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Sandra Yi Reporting A Utah tourist describes what it was like as an earthquake shook up his Hawaiian vacation.
"It sounded like a tree was splitting. It was a real strong crack, and then everything started violently moving."
Sunday's earthquake in Hawaii left some Utah tourists trying to get by without power or airline service. And family members here with loved-ones on the islands are hearing stories of the aftermath.
It wasn't much of a paradise for tourists visiting Hawaii Sunday morning, including a man from Provo.
And, a North Sake Lake woman we talked to has family in Maui and Oahu. They also had quite the stories to tell.
Ethel Maero: "Jodi, are you there?"
Ethel Maero has been using her cell phone to keep in touch with her son and daughter-in-law, who live in Oahu, about 100 miles from the Big Island.
Ethel Maero: "He's not coming through very good now."
Cell service was spotty at times. But Sunday evening, her son Steven was able to deliver some promising news.
Voice of Steven Maero: "Just recently, about two thousand of the 100 thousand people-- two thousand people in the Pearl City area just came on with electric power. A couple of small generator plants are up and running."
Sunday morning, Steven Maero was in church. He said he could hear rumbling before he could feel the quake. His wife was at home with their children.
Ethel Maero: "She was the one who said it was like a freight car going through her house, and this was Oahu. Imagine what it was like on the main island, I mean the Big Island."
A tourist from Utah is staying in a hotel, near where the quake happened, and said the shaking lasted about 15 to 20 seconds.
Voice of Mark Burdge/ Utah Resident: "All of the alarms sounded throughout the building. You could hear everyone running out of their rooms, people screaming and yelling for children and trying to gather their families the best they could."
Ethel Maero has another daughter who lives in Maui. Maero goes there every winter. She says this quake hasn't scared her off.
Ethel Maero: "Oh, I will be going back. It doesn't worry me. At 88, I say when I'm flying, that might be as close to heaven as I ever get."
Maero plans to head there this Thanksgiving.
Her son told us Sunday night that all the stores were closed. He says the traffic out there Sunday reminds him of what it was like on Sundays when he used to live here in Salt Lake-- very quiet and peaceful.
Airlines are restarting service. A flight from Honolulu should get in to Salt Lake International later this morning.
