One door closes, another opens

Sunday October 15, 2006
6 a.m
Kristal wakes me up so we can attempt to swim in an outdoor saltwater pool. She checks the conditions and finds that there is no entry at that time.
7:07 a.m.
I have decided to rest a little longer on the pull out couch in the living room, Kristal is on the lanai drinking coffee and dad is in the back of the suite showering. We start to hear a slight rumble, like a suitcase rolling across the floor above, then there is a slight shaking. At this point Kristal is entering the suite and I am hoping out of bed. The hotel starts to shake violently making it hard to walk into the hallway. We head towards the back, I brace myself in the bathroom doorway and Kristal braces herself in the bedroom doorway so she can also call to dad. He gets out of the shower. The power goes out...Kristal and dad say they could still feel the building swaying...I was shaking too much to know if it was me or the building.
7:14 a.m.
Dad goes back to finish his shower. Kristal and I talking in the hallway, I'm still shaking. Then I remember hearing about aftershocks. Just as I voiced it we got hit again. Not as intense but close. Luckily we were already in the hall way by door frames. Again we had to call dad out of the shower....
7:20 a.m.
Kristal goes to check downstairs in the lobby and I hop into the shower. It is still dark but I just wanted to get clean and get out.
7:35 a.m.
power is restored and we immediately try to find the news channels....CNN and Foxnews were the only options. We were able to find out that the quake's center was six miles from us and we had just experienced a 6.6 on the Richter scale followed by a 5.8 aftershock. Plus Oahu had been hit with a 4.8 quake. I stated making phone calls shortly after but there was no success. All circuits were busy. I was finally able to text message Alexis and she was ok.
10:20 a.m.
The government was asking for no one to drive so we decided to take a walk into town. The first place we went to was a liquor store where the owner was standing in the doorway taking peoples orders. A good majority of their alcohol had fallen off the shelves and the store was a mess. We continued on...most of Kona was still out of power. Some places didn't have running water. But overall people were pretty calm. While out walking I finally got a hold of mom... I had been thinking all morning that she already knew about it and was worried sick..haha...she had no idea, which I guess is better since I was able to tell her I was ok before she heard the news.
1:00 p.m.
I took a nap and awoke to find 4 voicemails a few text messages and a person even called me while I was checking my phone. I returned calls including one from Mitch Webber at Channel 27 in Madison. He did a phone interview with me and it aired Sunday night. HE also got a picture from mom and Bob of me to display on the screen.
4:30 p.m.
Our plane was supposed to leave Kona but was delayed until a plane from Honolulu arrived at about 5:50 p.m. During this time Kristal found out their flight back to Wisconsin that evening was cancelled and rescheduled to Tonight (Monday).
7:00 p.m.
We arrive to a dark Honolulu. The earthquake had triggered something and caused an island wide black out for most of the day. Alexis picked us up.... the streets were dark, no stop lights but an occasional police officer directing traffic at busier intersections. We got home ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and played games by the candle light.
12:24 a.m.
I awoke to the fan turning on...17 hours after the earthquake my apartment got power.

I am including some pictures from our hotel in Kona...the top picture is part of the cracks the bedroom wall sustained from the quake. The two below are our kitchen and how all the cabinets and drawers opened and the other is the 4th floor balcony that has a steady stream of water cascading over the lanai (major water damage).