'Not at this time. They're far enough from shore to be out of immediate danger. We're only concerned about the runways at this point. But we recommend that you take everyone off the planes just in case.'
'What a headache. You better hope you're not making us do all this for nothing.'
'And you, sir, better hope we are.'
The established procedure of the tsunami warning system included notifying the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the US Air Force that flew search and rescue missions and other operations that the military and government didn't have the resources to do on their own. In the event of a tsunami warning, their duty was simple.
Off shore and in remote locations, it was likely that surfers and boaters would not hear the sirens. Helicopters and planes that were equipped with loudspeakers would fly over the coastlines broadcasting the warning. Each aircraft was responsible for a particular section of the coastline.
During past tsunami warnings, the CAP had met with moderate success. In many cases, the surfers would heed the warnings and paddle into shore. But there were plenty of others who just waved at the aircraft, obviously enjoying the chance to say they had surfed a tsunami.
One of the CAP volunteers, an eager 19-year-old pilot named Michael Perkins, flew a Cessna outfitted with a loudspeaker that he had installed himself. Although he had tested it extensively on the ground at Hickam, he hadn't had an opportunity to drill with it yet. The tsunami warning would be his first chance to try it in action.
He made all the required pre-flight checks and then took off from the runway that Hickam Air Base shared with Honolulu International. However, because he had not tested the loudspeaker in flight, he missed the minor mistake he had made in wiring it to the plane's electrical system. On the ground, with the plane stable, the system worked perfectly. But in flight, the vibration and maneuvers of the plane loosened a wire to the point that it contacted the metal of the plane and shorted out, rendering the loudspeaker mute.
Inside the cockpit of the plane, the roar of the engine and the wind made hearing the loudspeaker impossible, even if it was working. So Michael Perkins had no idea that his warnings to those in the water would go unheard as he patrolled his designated area along Waikiki Beach.
Chapter 18
With two minutes before the tsunami was expected to arrive at Johnston Island, Niles Aspen was on speaker phone in the Ops Center. He and the other scientist to stay behind, Brent Featherstone, were both biologists from the University of London.
Kai had wanted them on the line to describe the tsunami in case they lost the feed from the tide gauge, which was real-time. But Dr. Aspen had a surprising source of information for them.
'Dr. Tanaka, to help educate our students, we have equipped ourselves with a video camera that has its own separate link to the satellite network to broadcast photos at 60-second intervals. But there is absolutely no reason that we couldn't change that to a real-time video broadcast.' He gave Reggie the Internet address of the page where they would see the video feed.
Reggie typed it in, and they saw a picture of the Johnston Island runway, slightly disjointed because the frame rate through the various satellite and Internet networks was bogging down. The twin-engine supply plane carrying their five comrades was on its takeoff roll. In a few seconds, it lifted into the air and circled the island to wait until it was clear to land again.
Kai asked Reggie if he could record what they were seeing. In a blur of motion that was too fast for Kai to follow, Reggie started a recording application.
'Voila! This should provide for some interesting analysis later.'
Kai had already told Aspen about the loss of contact with Christmas Island. The British scientist seemed remarkably composed.
'Well,' came Aspen's voice through speaker, 'we have Charlotte and the rest safely away. I have to say, Dr. Tanaka, this is all quite exciting for us. Just what we needed to punch up our normal routine.' A muffled voice came through behind Aspen's. 'And Brent reminds me, we even have a thermos of tea to help us weather the storm, as it were.'
'Believe me, Dr. Aspen,' Kai said, 'I hope I'm wrong.'
'I don't know what more we could do.'
'You'll be our first confirmation as to whether were dealing with a true tsunami or not. You're on a concrete structure, correct?'
'It couldn't be more solid. You Yanks certainly don't mind wasting construction material. This is the safest place we can be within walking distance. I dare say it might be the strongest structure on the island by the look of it. We didn't bring any vehicles, of course.'
'How high are you?'
'I would say we're 30 feet above the ground.'
The camera panned around to show a wide flat roof, and then the jaunty figure of Dr. Aspen in a wide- brimmed hat, T-shirt, and shorts, holding a large phone to his ear as he waved to the camera. The voice came out slightly ahead of the image from the camera, so it looked like a badly dubbed foreign film.
'We are now moving the camera to the edge of the roof facing the ocean. As you mentioned, the tsunami should arrive from the southeast, so that is the direction that you will be looking.'
After a few more seconds of nausea-inducing wobbles, the camera came to a stop atop a tripod, with Dr. Aspen now out of the picture. A narrow road led away from the building, passing several structures before it petered out at the beach. In the distance, breakers could be seen curling over the reef that encircled the island.
'To give you a sense of perspective,' Dr. Aspen said, 'the two buildings you see directly in front of us are single-story wooden structures roughly 15 feet in height. I would estimate that the shoreline is about 500 yards away. That is about as far as we could get from the ocean and still find a strong building. I'd be quite surprised if the water even got this far inland.'
Another indistinct mumbling in the background.
'Brent thought he spotted a wave on the horizon, but it was just another big breaker on the reef.'
'Dr. Aspen,' Kai said, 'it's likely that the first thing you'll see is the water receding from the shore.'
'Right. We'll keep on the lookout… Wait a tic. I think I see what you're talking about.'
A second later, Kai could see it. The ocean had started to noticeably recede from the beach, visible even with the poor video. He had seen similar video and pictures from other tsunamis, particularly the Asia tsunami, but seeing it in real time was literally breathtaking.
'It's a spectacular sight, really,' Aspen said. 'It's like no ebb tide I've ever seen.'
Kai watched in wide-eyed wonder as the water went out. By the time it had withdrawn a couple of hundred yards, he expected the tide to start reversing and come back. But to his astonishment, it kept going out.
'Sweet Jesus,' said Reggie. 'It's happening.'
Dr. Aspen continued to cheerfully report what he was observing.
'I'd guess the water has gone out 1000 yards by now. Is this the kind of behavior you were expecting, Dr. Tanaka?'
All Kai could croak was, 'No.' This was beyond his wildest nightmares. Until that point, he thought Dr. Aspen's retreat to the rooftop would provide all the protection he needed. Now Kai clearly saw that the situation was dire, but he didn't know what to tell Aspen. There was nowhere else for him to go.
'The water has stopped receding, I believe.'
The video confirmed his words. The extreme ebb tide bubbled out past the reef. With better camera resolution, Kai would have expected to see thousands of fish flopping around on the newly exposed ocean bottom.
'My word, look at the birds.'
That got Kai's attention. It seemed like an odd thing to say considering everything else clamoring for
