October 16, 2006, 23:22
Hawaii shaken by an earthquake yesterday
We had an earthquake yesterday that hit around 7am, Sunday morning.
It went for around 20 seconds or so. I was in sleepy mode and I didn't think it was going to be a big quake so I didn't bother moving out of bed.
Maybe if it shook harder right at the start then I would have done something.
In Australia, I only felt one earthquake. Nothing much happens in Australia. It was only a really small one that lasted like 1 second where I saw the room move left.
Earlier this year in Hawaii, I felt one similar so when the quake yesterday came around, I thought nothing of it. But then it kept going.
15 or so minutes later there was a similar sized aftershock and that took out the power.
Power was out in my area of the island from around 7:30am and only came on late at night at 11:30pm. It was kind of disappointing as the radio reports said they expected all the power on the island to be back on by early evening.
Throughout the power-outage, LavaNet's internet service stayed online as we have backup power and run generator tests once a month.
Our customers in the outer islands (who didn't have power outages) were still able to use their internet service.
When power came back I checked to see if I had internet connectivity at home. Mostly to check the news. Disappointment as the cable light blinked constantly showing a lack of connection from Oceanic's cable service... And they expect us to use their digital phone service in cases of emergencies?
It made me realize that it's pretty important to have a standard phone service in Hawaii. And it helps to have an ISP which is dedicated enough to keep their servers up and running, providing uninterrupted service during a major natural disaster.
