Well, I'll do anything for a great story to add to a speech but realllllllly... While speaking in Hawaii all week, packing to leave Friday morning, I hear the sirens sound to warn of the incoming tsunami as a result of Japan's earthquake. Are you kidding me? A tsunami? I dash to the lobby of the hotel for more info, along with the throngs already there. The good news, I'm on the 4th floor of a civil defense approved building and the 4th floor and up didn't have to move, a small positive on the road to my first tsunami. The phones were out but not the TV or internet so I did what we all do in situations where we have no clue...the internet! The next thing I know I'm filling my bathtub with water (rationing for the week), I know, stop laughing, I wasn't.
I set my alarm for two hours sleep so I would be awake when it hit at 3:21am. And then I sat there in my hotel room, praying, hoping, wondering, reflecting and waiting. I'm happy to say I heard it but didn't see it as it was too dark but watched it on TV while 500 mph waves came in like a jetplane and took the whole ocean floor back out with it so even the coral reefs were exposed, fish and turtles washing up and back and all the sirens blaring.
The airport opened the next day in time for me to make my original flights. Hawaii was prepared, my hotel was amazing, The Fairmont in Wailea. The next morning they opened one restaurant and served all the guests a complimentary breakfast and I'm not talking a continental breakfast, I'm talking eggs benedict, pancakes, the real deal. People really do bond together in times of crisis and everyone was like one big family over breakfast. And me, the cockeyed optimist, hey, I've got great material for my next speech. How many of you can say you've been through a tsunami?
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