Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Strikes Hawaii

Gxgolfer · October 15, 2006

Is everyone Ok????

I know we have a lot of Hawaii Members. Hope everyone is Ok.

(AP) HONOLULU An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 struck was felt across Hawaii early Sunday, causing a landslide that blocked a major highway on Hawaii Island, the Pacific Tsunami Center said.

Power outages were reported across the state and there were unconfirmed reports of injuries, according to the State Civil Defense. Problems with communication prevented more definite reports.

Gov. Linda Lingle said in a radio interview with KSSK from Hawaii Island that she had no report of any fatalities. She said boulders fell on highways, rock walls fell down and television had been knocked off of stands, she had no reports of building damage.

The quake occurred at 7:07 a.m. local time, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua Kona, a town on the west coast of the Big Island, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3, along with several aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8.

Blakeman said there was no risk of a Pacific-wide tsunami, but a possibility of significant wave activity in Hawaii.

On Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, there was some damage in Kailua-Kona and landslide along a major highway, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Center.

Officials were concerned there may be "structural integrity" problems at the big hospital in Kona in the Big Island, Lingle said. New patients were being accepted, but kept outside.

Betsy Garties, who lives in North Kohala, on the northern tip of Hawaii Island said she was lying in bed with one of her two young children when the quake struck.

"First I heard a rumbling. Then the house started to shake. Then broken glass," Garties said. She first stood under a door frame as safety experts advise, then found that too wobbly for comfort and ran into the yard.

"It was strong enough that it was wobbling, so you almost lost your balance running out into the yard," Garties said. "The house was visibly rocking."

Peggy Cardoza, an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant in Hilo, said she was at work when the earthquake struck.

"We just felt the ground shaking," Cardoza said. "We just stood here and watched everything shake."

Power at least partially knocked out on every island, said Civil Defense spokesman Lani Goldman. On Oahu, 95 percent of customers were without power, he said.

Authorities said some of the power outages may have been due to heavy rainfall.

samm980 · October 15, 2006

Wow, the initial headline I read was a small earthquake. I can't imagine living in an earthquake zone.

Gxgolfer · October 15, 2006

CNN is carrying the one station that's up. Supposedly no major injuries. Mojo sent!

easyyy · October 15, 2006

Reid and PMhacker!!! All ok?

alpha_pro · October 16, 2006

what a day, it hit a little after 7am. i woke up to my house shaking!! was the weirdest thing. im glad i got my power back on by 1pm. some people still dont have theirs and its almost 11pm!! and i just got my internet and cable back on at 10pm, its hard to do nothing for an entire day. and to top it off it was just on and off heavy rain too! i believe that nobody was killed directly from the quake, but there were a few incidents with candles. im not sure if anybody died from that though. it was an interesting day to say the least....im sure the other people from hawaii have their own stories...

oh and i hope that everything is fine tomorrow! i havent golfed for a while!

pm hacker · October 16, 2006

Reid and PMhacker!!! All ok?

Boy, what a crazy day!! Reid & I are doing fine. I slept through the earthquake only to awaken @1:30pm to find out that we had a statewide power outage and I was late for work because my alarm clock didn't go off. Reid & I reported for work and were in total darkness until power was restored to our worksite at around 7:30pm (HST). At this time power has not been restored to certain parts of the island which would explain why Reid hasn't yet posted. Much mahalo's to easyyy & Gxgolfer for your concerns. :drinks:

easyyy · October 16, 2006

Thanks for the good news. Great to hear. Scary stuff.

pitbull808 · October 16, 2006

Heeeheeheee...6.3...no way that sucker was 6.6 :cheesy:

Thank you for the concern guys. That darn earthquake woke me up. At first I wasn't sure if it was the Crown Royal I had from my birthday celebration the night before or something else. :cheesy:

It was a hard day at work from Russ and I. We actually had to really work! :cheesy: With the blackouts that were everywhere, there was a lot of patrols for us to do.

I didn't get my power back till about 12:30am last night. Cable wasn't on till this morning. Other then that, it's just another day in Hawaii today.

Again..thank you for all the PM's and phone calls! :drinks:

Placebo · October 16, 2006

Glad to hear you guys are ok! :drinks:

rok78 · October 17, 2006

I didn't get power until this morning, this is the first real chance I had to visit the site. Things took awhile with the electricity, but at least I don't live in a high rise. I couldn't imagine that. My aunt lives in a retirement condo, but luckily the owner was smart enough to make sure water was available to everyone, although the bathrooms wouldn't run.

But alls well that ends well, I had the day off and got to play some golf, isn't that a sign things are ok? Shot an 84 mainly due to 2 triple bogeys at Olomana.

Glad to hear the rest of the Hawaii WRXers doin ok too.