The conditions at Wheeler Army Airfield were spartan, but Reggie Pona still had power for his laptop and an Internet connection thanks to the Air Force's backup electrical system. As soon as power had been lost from the island's main plants, the base's own generators had taken over.
Reggie had been able to outrun the first wave and had finally gotten in contact with Hawaii Civil Defense. In the chaos, HCD had gone 30 minutes before realizing that they weren't getting updates from the PTWC anymore. When they finally called the Alaska warning center, Alaska immediately took over updating the Pacific nations about further tsunami readings, including the
Once Reggie got in touch with HCD, they had him picked up by one of the trucks evacuating from Pearl to Wheeler.
Wheeler sprawled across the midsection of Oahu, at least five miles from the nearest shoreline. All air traffic that didn't have the fuel to turn back to the mainland was being diverted to Wheeler, since all of the other islands' major airports were situated only yards from their coastlines. In the case of Honolulu International, one of the runways actually jutted into the harbor, built on an artificial spit of land. Already, the Wheeler taxiways were jammed with Boeings and Airbuses from 17 different airlines.
Reggie shared space with countless other displaced government agencies, including other NOAA officials, the National Weather Service, FEMA, even the FBI. All of their offices were located in the heart of downtown Honolulu. Most of those buildings had already been inundated, and the rest would be in the next hour.
The only working land line telephones were reserved for the US military, and they were in short supply. The cell phone tower that his service linked to was still operating, and his cell phone had provided his best news of the day so far.
Reggie had listened to the message from Kai three times to make sure he had the correct information. He tried calling Brad's cell phone back repeatedly with no success. He had no way to know if the subsequent messages he left had been received, but it didn't matter. Unless he could get a helicopter to them, all the messages in the world wouldn't save them.
The number of helicopters available was not what it could have been. The sightseeing helicopters were ready to fly because they had been fully booked for the holiday. In contrast, many of the armed forces' helicopters were overseas, lacked pilots, or were destroyed by the tsunami.
The US Army helicopters were based at Wheeler Field and Schofield Barracks, both in the center of Oahu far from the ocean, but two regiments of the 25th Infantry Division had been shipped to the Persian Gulf in March, so most of their choppers were 5000 miles away when the tsunami struck. And the Marine helicopters, based at Kaneohe Bay, were practically on the beach. When the warning had gone out, the pilots had either been at ceremonies far from their bases or had been on leave for the day. Few had time to get back before the first wave hit and destroyed the helicopters as they sat on the tarmac.
The choppers that were left zipped all over the islands, not just Oahu. With thousands of square miles of shoreline and ocean to cover, even the combined forces of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, civilian, and tourist helicopters were stretched thin.
The evacuation had happened so quickly that coordination had been nonexistent. Only now was there some effort to parse out the available aircraft with some sort of organization. Even so, many pilots simply flew around looking for survivors who were still in the path of the tsunamis.
While he had been trying to find a helicopter for Kai, Reggie had also been hard at work in the midst of all this chaos. Not only did he have to keep the Hawaiian authorities informed of new tsunami activity, but he had to keep the rest of the Pacific apprised of the danger. During the emergency, confusion had reigned, so some agencies hadn't gotten the updates from the Alaska warning center, and Reggie had been serving as the local contact in Hawaii.
The PTWC was responsible for warning nations on half the Earth's surface about the coming waves. It still wasn't over for Hawaii, but it was just starting for 20 other countries and the mainland US, so Reggie had been talking with every major branch of the government, preparing them for what was about to happen. And the person from the government who offered the best possibility for a helicopter was standing right in front of him.
'What about islands like Wake?' asked Stuart Johnson, an Air Force colonel who was acting as the military liaison to all of the American territories in the Pacific for the duration of the disaster. 'We've got 200 contractor personnel stationed there.'
'Look,' Reggie said, 'Wake is way too flat for people to find any ground high enough to survive. The only thing they can do is get on a plane or a ship and get off the island.' He hoped that building whatever rapport he could with Colonel Johnson would help pave the way for his request.
'We're already doing that.'
'Then you'd better hope they're fast. The first wave will get there in about forty minutes.'
'What about Guam?'
'They've got a few hours left. If it has land that's over 200 feet above sea level, they'll probably be OK.'
'Probably?'
'Colonel, we're talking about a Pacific-wide mega tsunami. It's unprecedented in human history. This isn't an exact science. We're taking our best guesses with the data we have. But we estimate that the wave will substantially decrease in size as it gets farther from the impact zone.'
'Why? I thought waves could cross the entire ocean without losing much of its energy. You said that on an old file tape they showed on CNN 20 minutes ago.'
'Oh man. If you're confused, I can imagine what's happening on the mainland right now. That's for an earthquake-generated tsunami.' Reggie drew a crude representation of a fault on his notepad, showing waves issuing from it. 'It only goes in one direction, in a line. It's very focused. The waves from the meteor impact are in concentric circles, so the energy is spread out over the entire diameter of that circle. As the circle gets bigger, the same energy is spread out over a larger area, and the wave gets smaller.'
'So it'll be a lot smaller when it reaches the naval base at San Diego?'
'I wouldn't call a 30-foot tsunami small. That's still huge, but it's nowhere near what we're seeing on TV now. With the amount of time they have to evacuate, everyone should be able to get to safety before it hits.'
'Dammit! What a mess.' The colonel shot Reggie a nasty look, as if this were all his fault. 'I guess I have a lot of work to do.' He turned on his heel to leave, but before he got two step towards the door, Reggie shoved his huge bulk in front of him.
'Colonel,' Reggie said, 'I need a favor.'
'I don't have time right now.'
'You'll make time. My boss is stuck on a building in Waikiki. I need a helicopter.'
'Everybody needs a helicopter.'
'This isn't just anybody! He's the frickin' director of the PTWC!'
'I've got orders from General Lambert at CINCPAC that says our highest priorities are the major population centers. Besides that, I've got to warn every single base in the Pacific to evacuate.'
'But Waikiki
'Then the helicopters will get to them eventually.'
'Eventually?'
'Look, Mr. Pona, I'm sorry about your friend, but I've got my orders and so do my helicopter pilots. Excuse me.' He went around Reggie and into the next room, where he started talking with another officer.
Fuming about being brushed off, Reggie made another phone call, this one to the HCD. After less than a minute of discussion, he walked into the room with Colonel Johnson, interrupting his conversation.
'Pardon me, Colonel, but luckily I had another person who owed me a favor.'
'Look,' the colonel said, exasperated at Reggie persistence, 'I already told you I can't help you.'
'I really think you'd better take this phone call.' Reggie thrust the cell phone toward the officer. Colonel Johnson eyed it suspiciously.
'Why? Who is it?'
'It's the governor. She wants you to give me a helicopter.'
