As I type this, Hawai‘i and the majority of the Pacific are under a tsunami warning, as a result of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile last night.

Let me emphasize this: My family and I are fine. We live several miles from the nearest shore line. We also hoard Purell with Aloe (the green one), toilet paper (we buy it at Costco – don’t judge) and bottled water (also, hallelujah, Costco); thus, we are always prepared for a hurricane, tsunami or other natural disaster.

The biggest inconvenience at this point is that I had been hoping to catch up on some sleep last night. Of course, once we started getting tsunami advisories (around 9/9:30), that all went down the drain, and I was up ’til past 3:30 this morning. Oh, yeah, and State Civil Defense scheduled tsunami warning sirens to sound at 6, and they’ve been wailing every once in a while ever since. I live in a valley, so the siren is super loud. I feel like one of the castaways on “LOST” when the island time-traveled. (Thanks, Maura, for the reminder to check for nosebleeds.)

If Hawaiian Electric doesn’t totally collapse under all the stress, I’ll post an update after this all passes. Meanwhile, thanks for all the concern via Facebook, e-mail, text, etc. Please forgive me if I don’t return calls, as our phone system is totally overloaded right now. See y’all on the other side!

UPDATE @ 4:23 p.m.: It’s over. The tsunami warning has been canceled. Thanks again to everyone for their ongoing concern and support. Watching the water recede and replenish Hilo Bay again and again so quickly on TV was a little scary, but fortunately, because we had sufficient time to evacuate coastal areas and get total morons out of the water, it seems like everyone is safe. Experts noticed definite changes in water levels and other oceanic characteristics, but so far, there are no reports of damage. We got lucky as far as that’s concerned – no one could’ve predicted how that would go.

Now. If anyone can figure out how I get back my Saturday . . . ;o)