Utahns, other tourists in Hawaii act fast in preparing for tsunami

LAHAINA, Maui — When Wayne and Paula Birch escaped the cold of a Green River, Wyo., winter for a vacation in Maui last year, they expected to watch whales leap and take warm sunset strolls on a beautiful beach.

Instead, they got record cold and spent their vacation on the beach, huddled in blankets.

In January of this year, the Birches were playing golf in Palm Springs, Calif., when the area was inundated with mudslides. So Paula Birch approached her Maui vacation this year with a wary eye and a sense of humor.

"I said, 'You watch — this year we'll have a tsunami in Maui,' " she said.

Fast-forward to Friday, when a magnitude-8.8 earthquake hit Chile and generated a tsunami wave that lapped at Hawaii Saturday, generating fairly gentle swells of about 3 feet. Paula Birch heard the tsunami warning Friday night.

"I said, 'You really do have to be kidding me,' " she said Saturday. "People are telling me it's my fault."

The Birches are in the midst of a three-week vacation at a timeshare property on Maui's Kaanapali coast. Early Saturday, they stocked up on water and other staples and moved their car from its underground parking spot to an area uphill from their hotel. They waited out the tsunami from their 10th-floor unit, anxiously watching the beach.

"The water will go out, and I can see the rocks, and all of a sudden they'll go away (as the water rises), then they'll be exposed again," Paula Birch said shortly before the tsunami watch was canceled at 1:47 p.m. local time. "It's happened three or four times, and that's all, and I'm so happy."

She didn't mind spending most of the beautiful 80-degree day indoors, or begrudge the money spent on extra supplies.

"I would just as soon get all ready and panic and then be happy and relax, rather than have no warning and people get hurt," Birch said.

As waves began to arrive early Saturday afternoon at Hilo, on Hawaii's big island, waters quickly rose up to around 3 feet higher than normal, and then just as quickly receded, like a huge tub being filled and drained, over and over. Low-lying areas of all the islands saw repeated flows of up to 3 feet or so.

Bary and Jan Gammell of Midvale arrived in Maui on Tuesday night. After hearing on the news late Friday, local time, about the tsunami headed for Hawaii, Bary Gammell said he set his alarm for 6 a.m.