Boyd Morrison - The Tsunami Countdown

Hundreds of thousands had heeded the warnings and evacuated to high land all along the coast. Frightened masses hunkered on the sides of Diamond Head and inside the protected crater itself. The mountains were lined with people. So many had retreated to the confines of the Punchbowl National Cemetery that no room was left for helicopters to unload the people they rescued from skyscrapers, remote beaches, and overturned sea vessels.

Tripler Army Medical Center was filled to the brim with evacuees from other hospitals on lower ground. It received one helicopter after another dropping off the injured, a makeshift triage station set up on the grass next to the parking lot.

With little safe flat ground left, most of those rescued by helicopter were taken to Wheeler Field, a ten-minute round trip from Waikiki, not including the time it took to get people loaded and unloaded. It was possible Kai and the others had been picked up by another chopper and been deposited there. Possible, Reggie knew, but not likely. He had practically given up when he heard about the collapsed building.

Reggie’s cell phone rang. He forced his eyes away from the TV and looked at the caller ID. He didn’t recognize the number; it had a California area code. He flipped the phone open.

“Hello?”

He was shocked to hear the voice on the line.

“Reggie, it’s Rachel.”

“Rachel!” he shouted. When he saw others in the office staring, he brought his voice back to normal. “Thank God you’re all right. Kai was …” Reggie hesitated, not knowing how to tell her. “I’m not sure, but—”

“Kai’s fine.”

“He is? I mean, that’s fantastic—”

“We’re all in trouble. We’re still in Waikiki.”

“You’re together? Where?”

“No. I’m on the roof of the Grand Hawaiian. He’s on the roof of a white building about a mile northeast of me. I can reach him by walkie-talkie. We need a helicopter. We don’t have time to run away on foot, and both buildings are shaky. I don’t know if they’ll stand up to the next tsunami.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get something to you. What’s the name of the building Kai’s in?”

“He doesn’t know what the cross streets are or what the building is called, but he said there’s a boat sticking out of the tenth floor.”

“God, I saw that on some news footage a few minutes ago. I’ll find out where it is.”

“Please hurry. We’ve only got a few minutes until the last tsunami, right?”

“I’ll hurry. But Rachel, the next tsunami isn’t the last one.”

“What?”

“I got word from Alaska about twenty minutes ago. Tell Kai the last tsunami will arrive at 12:37, and it’s going to be three hundred feet high.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Rachel? Are you there?”

“Just get someone here now, Reggie.”

She hung up.

Reggie left the office to find Colonel Johnson. He was on his cell phone in the next room. He snapped it shut as Reggie approached.

“Colonel, I need your helicopter again.”

“Mr. Pona,” Johnson said, coming around his desk and putting on his jacket as if he were getting ready to leave. “I’m sorry about your friend, but the building is gone. There are other people to evacuate—”

“He’s alive. I just got word.”

Johnson stopped. “What? Where?”

“Waikiki.”

He shook his head. “Mr. Pona, I can’t—”

“Look, if it weren’t for him, none of us would be standing here right now. You, me, your family, for God’s sake. We’d all be dead.”

“It’s not that. That chopper is on the other side of Oahu. It’ll take at least fifteen minutes to get back to Wheeler and unload.”

“Damn!”

“Do you have that kind of time?”

“No. Don’t you have anything else?”

“Look, I’ll send out an alert, but I can’t promise anything. It’s absolute chaos out there. Most of the choppers are running low on gas, and Wheeler is overloaded trying to refuel them all.” When he saw the pleading look on Reggie’s face, Johnson said, “I’ll see what I can do. But you might want to find another option.”

“Thanks,” Reggie said, looking around for ideas. He wasn’t going to give up now that he actually had a chance to save them. Who besides the military would have access to a helicopter? Then he glanced through the office window and saw his solution. He ran outside.

Lara Pimalo, the CBS reporter who had broadcast from the PTWC, was just outside the building where Reggie had his temporary office. As thanks for evacuating him, Reggie had let Pimalo and her cameraman ride in the Humvee to Wheeler after they had abandoned the station’s truck.

She looked like she had just wrapped up a report and was holding her microphone lazily at her side, but when she saw Reggie she gestured to the cameraman to start rolling. Reggie put up his hands to stop her.

“I’m not here to be interviewed,” he said. “I need something.”

“You need something from me ?”

“You have a CBS helicopter over Waikiki.”

“Well, we rented it from a sightseeing company. Cost a mint too.”

“Kai Tanaka is stranded on top of a building in Waikiki. Do you know the reporter in that helicopter?”

“There’s no reporter in it, just a camerawoman.”

“Kai found his wife and daughter.” Reggie had told her about Lani and Rachel on their ride to Wheeler.

“They’re all alive? That’s incredible.”

“But now they’re stranded, and the military won’t give me another helicopter.”

“I don’t know if I have that much pull.”

“He gave your station something no one else had. And now he has one of the best stories to tell the world about this disaster.”

Pimalo exchanged glances with her cameraman. Reggie saw the hesitation, but he knew the phrase that would push her buttons.

“Ms. Pimalo,” Reggie said, “how would your network like another exclusive?”

12:12 p.m .

Third Wave

Afew minutes after Rachel hung up with Reggie, a helicopter that had been flying along the coast angled over. “Your friend is fast,” Paige said to Rachel. Rachel was surprised and impressed at Reggie’s feat. The sightseeing chopper, one of the AStars popular with the tourists in her hotel, had Wailea Tours painted on the tail. It set down on the Grand Hawaiian roof, and Paige and Rachel ran over. Next to the pilot sat a fit woman who aimed a professional video camera at them. Rachel knew she looked bedraggled after her swim in the elevator shaft, but she didn’t care what the camerawoman shot as long as the helicopter took them off the building.

“Are we glad to see you!” Rachel said. “Reggie must have gotten through to you.”

“They did say something about a Reggie,” the pilot said. “The station that hired me called to tell me to pick you up. You’re lucky. I was about to head over to Portlock when we got the call about you. Hop in.”

“Wait. There’s more of us.”

“How many more?”

“Five, including three kids.” Rachel looked at the helicopter’s cramped interior. “One of the adults is pretty heavy.”

“That would make ten altogether.”

“Can you get us all in?”

“This is only a seven-person chopper, including me. I might be able to squeeze more than that in, but one or two of you will have to stay behind.”

Rachel didn’t like the sound of that, but she guessed that he was being conservative. They’d deal with that when they were all on the roof.

“Fine,” she said.

The pilot looked around the empty rooftop. “Where are they?”

“We need you to come with us.”