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[Slide : Text] [ Slide : Picture of helicopter, sky, Hawaii]
It was pretty incredible. One, there was a moment there when you looked up and it's a
beautiful day. And you're looking at Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and a beautiful, blue ocean.
[Slide : Picture of Billy Kenoi, Mayor of Hawaii]
But yet I've got to say you know, my stomach's been in knots for the last, you know, 18 hours.
[Slide : Picture of weather station] You know, because when you're charged of giving
the responsibility to protect the highland community, you know, any loss of life is one
too many. [Slide : Picture of helicopter, Hawaii]
And so you're there thinking, you know, what's coming? You know, is it going to be six feet,
20 feet, 40 feet? Is it going to be three waves, five waves, ten waves? You know, are
we going to lose, you know, 100 yards of coastline, 200 yards of coastline? It's the uncertainty
that really keeps you on your toes. When we flew up, you know the surge, you always hear
the, the mythical... [Slide : Billy Kenoi]
...the ocean's going to pull out, you know, and then it's going to come back and the ocean
pulled out. [Slide : Picture of river]
I mean Wailoa River, watching it suck out from up above.
[Slide : Picture of helicopter in sky, back to river]
And then there's a [black house ?] and we hovered, and we saw the ocean just pull. I
mean Wailoa River emptied, you know. And then we saw Coconut Island, right hon. Coconut
Island just exposed. [Slide : Billy Kenoi]
It just lifted up out of the ocean. We're thinking uh oh, you know this is it. But instead,
it was just... [Slide : Waves coming in, pictures of river]
...the surge. And then it surged again and then it surged back and then we were thinking
how many times and is it going to get progressively stronger? Is it going to reach a point where
there's going to be a wave? And we didn't-, there was no surge up in that helicopter for
the whole hour and a half almost two hours we were there. We kept thinking, oh, this
is it. So we were on edge the entire time. [Slide : Text]