Tsunami on the Hanapepe

SUBHEAD: There were three tsunami waves that came up the Hanapepe River on February 28th.


 By Kathleen A. West-Hurd on 7 March 2010 for Island Breath -
 (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2010/03/tsunami-on-hanapepe.html)

  
Image above: The first tsunami surges up the Hanapepe River towards the rear of Robert's Department Store at 1:00pm about 18" high. Photo by Kathleen A. West-Hurd.

The tsunami generated by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on 27 February 2010 took till the afternoon of the following day to reach Kauai... but it did reach us. I was able to capture 2 “tsunami” surges going up (right to left) the Hanapepe River below our house in Hanapepe Heights.

The river drained noticeably prior to each surge… although the tide was supposed to be incoming. (Pictures of the first wave were taken at 1pm and 1:35pm (high tide should have been about 3pm). One report I heard was that the official measurement was approximately 18”…which is consistent with my photos.

 
Image above: The second tsunami wave moves up the Hanapepe River towards the Swinging Bridge (far left) at 1:35pm. Photo by Kathleen A. West-Hurd.

The third ”wave” we saw at 6:15pm looked like it was the same size and moving at the same speed. This one was not widely reported and was long after the all clear was sounded before 3:00pm.

 See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: There went the wave 3/1/10 .