East Coast Kahuna

Two Close Calls

I just returned from a trip to Hawaii on 10/12/06. I came back through Toronto and drove back to Ithaca. It turns out that I missed the major unseasonable snowstorm/blizzard in the Buffalo area by just a few hours. It was raining in the area as I drove through, but I didn't imagine snow was coming later. On 10/12, they broke the one day snow record in Buffalo, getting over 8 inches of snow - but this was followed immediately by another record breaking day of an additional foot of snow. The NY State Thruway which I drove back on eventually had to be closed down. I was fortunate that I left Hawaii on the 11th instead of the 10th, since there were major thunderstorms that I missed on the day before I flew out. But there was even more that I missed in Hawaii...

Today, I heard about the earthquake on The Big Island (Richter scale 6.3 magnitude) and the massive power outage to Oahu, where I was visiting. I would not have been able to get out easily. I mainly traveled at this time of year to try to minimize weather related problems. Thank goodness for internet streaming - I am able to watch KITV's news coverage (going on right now). I'm actually more up to date with information than my mother who lives in Mililani (they haven't had power for the last four hours or so). The Hawaiian Electric representative said that the power shutdown in Oahu was an automatic system for safety. They are carefully checking the power grid and bringing things up slowly.

posted by tjh14850 @ 5:09 PM