunami alert so I’m going to say Aloha and 73, AA7DI, this is KH6OWL, 73 and I hope to talk to you soon. KH6OWL, this is AA7DI, Good luck Darren and stay safe, hope nothing happens and I’ll be watching and listening, 73.   I turned my UHF/VHF rig on and tuned to the local repeaters.  The repeaters were quite so I turned on the TV and the local radio stations. The announcers were reporting a wave, as measured by buoys, heading towards the Hawaiian Islands. To make matters worse it was a Tuesday and the rush hour traffic was at a standstill due to a traffic accident on H1 West bound near the Airport.

     The Bikini Atoll is part of the Marshall Islands and has a population of about 4,500 and is a tourist destination for many.  The Atoll, or part of the Atoll - the Bikini Island, is also known for over 20 nuclear test but the name was popularized in the United States not only by nuclear bomb tests, but because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two-piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, when the name of the island was in the news.  Introduced just weeks after the one-piece "Atome" was widely advertised as the "smallest bathing suit in the world", it was said that the bikini "split the atome". The location of the quake could activate the dormant radioactive material of those test years ago adding another worry to the already devastation and death that would occur if this wave was as big as predicted.

4:15 PM (Local Hawaii Time)

Minus 4 Hours, 45 minutes

     Traffic was not moving; the emergency sirens were going off, radio and television were reporting what they had received from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) located in Ewa Beach Hawaii. The PTWC had issued a preliminary 8.4 earthquake about 50 miles from the Northeastern tip Bikini Island and about 10 KM deep.

The bands were coming alive with chatter. The Hawaii Emergency Amateur Radio Club (EARC) regulars were on the repeater frequency but so were a lot more hams. If the power grid went down the cell towers would soon follow and the hams that could talk on backup power would be vital to assist the State in communications. The possibility of a power failure was high if the Tsunami did make it to Oahu. The Electric power plants are all near water; most are within feet of the water. The plant on the west side is about 600 yards from the Ocean, the plant in Pearl City is about 200 feet from the water within the Pearl Harbor inlet and the plant on the East side is about a half mile from the waters edge. To make matters worse the sewage and water treatment plants are close to the water as well.  This could get ugly quick!

     Andy, KH7AA, came up on the net to start an informal net and took a roll call. Quite a few hams reported being stuck in traffic while others were just leaving work to find they couldn’t get home in a timely manner because of traffic. With 23 check-ins’, 13 were stuck in traffic and all were in the downtown Honolulu area.  The gas stations were overwhelmed with people trying to fill up their tanks and extra fuel cans, as were the propane gas filling stations.  Grocery stores were doing a brisk business but where planning on closing in 2 hours so they could get their employees out and home safely. Little did they know it was already too late. As the net started to take shape with check-ins the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) took over the frequency.

4:45 PM (Local Hawaii Time)

Minus 4 Hours, 15 minutes

     The DEM took a roll call to determine who was on the radio and what their location was and received 32 check-ins. Alan, KH6ASO, from DEM, gave a report that the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) were working to turn all lanes out of downtown in order to speed up evacuation. A mandatory evacuation was issued if you lived or worked in the Tsunami evacuation zone, an Urgent Tsunami Warning had been issued.  Alan let everyone know what the DEM was aware of and told everyone to charge batteries, stock water in bathtubs, check their equipment and to ensure their neighbors knew what was happening. About this time another set of warning sirens sounded. As radio operators reporting sirens going off, others reported hearing nothing in their area. Nanakuli, Mililani, Hawaii Kai, and Ewa Beach hams were reporting not hearing the sirens. Alan called the HPD to report this and HPD sent out police officers to inform the local population using loud speakers. The Governor of Hawaii, Governor Arnold Chow, was on the radio and T.V. stations telling everyone this was an immediate danger and everyone should take all precautions to prepare for an extended period of degraded public service. Governor Chow informed said that the Coast Guard and Air Force would evacuating their planes before the expected wave reached Oahu as the airfields were in the evacuation zone. This would enable a faster response in the event of a disaster.

     The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) Buoy System had just upgraded their system by installing more buoys throughout the Pacific and it was one of these buoys that had raised the concern of a Tsunami. A new report was due in at 5 PM and would provide a better update to the almost 1 million population of just Oahu alone and over 1.4 million in the state.

     Update: Accident cleared near airport, traffic moving but extremely heavy; emergency sirens going off every 15 minutes; hotels informing tourists and evacuating everyone below the 4^th floor to higher floors within the hotels; DEM standing up for 24 hour operations; police enforcing mandatory evacuations; both sides of H1 and H2 being used for West and North bound traffic.

An earthquake of magnitude 8.4 has occurred at 1655Z near LAT 18.4 S/LONG 168.0 E and 10 km deep. TWC states there is potential for a destructive local tsunami within 1000 KM of epicenter (The Hawaiian islands are approximately 1000KM from epicenter).

BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE

TSUNAMI IS EXPECTED AND THERE IS A TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII. REPEAT. A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS A TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.