you, Mayor?”
The smooth, patrician voice of Mayor Carl Rutledge came over the line. “I was over at Pearl, so it’s lookingmore like fifteen minutes if the traffic doesn’t get worse, even with the police escort.”
“Who’s in charge there?” the governor asked.
“Well, I am, Ma’am,” said Renfro. “Vice Director Dennis is on Kauai, and there’s no way he can get back in time.”
“Renfro, what are we looking at here?” the mayor asked. “Is this going to be another false alarm?”
“Sir, you know I can’t tell that for sure. What I do know is that we lost contact with Christmas Island, including the tide
sensor, and the PTWC issued a tsunami warning.”
“Better safe than sorry, Carl,” Governor Kalama said.
“I suppose,” the mayor said, “but dammit, we’re already looking at a budget deficit. We can’t have this happen every year.”
“Sir, we should know more in a few minutes when the wave is supposed to reach Johnston Island.”
On the other side of the room, Rankin was talking to Pearl Harbor’s military liaison, an aide to the commander of U.S. Pacific
Command. The leader of the USPACOM was responsible for all U.S. armed forces over half the world’s surface.
“Lieutenant, we do have procedures for this—” Rankin began.
“But the last drill was for a three-hour window. Now you’re telling me I have about an hour?”
“That’s right.”
“Ma’am, do you know what it takes for a Navy ship to set sail? It ain’t like hopping in your Sea Ray and shooting out of the
marina.”
“How long would it take if you started right now?”
“Two hours, minimum. The engines aren’t even hot.”
“Look, I’m just telling you how much time you have. You can protest all you want: it’s not going to change. Plus, you need
to get all of the aircraft out of the coastal air bases. We’re recommending moving them to Wheeler.”
“Well, you see, that’s another problem: most of our pilots are out on leave or at ceremonies away from the bases. We can try
to get them back to base, but the way the traffic is moving, we’ll be lucky to get a quarter of them up in the air.”
Rankin scribbled a note about the military aircraft and handed it to Deakins, who had the responsibility for coordinating
with the civilian airports and seaports. He was on the phone with the chief of operations at Honolulu International, which
shared runways with Hickam Air Force Base.
“That’s right, sir,” Deakins said. “You’ve got about an hour before the wave arrives.”
“And the all-clear? When will that be?”
“I can’t say for sure.”
“Well, I can’t keep the planes circling forever.”
“Believe me, sir, we will let you know as soon as the danger has passed.”
“Flights are going to be backed up all day because of this, you know.”
“I realize that, sir.”
“Do we need to evacuate the terminals?”
“Not at this time. They’re far enough from shore to be out of immediate danger. We’re only concerned about the runways at
this point. But we recommend that you take everyone off the planes just in case.”
“What a headache. You better hope you’re not making us do all this for nothing.”
“And you, sir, better hope we are.”
EIGHTEEN
10:19 a.m
.
1 Hour and 3 Minutes to Wave Arrival Time
T wo minutes before the tsunami was expected to arrive at Johnston Island, Niles Aspen was on speaker phone in the ops center.
He and Brent Featherstone, the other scientist staying behind, were both biologists from the University of London. Kai had
wanted them on the line to describe the tsunami in case they lost the feed from the tide gauge, which was in real time. But
Aspen had a surprising source of information for them.
“Dr. Tanaka, to help educate our students, we have equipped ourselves with a video camera linked to the satellite network
to broadcast photos at sixty-second intervals. But we could change that to a real-time video
The smooth, patrician voice of Mayor Carl Rutledge came over the line. “I was over at Pearl, so it’s lookingmore like fifteen minutes if the traffic doesn’t get worse, even with the police escort.”
“Who’s in charge there?” the governor asked.
“Well, I am, Ma’am,” said Renfro. “Vice Director Dennis is on Kauai, and there’s no way he can get back in time.”
“Renfro, what are we looking at here?” the mayor asked. “Is this going to be another false alarm?”
“Sir, you know I can’t tell that for sure. What I do know is that we lost contact with Christmas Island, including the tide
sensor, and the PTWC issued a tsunami warning.”
“Better safe than sorry, Carl,” Governor Kalama said.
“I suppose,” the mayor said, “but dammit, we’re already looking at a budget deficit. We can’t have this happen every year.”
“Sir, we should know more in a few minutes when the wave is supposed to reach Johnston Island.”
On the other side of the room, Rankin was talking to Pearl Harbor’s military liaison, an aide to the commander of U.S. Pacific
Command. The leader of the USPACOM was responsible for all U.S. armed forces over half the world’s surface.
“Lieutenant, we do have procedures for this—” Rankin began.
“But the last drill was for a three-hour window. Now you’re telling me I have about an hour?”
“That’s right.”
“Ma’am, do you know what it takes for a Navy ship to set sail? It ain’t like hopping in your Sea Ray and shooting out of the
marina.”
“How long would it take if you started right now?”
“Two hours, minimum. The engines aren’t even hot.”
“Look, I’m just telling you how much time you have. You can protest all you want: it’s not going to change. Plus, you need
to get all of the aircraft out of the coastal air bases. We’re recommending moving them to Wheeler.”
“Well, you see, that’s another problem: most of our pilots are out on leave or at ceremonies away from the bases. We can try
to get them back to base, but the way the traffic is moving, we’ll be lucky to get a quarter of them up in the air.”
Rankin scribbled a note about the military aircraft and handed it to Deakins, who had the responsibility for coordinating
with the civilian airports and seaports. He was on the phone with the chief of operations at Honolulu International, which
shared runways with Hickam Air Force Base.
“That’s right, sir,” Deakins said. “You’ve got about an hour before the wave arrives.”
“And the all-clear? When will that be?”
“I can’t say for sure.”
“Well, I can’t keep the planes circling forever.”
“Believe me, sir, we will let you know as soon as the danger has passed.”
“Flights are going to be backed up all day because of this, you know.”
“I realize that, sir.”
“Do we need to evacuate the terminals?”
“Not at this time. They’re far enough from shore to be out of immediate danger. We’re only concerned about the runways at
this point. But we recommend that you take everyone off the planes just in case.”
“What a headache. You better hope you’re not making us do all this for nothing.”
“And you, sir, better hope we are.”
EIGHTEEN
10:19 a.m
.
1 Hour and 3 Minutes to Wave Arrival Time
T wo minutes before the tsunami was expected to arrive at Johnston Island, Niles Aspen was on speaker phone in the ops center.
He and Brent Featherstone, the other scientist staying behind, were both biologists from the University of London. Kai had
wanted them on the line to describe the tsunami in case they lost the feed from the tide gauge, which was in real time. But
Aspen had a surprising source of information for them.
“Dr. Tanaka, to help educate our students, we have equipped ourselves with a video camera linked to the satellite network
to broadcast photos at sixty-second intervals. But we could change that to a real-time video
Similar Books
