On March 11, 2011,

Arguably the strongest earthquake ever recorded struck 43 miles off the shores of Japan. 東日本大震災, the Great East Japan Earthquake, created tidal waves 133 feet high in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, damaged a nuclear reactor at Fukushima, and shifted the whole island of Honshu 6 feet eastwards. "The World Bank's estimated economic cost was ~$235,000,000,000.00". (Wikipedia)

I was fortunately almost 4,000 miles away from this incident. However, the aftershocks across the Pacific plate created a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on the island of Hawai'i. A quake I didn't even notice until relatives started messaging me at 3:00am. But, even in Hawai'i we were affected by the destruction wrought by this mega-quake. The tsunami wave quickly raced across the pacific, and eventually made it's way to the Big Island. On Hawai'i we recieved some of the higher tidal waves in the islands. Storefronts were washed out, restaurants left just a pile of chairs and sand, and the King Kamehameha III Hilton Hotel was now a home to beached sharks. The beach was left a dredged muddy mess, consisting of none of the white sand that lay there only hours before. Worst of all was the damage to the roads and piers. The wave struck with such force that the concrete of the road, the sea wall, and the cruise-ship pier was shattered.

Worst of all, our excursions for the rest of the trip were cancelled. We were due to go diving, but that of course didn't happen. Also equally annoying, we went to a Mexican restaurant that day for lunch. The supply trucks hadn't been able to go anywhere due to tsunami warnings, so they were short on Beef, Chicken, Alcohol, Tea, Sodas, and Cheese... So... I left. Go eat at Kona Brewing, a much better restaurant and brewery!

Having made a lot of contacts and friends abroad, especially in Japan, I feel for those who lost their lives or lively hoods because of this event. It's effects were far reaching, and devastating.  This was just my piece of information for the future. All photographs within the "Island of Fire" Hawai'i gallery are within a week of these event, all photographs of Kailua-Kona are of just two hours after the tidal wave surged through.