Surfers and fishermen noticed a tidal change that exposed reefs after yesterday’s tsunami, but no damage, injuries or severe flooding were reported on island, officials said. The only reported flooding was a 21/2-foot swell that flooded a parking lot at
Surfers and fishermen noticed a tidal change that exposed reefs after yesterday’s tsunami, but no damage, injuries or severe flooding were reported on island, officials said.
The only reported flooding was a 21/2-foot swell that flooded a parking lot at Nawiliwili Harbor, according to Mary Daubert, county spokeswoman.
Kaua‘i civil defense administrator Mark Marshall said there was no serious damage to boats in Nawiliwili.
“Some of the boats hit the bottom with their keels when the water receded, sort of jostled them around their moorings when the wave came through,” Marshall said.
The tsunami watch, which came shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, was issued in the wake of an 8.1-magnitude earthquake that struck near Japan’s northern coast.
Officials had nearly six hours — ample time — to prepare and determine how and to what extent residents needed to be warned, Daubert said.
The wave that ensued after the earthquake measured about 16 inches, smaller than the earlier prediction of about 6 feet, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tsunami waves can be small in the ocean, but can grow to greater heights once they come into shore.
Once the PTWC warning was lifted, local agencies still decided to send out an alert to residents.
At about 3:45 a.m., officials dispatched Ocean Safety Bureau lifeguards and Kaua‘i police on the shorelines to advise people to stay out of the water, Daubert said. The county also warned residents at 5:40 a.m. that though the PTWC announced there was not a destructive tsunami threat to Hawai‘i, residents should be aware of unusual currents beginning around 7:20 a.m. An additional alert was posted on the county’s Web site and the state civil defense posted a “crawler” alert on TV, which appears at the bottom of the screen, around 7 a.m.
About the time when unusual currents were expected to begin, Tom Brown was surfing in Makua, commonly known as “Tunnels.”
Brown, who noticed the waves grow from knee to shoulder high, said he and his friends had more momentum as they paddled across the lagoon to the beach.
Despite a friend on-shore watching with binoculars telling him he witnessed Brown riding the tsunami wave in, the surfer was skeptical.
“If I hadn’t heard about the tsunami, I would have just gotten in my truck when I was done and left, not really thinking at all about it,” he said.
The friend witnessed the reef go dry and then become quickly covered again with the tsunami surge, Brown said.
“I just happened to be there when it hit,” he said. “It didn’t occur to me, ‘This is a tsunami wave,’ or anything like that, it was a just a total fluke.”
Mark White, who makes lures for a living, was at Kukuiula Small Boat Harbor when he was surprised the water was unusually high.
“It was over the sidewalk,” White said. “I never heard anything about a warning, but I realized immediately it was a tsunami. So I moved my car to higher ground and then took pictures.”
While White was at the harbor, from approximately 9:30 a.m. to noon, the waves fluctuated by at least 6 feet, he said.
