I've had one hell of a hectic morning. I woke up to the news from Japan and wasn't able to get in touch with any of my friends over there.
My mother arrived in Maui yesterday afternoon. I was texting back and forth with her on my commute in to work today as she was evacuated to the 5th floor of her hotel at 230am their time. After an hour, they let them go free but when she got back to her room, the bay outside her balcony was suddenly missing water. That made her panic and she spent another hour in center of the hotel complex, away from the water. The water came back without any destruction and she is fine but tired.
My sister-in-law and her family live on the south shore of Kauai and were awoken by the tsunami sirens at 130am. She chose to ignore them and go back to bed, even with a few frantic calls from me and my wife. My FIL is visiting them right now also. They are also fine and dandy.
My sister works for harbor patrol in Newport Beach CA and has been hearing quite a few stories from coworkers (it's her day off today) about the water rushing out of the harbor and breaking boats from their moorings. So far, no major surges coming ashore, just the weird receding water thing.
My condolences to everyone in Japan directly affected by this. I've seen some crazy stuff in my life, but those videos of cars, boats, and houses being washed away were just crazy.
I heard from my 2 friends there about a half hour ago that they are fine, but not much else...
