27 Feb, 2010
Anticipating a tsunami in Hawaii, evaluating quake’s toll in Chile
Posted by: admin In: Around Beijing| News
View from Hilo: Whales were very active | 6:01 p.m. ET
Don
Sullivan of Denver, Colo., was vacationing in Hilo when he was awoken
at 6 a.m. local time by tsunami warning sirens and forced to evacuate
to high ground. Sirens continued to blare every hour after than, he
said.
“The evacuation seemed smooth, but there were huge gas lines,” he said.
He
drove to a nearby scenic overlook about 100 feet above the beach, where
he had a good view of the tsunami waves as they arrived. The sky was
full of helicopters, he said, but there was no sense of panic among the
evacuees.
Two hours before the first wave hit, at about 2 p.m.
ET, Sullivan said “The whales (were) going nuts, very, very active,” he
said. Then, about an hour before that wave, only a single whale
remained in view. [He was] “About 100 yards out, young, looks like he
is confused, bobbing up and down, he is in trouble,” Sullivan said.
Then, just after 4 p.m. ET, the water receded with eerie calm away from the coast.
“The
beach line quickly (got) wider,” he said. A few minutes later, the
water rushed back in. “The bay (looks) bizarre, like a blender,” he
said. The churned up bay filled with dirty water, he said. There was
no sign of the struggling whale after the second wave, he said.
…(read more)
