By Tim Wright for Hawaii Catholic Herald.
Three Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians from St. Joseph Parish in Hilo, Hawaii wait for the tsunami’s arrival with an unidentified companion, on the Wailuku Bridge in downtown Hilo on the morning of Feb. 27. The bridge is a safe viewing area about 200 feet above the ocean and set back out of the tsunami zone.
Parishes in and out of tsunami zones go with the flow
By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald
While the large tsunami waves predicted to hit Hawaiian coastlines Feb. 27 turned out to be much smaller and left no damage, local Catholics took the threat seriously. Many parishes canceled events and services, sent their priests to higher ground, and took other precautions.
The pastor of Christ the King Parish in Kahului, La Salette Father Efren Tomas, said that his parishioners convinced him to go to St. Joseph Makawao in upcountry Maui until the tsunami threat passed.
“Everybody was on their toes,” he said, since the parish is in one of the lowest areas on the island.
“They told me that during the 1964 tsunami the water reached the front of Christ the King. And people were picking up fish all over the place.”
A funeral set for that morning was rescheduled for two days later. Father Tomas also found the tsunami made for a good homily tie-in at the weekend Masses’ Gospel about the Transfiguration.
“I told of how I had to go up the mountain just like in the Transfiguration, but I had to go up a different mountain — Haleakala,” he joked.
The Feb. 27 tsunami warning for Hawaii was triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile. The first tsunami sirens went off at 6 a.m. and Hawaii residents in coastal evacuation zones were told to head to higher ground by 10 a.m.
The large waves predicted to roll in around 11 a.m. on the Big Island didn’t materialize, but water level fluctuations were noticeable on several islands.
One area of Oahu that was on “lock-down” as the tsunami time approached was Waikiki beach along Kalakaua Avenue. St. Augustine Church stands in the inundation zone.
“I had an attentive parishioner call me at 4 a.m. to warn me,” St. Augustine’s pastor, Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona said.
Both he and associate pastor Sacred Hearts Father Lusius Nimu went elsewhere during the warning period, and 7 a.m. Mass was canceled. But Father Akiona wasn’t too worried about church water damage because of the wave size predicted and the fact that there’s a building between the church and the road.
On the Big Island, St. Michael the Archangel in Kona kept up its temporary church tent — being used for Mass until a new church is built — but closed up the church property by 5 a.m. Pastor Father Konelio Faletoi opened the hall at Immaculate Conception Mission further inland in Holualoa for anyone who wanted a safe place to go.
Parish youth minister John Paul Nardelli said about 30 people came between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. St. Michael’s provided blankets, extra clothes for those who had evacuated in pajamas and robes, and breakfast and lunch.
In Hilo, which saw some of the most dramatic ocean changes, Malia Puka O Kalani Parish was closed because it was in the evacuation area. Its pastor, Father Joseph Hennen, went to nearby St. Joseph in Hilo, which wasn’t in the red zone.
Kalaupapa, Molokai, residents were evacuated to higher ground early that Saturday, according to National Park Service worker Randall Watanuki. In 1960, parts of the peninsula had been swept by a tsunami generated by an earthquake in Chile.
The Hawaii Catholic Herald also got reports of other parishes cancelling meetings, religious education classes and some morning Masses. The Diocese of Honolulu used e-mails, its website and Twitter to send out updates during the day.
Parishes well out of the tsunami evacuation zone carried on as usual and were sometimes the go-to places for parishioners living near the ocean.
St. Jude Parish in Kapolei sits safely on a hill, and parish secretary Caren Argenzia says that the church parking lot was packed by late morning with parishioners’ cars.
“People had their chairs and coolers set up and they were just waiting for the all-clear sign,” she said.
The St. Jude’s bathrooms were open for the tsunami tailgaters, but the church was otherwise occupied. That’s because Richard and Amanda Evans were getting married at 10:30 a.m., about a half hour before the first tsunami waves were predicted to hit Hilo. The Evans didn’t get their centerpieces because their florist shop was closed, but their wedding Mass and reception at a nearby Chinese restaurant went on with no other tsunami complications.
St. Jude’s pastor, Father Joseph Diaz, in his wedding homily pointed out that the Evans’ would have a truly memorable wedding day.
On the Big Island, Edwina Fujimoto was leading a “Life in the Spirit” seminar for youth and young adults at St. Theresa Parish in Mountain View, well situated on higher ground. Two attendees were late because they made the mistake of joking to their parents that they wanted to go wave-watching instead of to the seminar. They were promptly grounded and not allowed to head to St. Theresa until around the time the tsunami warning was canceled at 1:38 p.m.