The Tsunami Countdown

by Boyd Morrison

  “Are you kidding?” the younger woman said.

  “No,” Rachel said.

  “There’s water coming up, Sheila,” Jerry said. “She’s right. You may not have a choice.”

  “Can you swim?” Rachel repeated.

  “Just because I have a cane doesn’t mean I’m a cripple,” the older woman said. “Of course I can swim. If you kids had let us leave when I wanted to, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “This is Jerry’s fault!” Sheila said. “He’s the idiot who wanted us to stay.”

  “If we had taken the stairs like I wanted to,” Jerry said, “you wouldn’t be stuck down there!”

  “Shut up!” Rachel said. The last thing she needed was a bickering family. “What we’ll do is wait to see how high the water gets. If it comes into the elevator cab, you’ll float up and we can pull you out. If it starts to go down before then, we’ll have to figure out something else.”

  The water reached the bottom of the cab.

  “It’s coming in!” Sheila said.

  But the water didn’t stop rising. The level crept up the side of the cab.

  “How high is this going to get?” Jerry said.

  “I don’t know,” Rachel replied.

  “What if it comes over the top?

  “I don’t know,” she repeated. “Do you have a better suggestion?”

  He shook his head meekly.

  The water level had risen three-quarters of the way up the exterior of the elevator cab, but the water inside was still only two feet high, trickling in slowly through the doors.

  Paige appeared at the doorway of the elevator with Wyatt, Hannah, and Ashley.

  “Paige! Thank God you made it! Where’s Bill?”

  Paige said nothing, but the stream of tears running down her face said it all.

  “I’m sorry, Paige. I’m really sorry, but we need your help down here.”

  But Paige could only stand there, crying. The children started crying too.

  “Okay,” Rachel said. “You stay up there. There are three people down here. You can help pull them up.”

  The water kept rising. When it reached the top of the elevator, the water inside was only three feet high, still too shallow to float in. The seawater poured over the edge of the cab’s roof and across the flat surface, where it lapped at Rachel’s feet, drained through the emergency trapdoor, and filled the elevator at three times the previous rate. The rush of falling water was not loud enough to mask the screams of the two women trapped inside.

  FORTY-TWO

  11:50 a.m.

  22 Minutes to Third Wave

  When the second wave hit the Moana tower of the Grand Hawaiian, the swaying of the building had caused panic among the people still on top. The evacuation had been going smoothly, with a helicopter arriving every five minutes to pick up new passengers. At one point, an Army Black Hawk helicopter was able to pick up fifteen of them, including the men who were the most disabled. Now just a handful were left. Max leaned over the edge and saw the surface of the water flowing past the fifteenth floor. Rachel had not come back, and they had heard the collapse of the sky-bridge.

  Another tourist helicopter landed. It had enough room for the rest of them, including Bob Lateen, who had insisted on remaining until everyone else was gone.

  “Adrian,” Max said as they hauled Lateen into the chopper, “tell them to wait for a minute.” He hopped out onto the roof.

  “Where are you going?” Adrian asked.

  “Rachel should have been back by now. I’m going to check the stairs.”

  Max flung the door open and looked down the stairwell. He couldn’t make out any movement between him and the water a hundred feet below. He yelled down.

  “Hello! Rachel! Are you there?”

  No response. But the sound from the helicopter could have masked an answer. He closed the door, ran down two floors, and tried again.

  “Rachel! Are you there? Anyone?”

  Still nothing. Surely, if Rachel had made it, she would be climbing the stairs right now.

  Adrian opened the rooftop door.

  “Max, the pilot says they’ve got lots of other people still to rescue. He needs to go now.”

  With a heavy sigh, Max went back out onto the roof and got in the helicopter with Adrian.

  “What happened to Rachel?” Adrian asked.

  “I don’t know. She must have gotten caught in it. I shouldn’t have let her go. Okay, pilot. Let’s go. There’s no one left here.”

  They took off, leaving the empty roof behind them.

  *

  When Kai saw the ruined car jack, he was crushed. It meant another trip down to find a jack in another car. Of course there was no guarantee they would find one, and they would have the same time crunch getting it back here and getting Brad and Mia out before the building either collapsed or a third wave came in.

  By this time the water had reached its peak height. Kai could feel the water stop flowing away from the ocean and begin its inevitable slide back where it came from. Flooding Honolulu to a depth of 150 feet had taken less than three minutes.

  Kai felt something pulling on him. It was Lani. She grabbed his hand and pointed it and the dive light in the direction of the jack. He turned the light on his own face and nodded that he understood the situation. But then she did something completely unexpected: she patted the life raft and then pointed at Kai.

  He shook his head, thinking that she wanted to use the raft to float up to the surface. She focused the light on herself and made a wide gesture with her hands, mimicking the inflation of the raft. She then pointed at the girder and pretended to push it up.

  Of course! Leave it to a kid to think outside the box. She wasn’t saying that they should use the raft as a boat. She was suggesting using the raft as a jack.

  That’s my girl, Kai thought. He raised his hand and nodded. He needed a minute to think.

  The raft was attached to a CO2 cartridge, so it would inflate itself in seconds. Kai focused the light on the side of the raft. It was rated to hold eight people. That meant at least 1,600 pounds of displacement on the surface. Underwater, it was at least twice that. If it was placed in the right location, it might be enough to lift the girder.

  But there were also great risks with that plan. First, they’d only get one chance. If it wasn’t placed properly, the raft would inflate, pop out of position, and float right out of the building. Second, there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t burst if it was pinned in one spot by the girder. To make matters worse, the inflation would not be controlled. Once Kai pulled the trigger, the raft would inflate completely. If the girder fell off or the raft exploded, the beam might fall on any one of them, including Brad and Mia. They would be pushing their luck.

  Kai felt himself being pulled toward the ocean. They didn’t have much time before the water finished flowing back into the bay, leaving them high and dry. Once the water was gone, the raft would be ineffective. If he was going to try it, it would have to be now.

  The building groaned under the changing motion of the water, indicating that it only had a few minutes of life left. It wasn’t going to stand up to a third wave. The raft was their only option. Kai had to take the chance.

  Kai pulled out the dive knife and sawed carefully at the rope tied around the life raft, making sure not to nick the raft’s fabric. It took him about a minute to cut through. By that time the pull of the water had strengthened, and Kai wasn’t expecting the raft to come loose so easily. It dropped from his hands and threatened to float away.

  Lani had been watching him, and her hands shot out to catch the raft. Kai stuffed the knife back in its sheath and took the raft from her.

  The girder was horizontal, with each end embedded in the drywall on either side. It looked like the explosion had ripped both ends of the girder from its welds, but the end Kai was closest to—the end extending toward the demolished building outside—left no space between the wall and Brad. Inflating the raft there would ri
sk crushing him. That meant Kai would have to place the raft under the girder on the south wall.

  But that side of the girder was out of reach.

  Kai thought he could explain what he was planning well enough with hand gestures so that everyone would be ready, but he didn’t trust his signing ability enough to tell someone else where to place the raft. He would have to get free of the rope and place it himself.

  Kai tapped Brad on the shoulder and showed him the life raft. Kai motioned that he should be ready to get himself and Mia out when the girder lifted up. Brad gave a thumbs-up. Kai took it to mean that Brad wanted to get the damn thing off of him.

  Since Teresa and Tom were the closest to where Kai would need to be to place the raft, he motioned to them to grab his feet. The flow of the water started to pick up, and he was afraid he’d be taken by the ebb if he wasn’t secured. Kai didn’t want to take the extra time to tie himself up again when he was in place.

  Kai cut himself free, and as he was about to push off, he realized that the regulator hose wouldn’t reach as far as he needed to go. Even if he were cut loose, he would have to go without air. Then he saw that Teresa could just barely reach his hose. Kai proposed trading regulators, and she nodded. They each took a deep breath and passed their regulators to each other.

  With his ankles now held by Teresa and Tom, Kai paddled over to the other end of the girder, careful not to let go of the raft. The flow continued to accelerate, and the water tugged harder at his clothes. He’d have to make this quick.

  The regulator attached to the tied-down air tank abruptly snapped his head back, still two feet short of the corner where he thought the raft should be placed. He had to hold it in position as it inflated, or it would pop out. There was no other way of keeping it there, no way to do this without leaving his air behind.

  Kai took a last puff of air and dropped the regulator. He pulled himself even with the wall, shoved the raft into position, and ripped the inflation cord.

  The sound from the rushing gas filled their chamber. The raft inflated asymmetrically, pushing one end out toward Kai while the other end was still flat. He had to push it farther in, or all this would be for nothing.

  He braced his shoulder against the wall and pushed with his right hand until the raft was directly under the girder. With the dive light strapped to his wrist, Kai could see that the raft was beginning to compress as it reached the heavy steel above it.

  At first nothing moved. If Kai wasn’t already holding his breath, he would have done it then.

  Then the miracle happened. The girder groaned and began to move ever so slightly. Kai had no idea how far it had to come up to let Brad and Mia get out, so he just kept his eye on the raft to make sure it didn’t shift. Not that there was much he could do if it really wanted to squirt out.

  As the raft continued to inflate, the girder moved up and up, guided by the slash in the wall that it had made. When it had risen a foot, Kai heard a grunt from Brad’s direction. He was struggling to get free.

  Kai was almost out of breath, but his work was complete. The pull of the retreating water was now as strong as the incoming tsunami had been. He struggled back to Tom and motioned for the regulator. Kai felt around for the tank and then followed the hose up to the mouthpiece. He stuck it in his mouth, and just before he couldn’t hold his breath any longer, he pushed the button to clear the regulator. Clean, dry air filled his starved lungs.

  Kai took several deep breaths, holding on to the tank with one hand. Tom clenched his arm with his good hand. But before Kai could grab on to Tom’s rope with his other hand to steady himself, a huge piece of debris struck him on its way out of the building. Kai couldn’t tell what it was—maybe something freed when the girder had been lifted up. But it hit him in the back, and the impact was enough to jar him loose from Tom’s grip.

  Kai’s body swung around, and the regulator was ripped from his mouth. He was about to be swept out to sea.

  With the waterfall coursing through the elevator’s escape hatch, the cavity filled quickly. Just as Rachel and Jerry could finally reach the outstretched arms of Jerry’s mother, Doris, the water level began to drop. With the two of them pulling, they were able to carefully drag the drenched woman up onto the roof.

  “Are you all right?” Rachel said.

  “I’m fine,” Doris said, panting. “Just let me catch my breath for a second.” Her feet still dangled over the edge of the hatch, blocking access to Sheila, who splashed in the dark elevator below.

  “Get me out of here!”

  “Mama, move your feet,” Jerry said.

  “Okay! I am seventy-eight, you know.”

  “I know. You won’t let us forget it.”

  Doris finally swung her feet out of the way, and Rachel and Jerry leaned down through the hole. The swirling water had taken Sheila to the side of the cab.

  “Swim over here,” Rachel said. “We can’t reach you.”

  Sheila awkwardly swam over to their waiting arms. Her right hand grasped Rachel’s, but she couldn’t find purchase with Jerry.

  The water level in the elevator shaft began to fall rapidly, but the water inside the cab could only escape through the narrow slit between the elevator doors. The cab lurched from the weight of the excess water.

  Rachel, her hands slick from the water and sweat, almost dropped Sheila, whose thrashing made holding on even more difficult. Sheila finally found Jerry’s hand, but with the water supporting less of her considerable heft, her weight threatened to pull both Rachel and Jerry down into the cab with her.

  “Paige!” Rachel grunted. “Come down here quick! We need your help.”

  “No! My kids!”

  “Please!” Doris said. “She’s my child!”

  “Paige! I’m losing hold of her!”

  “All right!” Paige lowered herself from the sixteenth floor and lay down on the cab’s roof. She grabbed Sheila’s arm, and together she and Rachel pulled. Sheila must have weighed close to 200 pounds, so even with the three of them pulling, they were close to dropping her.

  They hoisted Sheila high enough that her hand was even with the rim of the hatch.

  “Grab on!” Rachel said.

  “I’m trying!” Sheila said, coughing and sputtering salt water.

  She steadied herself with both hands, allowing the three of them to adjust their grips. As they pulled her up like fishermen landing a prize bass, Sheila retched and vomited onto the roof.

  She caught her breath, and the others heaved sighs of relief as they sat up and rested. Although the elevator shaft was three cabs wide, neither of the other cabs was visible in the darkness. The water outside the elevator was down to the fifteenth floor and falling quickly, but the elevator cab itself was still half-filled. Another screech of metal came from the elevator rails, and the cab shuddered. Rachel saw the mass of water still in the elevator and realized they needed to get off the cab’s roof.

  Because she had been involved in all hotel inspections, Rachel knew the elevators in the Grand Hawaiian were rated to carry 2,400 pounds. With half of the elevator full of water, it must have added thousands of pounds to the weight of the five people on the roof of the cab. Instead of the twelve passengers it was designed to hold, the elevator now supported the equivalent of eighty people, more than six times the weight limit.

  Rachel stood, prodding Jerry up as well, and pointed at the opening to the lobby.

  “Climb out that door now!” she yelled, but all she got was a confused look from the others before the bolt holding the elevator cable snapped.

  The safety brakes on the elevator’s guide rails automatically engaged, but not before the elevator dropped five feet, the bottom slamming into the surface of the water below.

  The jolt threw Sheila and Doris flat. Paige was tossed toward the escape hatch, but she grabbed the rim before she fell in.

  Rachel and Jerry, who had been standing closest to the edge, fell backward over the side of the elevator and splashed into the shaft’s d
raining eddy of black water.

  FORTY-THREE

  11:55 a.m.

  17 Minutes to Third Wave

  The fast-flowing water dragged Kai toward the doorway of the condo. He flailed his arms, hoping to find something solid to grasp. The wildly roving spot from the dive light tied to his arm illuminated the entry rushing by. As he tumbled through the hallway, his hand brushed against the doorway of the south-side condo unit. He whipped his body around and slapped his fingers onto the jamb’s edge. His progress stopped, but Kai was still without an air supply. He had less than ninety seconds before he inhaled water.

  He thought about trying to swim back toward the air tanks, but the current had to be over twenty knots. It was all he could do just to hold on. Pieces of debris pelted his head, but he concentrated only on the weakening grip he had on the doorjamb.

  Kai had two very simple choices, neither of which was appealing: he could either hold on until his breath ran out in the hope that the water flowing out would recede to his level, or he could let go and try to swim for the surface, getting towed out to sea in the process. He knew that very few people who were carried away by a tsunami lived to tell the tale. In fact, most of them were never even found.

  On the other hand, if he did hold on and ran out of air, he would drown and be dragged out to sea anyway. Kai decided to take his chances at a few more minutes of life, so he prepared to let go and swim for it.

  Just before he released his grip, he noticed that he could make out vague forms where the dive light wasn’t pointing. The murky water was getting brighter; Kai had to be nearer to the surface than he thought. Sunlight streamed from the direction of the condo windows, meaning fresh air couldn’t be more than ten or twenty feet above him. With that realization, he decided to stick it out for another minute or until he panicked, whichever came first.

  The room got brighter and brighter until he could actually see some of the shapes around him without the light: the edge of the door, the pattern of the wood parquet on the floor, the pieces of flowered wallpaper that hadn’t been ripped away. Just a few more seconds. His lungs were on fire, but he willed himself to make it.