Displaced Beachbums

I haven’t done a Flashback Friday in many months but FG’s homework assignment two weeks ago really got me thinking about a natural disaster my older brother, Benny, experienced 32 years ago ~ the anniversary date was yesterday.

Benny still lives in Hawaii but we don’t keep in close touch. When FG was assigned the following homework: Interview someone who has been in/witnessed erosion or a landslide; he was the only person that came to mind. We called him and FG interviewed him. Here’s his story:

On November 29, 1975, on the Big Island of Hawaii, Benny went camping with a bunch of his buddies. They rode horses into Halape Bay. At about 2 am, there was a 7.5 magnitude earthquake which of course woke them all up. It was the largest earthquake to hit Hawaii in over a century.

The quake caused the earth around the bay to split so they ran towards the cliffs but a landslide of falling rocks forced them toward the water. Unfortunately, within minutes of the quake there was a tsunami which hit the bay with two forceful waves. The first wave was 5 feet high and the second wave was 26 feet high.  According to my brother, as he was being pulled out to sea and under the water, he came to the conclusion his “time was up.” But then, it was like someone pulled the plug in a bathtub, all the water receded and he was able to come up for air. Unfortunately, two other campers died due to the tsunami.

I’m happy to report my brother survived the earthquake, landslide, tsunami and volcano eruption and is still living happily on the Big Island.

And FG got an A+ on the assignment.