27 February 2010

Hawai‘i Braces For Tsunami

All of Hawai‘i is bracing for the tsunami that resulted from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile. With an ETA of 1105HST, Hilo would be the first area to be hit. ITO is the only Hawaiian airport to close, since it's rather close to the ocean. All other airports remain open, although the road leading to OGG is closed. HNL's "Reef Runway" is in the inundation zone, but according to the latest ATIS report it's open.

Air Tahiti Nui flight THT77 (NRT-PPT) was diverted to HNL as a preventive measure.

Update
The Tsunami warning for Hawaii was canceled by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at 13:38 HST. Only minor changes in sea level were reported.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only reason why ITO was closed was to assist in evacuating the Keaukaha residential area. That is a part of the Civil Defense' standard tsunami evacuation plan.

Anonymous said...

Anyone get a pic of Air Tahiti Nui? Would have been nice to see their colors at HNL!

sylvas808 said...

I got a pic as I was taxing to the gate in the interisland terminal, I'll try to get it uploaded