Today's Honolulu Star Bulletin :
Vol. 12, Issue 225 - Monday, August 13, 2007
...Expect hurricane, forecasters warn...Hurricane Flossie continued on a path that would take it south of the Big Island tomorrow, but forecasters urged residents of all islands to be prepared if the storm veers north....Packing 135 mph winds, Flossie was expected to weaken late today and tomorrow, but potentially destructive winds extend more than 100 miles from the storm's center, forecasters added. A Category 4 hurricane has sustained winds of 131 to 155 mph and a storm surge that raises seas 13 to 18 feet above normal, according to the National Weather Service...
I am trying to imagine what people on the island of Hawaii are thinking and doing about this predicted hurricane. I know they are taking in the furniture from lanais and maybe blocking some of those jalousied windows. They may be making plans to move to the more protected spots on the island. Hurricanes don't come to Hawaii that often-- the last one was in 1992.
But I do remember well a time in Hawaii when I was preparing for the worst-- it was The End of the World as predicted by some guru in India or near there. The Honolulu newspaper ran an obscure article about the prophesied cataclysmic event, and I had time to read such obscure items during times when the Coast Guard took my husband on patrol and left my infant daughter and me alone in our small apartment.
As the dreaded day loomed on the calendar, I spent more and more time wondering what T.E.O.T.W., if it actually came, would be like. On the one hand I was tormented in my mind that my tender little baby would be snuffed out before she had a chance to live a life. Also I worried that it would hurt and that it might take a long time for the hurting to be over. Would I die before she did -- and how could I prepare to make things easier for her? Thinking about all of that left me feeling incredibly helpless. On the other hand not thinking about it seemed irresponsible-- unfitting for a parent of a precious baby.
On the prophesied day of T.E.O.T.W. I kept as busy as I could -- making everything clean and neat, adjusting the furniture, and then I sat looking out the apartment window toward the city and the sea. When the baby went down for a nap, I got into my own bed but I couldn't sleep. I was hoping, I guess, that we would both be asleep for the event. Later on in the day I decided it was more fitting for us to be brave and that we would sit out on the lanai and be eye witnesses. After all, we were entitled, weren't we, to see our own demise?
We sat on the lanai until it was dark and time to come in. Maybe it would come at night. Maybe we could go to sleep after all. She did, and I finally did, come what may.
And obviously the next day the sun came up as usual.
That was in 1960. We lucked out that time.
Very likely the hurricane will pass through today and the babies will sleep through most of it. But probably not their mamas.
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