“Have you seen this girl?”
The saleswoman looked at it and shook her head.
“She probably took off. I’m leaving in a minute myself. Can you believe what they’re saying?”
“I don’t live here, so this all new for me.” Teresa headed for the door to continue her search.
“Yeah, but two hundred feet high? It’s scary.”
That stopped Teresa in her tracks.
“Two hundred feet?” she said. “What are you talking about?”
“That’s how big they’re saying the tsunami is going to be. It’s got to be some kind of hoax, right?”
Teresa thought about what Brad had said. “Oh my God! When he said it was going to be huge, I thought —”
“What’s that?” The saleswoman pointed at one of the TVs.
On one of the national feeds, the view had changed to a camera in a helicopter. It focused on the rocky black coastline. Two people could be seen waving to the camera from a cliff top high above the waves breaking on the rocks below. A graphic at the bottom of the picture said KA LAE, HAWAII, SOUTHERNMOST POINT IN THE US, LIVE.
“Turn it up,” Teresa said.
The woman aimed the remote at the TV, and they could hear the announcer’s voice.
“… should not attempt what you see these people doing. Again, we are looking at a helicopter camera shot of the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii, the first place where we are expecting the tsunami to make landfall. Our exclusive coverage comes courtesy of KHAI, whose helicopter was over the volcano at Kilauea for another story today. Apparently, two intrepid hikers have decided they wanted to be the first to see the tsunami and have chosen a cliff-side vantage point. They appear to be at least fifty feet above the water, so we’ll have to hope they’ll be okay. They have not responded to repeated requests to leave the area.”
The camera panned away from the hikers and to the sea. Nothing unusual was visible, but the announcer’s mood changed noticeably.
“What’s that? I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but we are having some technical difficulties getting audio from the helicopter. We do have reports coming in that several airliners over the Pacific have reported seeing waves moving across the water in the direction of Hawaii at an incredibly high rate of speed, but none of those reports have been confirmed at this point.”
The camera panned back down to the cliff. The announcer continued his inane narration but didn’t add anything beyond what they could see. The waterline had pulled back significantly from just a few seconds ago. The view shifted back out to the ocean again, and now they could see the first glimpse of white water far out to sea. It seemed to be moving slowly, but in just a few seconds it had moved much closer to shore. The camera continued to follow it, but Teresa couldn’t get a good sense of the size of the wave because there was no frame of reference.
Finally, the camera had panned far enough as it followed the wave so that the shore was in view, but without houses or other buildings for comparison, it still looked unimpressive. The two people on the cliff’s edge must have thought so, too, since they didn’t move.
But when the wave broke against the rocks, Teresa realized that they weren’t going to make it. She expected the wave to bounce against the rocks and reflect back into the ocean. Instead, it simply covered the rocks and continued to sweep up the cliff. Too late, the hikers realized the size of the wave and turned to run. Before they could get more than a few steps, the wave washed over them, and they disappeared as if they were ants being washed down a drain.
Teresa gasped, and the saleswoman started to cough uncontrollably.
“Are you all right?” Teresa asked.
“Swallowed … my … gum,” the saleswoman said between coughs.
Teresa ran out of the store, leaving the saleswoman to fumble with her keys, intent on locking the door to a store that would soon no longer exist.
TWENTY-FOUR
The established procedure of the tsunami warning system included notifying the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the U.S. 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. Offshore 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 in to 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 nineteen-yearold pilot named Matthew 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 had made all the required preflight checks and then took off from the runway that Hickam Air Base shared with Honolulu International. It only took him a few minutes to get to his designated patrol area along Waikiki Beach.
Off the coast of Diamond Head, Lani and Mia continued paddling alongside their two new friends. The view from this far out was spectacular. Lani was having a great time, but Mia was struggling.
After having paddled all the way to Sans Souci Beach, Mia had gotten tired and asked the rest of them if they could turn back. Although Lani was getting sore, she could have gone on awhile longer and was disappointed Mia had given up so soon.
The breeze had picked up, and the previously calm water now rocked their kayaks on undulating waves. At the rate they were paddling, their tired arms would take another half hour at least to get them back to their starting point on Waikiki.
Lani was surprised to see all kinds of aircraft buzzing around. Tourist, news, and military helicopters were everywhere—way more than usual.
Then she heard a small plane approach. It was flying parallel to the beach, almost as if it were coming in for a landing, but the runway was miles away.
“What is that guy doing?” Tom said.
“I don’t know,” Jake said.
“Is he going to crash?” Mia asked.
“No, look,” Lani said, “he’s just flying straight and level.”
“Then what’s he doing?”
As it got closer, Lani could hear words cutting in and out. She couldn’t understand what was being said. In between the words, there was nothing but static.
“It’s probably just some kind of advertisement,” Tom said.
“Yeah,” Jake said, “but the doofus’s speaker is broken or something.”
Lani heard a word more distinctly.
“Did he say
“See,” Tom said. “It’s probably
“Well, it’s not working,” Jake said.
The plane passed over them two more times, but they ignored the annoying whine of the engine and kept paddling lazily back to Waikiki.
