After the sunshine, the rain. In all my many years living in Hawaii, this is the first time, and I admit this readily, that I got scared. It all happened overnight, towards 3.00 AM. The wind suddenly picked up, doors started slamming, gusts of wind rolled down the valley like a thunder, whistling through the palm trees and our big albizia back in the yard. I could hear branches snapping off, empty buckets flying around the yard, and sheets of water falling from the black sky. The house was shaking. Blackout……

Where’s the flashlight, the emergency box. It was not the wind that scared me, or the thunder or lightning’s. But the visualization of this 110 foot albizia tree toppling over and falling over our house. It’s only a few days ago that I witnessed another albizia tree been uprooted by strong winds. The storm receded towards 4. 00 AM but the fright it created so suddenly would not let me go to sleep again until daylight, and when daylight came, things had moved, other things had come down and the entire valley looked like having been stricken by a hurricane. It became another long day in paradise without power, internet connection and what not.