The phone calls started coming in around 2 a.m. and never stopped, said Sherri Drews of the KQNG Radio Group.
“By 5 a.m., I figured ‘what the heck’ and came to the station,” Drews said. “Stevie Hendryx was worse. She was getting phone calls from 1 a.m. and it never stopped.”
KQNG Radio, Fm 93.5 and KUAI 720 (Am) are the designated Civil Defense Radio Stations and was on the air from about 5 a.m. with reports and phone calls from residents and groups.
“I got a call from Mark Marshall, the CD director, around 2, or 3 a.m. and then, got on the phone to try and assemble the team,” said Ron Middag, the KQNG engineer. “We were going by 5 a.m.”
That was about the time Bonnie Rice of Bellingham, Wash., and Pam Bowles of Denver, Col. got their knock on the door at the Kaha Lani in Wailua.
“The clerks said we had to get out because there was a tsunami coming,” Rice said. “After they left, we got a phone call from the operator and then we heard the sirens.”
Rice and Bowles were in the company of Jim and Leslie Welden of Bellingham, Wash., waiting out the tsunami under the shade of a tree in the parking lot of The Home Depot.
“They have food, and a hospital nearby,” said Bowles. “The clerk said this is a good place to wait things out. We can always get a lounge chair from The Home Depot.”
Across the parking aisle in the shade of another tree, Mike Currier and Katie Caulfield of Olympia, Wash., were joined by people in their bridal party.
“We’re supposed to get married at 3 p.m. at Lydgate Park,” Currier said. “We’re staying at the Kaua‘i Beach Resort and they came by about 5:30 a.m. to tell us to evacuate.”
A member of the bridal party said through the wonder of texting, the group collected at The Home Depot parking lot and waited until Caulfield’s grandparents could join them from The Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club.
Dogs started barking at 6 a.m. when the CD warning sirens started going off, the color of the day pinking the night sky, birds rousing from the night punctuating the wail of sirens warning of the impending tsunami threat.
“My daughter was all excited about playing her first game,” said Kaua‘i Fire Capt. Colin Wilson who was reporting for duty at the CD Emergency Operating Center. “She was supposed to play at 8 a.m., but got a call the game was canceled.”
Acting Kaua‘i Police Capt. Mark Scriber said the Mid Pacific Institute baseball team, staying at the Hanapepe Neigh borhood Center, was probably evacuated around 1:30 a.m. when efforts started to clear the low-lying beach areas.
Scribner, along with other KPD leaders, were roused into action between 2 and 3 a.m. at the EOC.
Kaui Tanaka of the mayor’s office was making her way to the EOC shortly after 7 a.m. when the second warning siren sounded.
“People are parked on the grassy area near Opa‘eka‘a Falls huddled in their blankets after being evacuated from the low-lying areas,” Tanaka said. “The area had quite a bit of people.”
The Times Supermarket was pretty crowded, even at 6 a.m., Bowles said.
Wiley, along with co-host Mark Valentine, reported the Chevron gas station in Kapa‘a shutting down shortly after 7 a.m. due to the computer system crashing from all the drivers seeking gas.
Other reports came from Koloa where lines to the service station was impeding the evacuation from Po‘ipu, and a report from Kalaheo stated waits of more than an hour in traffic.
State Department of Transportation personnel and the Lihu‘e Airports security department erected roadblocks on Ahukini Road at the entrance to the Lihu‘e Refuse Transfer Station shortly after the first sirens went off.
“This is a bummer,” said Rachel Gehrling, a volunteer for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s monthly Ocean Count coordinated by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. “This was going to be my first Ocean Count, but I got a call this morning saying it was off.”
Ahukini State Park was one of 16 designated sites on Kaua‘i where Ocean Counts take place to collect data on humpback whales wintering in Hawaiian waters. The next, and final count of this season, is scheduled for March 27.
