wierd day

there's nothing like getting a knock on your door at 5 in the morning, waking you up and hearing a voice firmly say "sorry to wake you up so early, but there's a tsunami that's going to hit the island". After frantically helping the boat club move some of their canioes and seeing the traffic starting to get bad on the only one lane bridge heading out of the valley I started to get worried about what this really might mean. There might be some situations where waiting in line at a packed gas station to fill up your tank might be smart in a crisis, but where is anyone going to drive to on a little island, especially when the bridges go out? I think it just shows how crazy people can get and where their priorities are. I tried to ask as many questions as I could about how bad this could really get and worst speculation I got was that all of the lower areas of the island could get covered and not only flooded, but everything wiped out. Everyone north of us had to evacuate and we thought our property would become a hotspot for the displaced, and I guess it is the designated disaster relief location on the north shore, so we began to mentally prepare for what that could entail. Many things went about as usual during the morning. We had a rummage sale at the church and them men had their weekly breakfast conversation. But my anxiety was rising and as soon as I could I went back to the house, filled up some jugs with water and sat, glued to the tv, watching intently for the first surge to hit the big island south of us.

Well nothing ever really happened. I actually stared at the tv until I fell asleep and when I woke up it seemed to all be over and the speculation was just an overestimate. I guess the big island to get about a 3 foot rise in sea level for a time and I don't know wha that entails. But overall it seems as though the islands caught a big break. Some people were pretty scared, and others seemed calm and even a little excited to see what was going to happen. Now that it's over I am wondering if that sort of a thing is like getting a tornado warning back home. Tornados are scary, but I feel like I'm more familiar with the idea and although I've never experienced one, I feel like when they do occur in the midwest there isn't this widespread panic of a huge catastrophy (I appologize for my ignorance and generalization if anyone has had more experience with tornados and disagrees with me). But what I felt here thinking that a wall of water was going to crash against the island at any moment and we might have a widespread disaster, was so different from the types of dangers that I am used to. But maybe a local resident would feel that way to be in MN when there's a tornado or thunderstorm warning.

It was a beautiful day today. It was hard to switch mindsets and get out of looming crisis mode and back into a normal state. I feel mentally exhausted. I thank God for sparing the islands and the people that could have been hurt, but I mourn and pray for those and their families who lost their lives in Chile and are still dealing with the aftermath. I feel as though I know nothing of real pain, fear and loss when I hear about such terrible events. I am so young; and I don't mean my age.

z