Hawaii’s Big Earthquake on October 16th, 2006 - My Story
So, it’s not often that CNN and Fox News run a story about Hawaii all day. I’ve lived here for over a decade now and I’ve never seen the world pay attention to this state like that. Here’s what I have to say about last Sunday’s earthquake.
My family was staying in Volcano at the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC) within the national park. We had a three bedroom cabin we were sharing with another family - good friends of ours. There were 7 of us total, 4 adults and three children. Everyone was awake already except myself and my son. The shaking started just after 7 a.m. Most of us on the Big Island are used to earthquakes - they happen a lot, but usually are small and only last a few seconds. This one was big and lasted for a long time. 45 seconds I’m told. Since none of us expected it to last long we just stayed put. No one went for doorways or anything like that. I stayed in bed, my son actually stayed asleep, and everyone else stayed where they were. I won’t do that again - next time I’m going straight for a doorway.
My bed shook pretty good and the windows rattled in their frames. The TV slid across the counter. That was about it in Volcano. My husband came down to check on our house in Paradise Park after it and he said that a few videos fell on the floor and that was it. I wouldn’t be surprised if my earthquake-like son was really the cause of those videos being on the floor. 
So, here on the East side of the island not much happened. In Waimea, Hawi, and Kona, however, rock walls cracked and sinkholes shifted houses and foundations split and furniture was thrown about the room. It’s weird actually - usually we on the Hilo side get the damage from whatever is going on and Waimea, Kona, and Hawi are unaffected.
One neat thing is, my husband saw it coming. He was looking out the front door towards where the quake was centered. He saw the trees in the distance start shaking violently and opened his mouth to say “look at those trees” when the house started to shake. So, he saw the waves ‘travel’ through the ground before they made it to us.
Oahu lost power most of the day, while most of us on the Big Island lost power for only minutes. People on every island felt the quake - it was that big.
So, the earthquake was not big news for most of us in East Hawaii. Even so, the National Guard was going through my neighborhood this morning, looking for people with damage to report. I guess after Katrina the government has decided to go overboard.
We had a very violent thunderstorm on Monday night that was much worse than the earthquake, in my opinion. It lasted for 7-8 hours. We lost power for almost two days. Every telephone drop in my neighborhood was destroyed so we had no phone for almost 5 days and lots of people still have no phone. We had lightning hitting right in our yard numerous times and the thunder was so loud it literally shook the house like a 5.0 earthquake — every 30 seconds or so. It was terrifying. I got shocked when I touched my freezer, and one of my surge protectors melted. The storm seemed to have been worse near the coast and really centered right over 6th street here in HPP.
Quake discussion at Punaweb Forum
Recent Big Island Earthquakes Map
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