October 15, 2006, The Aloha State (of emergency)
A rather large earthquake in the range of 6.6 on the Richter scale struck a few miles off the north shore of the Big Island of Hawaii; Steve, our man in Honolulu (a/k/a Linkmeister) reports that he and his are fine and sends us this dispatch.
The Governor of Hawaii has declared a statewide state of emergency, and there are numerous power outages, road blockages and other damage. Hopefully there will be a minimum of loss of life. Hawaii, as Steve notes, frequently suffers volcanic activity, but a straight up earthquake is somewhat more unusual.
All we can do here is pray for the best, and wish everyone in Hawaii a hearty Pomaika`i.
Comments
Nearly 14 hours after the fact, there are still very few injuries reported (one broken arm, I think) and no major structural damage. There are plenty of rockslides and landslides on narrow twisty highways, though.
The Honolulu airport turned into a mess because of the island-wide power outage. TSA couldn't scan people, ticket agents couldn't check people in, planes couldn't take off, and airport washrooms turned really really awful. One devoutly hopes there's a lesson learned here: in a truly major disaster centered in Honolulu, either we have much better plans in place or we're screwed.
Posted by Linkmeister at October 16, 2006 2:55 AM
By the way, the Big Island regularly has earthquakes, but they're usually in the 1-2 range on the Richter and unfelt by the population. Kilauea is now in year 23 or something of its eruption; that causes earthquakes. This one was a shifting of the Pacific Plate, not a volcano-induced one; that's part of why it was so large (I think--your geologist may differ).
Posted by Linkmeister at October 16, 2006 2:58 AM