Computer Virus' and Hurricane Lane

Along with everything else that has happened this year is the exciting week of the computer hack and virus that hit the PCC. It was a nice Tuesday in August when we all started having trouble with our computers. First we couldn't send or receive e-mails. We had to call all our vendors to get our food orders to go through. If that wasn't bad enough we came the next day and we couldn't get Ariett to work. Ariett is the program that lets us know what orders we need to put through to our vendors who then process the orders to get all the food to us to feed our 2000 plus guests each day at the PCC. On Thursday everything was down and we heard we were under siege and they wanted a big ransom to let us back on line. We thought that maybe Friday we would be back up and working but it wasn't until the following week that we were up and going intermittently. We had to go back to the old old ways of doing things by telephone. It was a mess for a few days and we are still seeing some down time but mostly back to normal. They didn't pay the ransom (I never heard that officially) only by a few who came in to work on our computers. We thought that was it and we could settle down and work as usual.
NOT TO BE!

When we first heard of Hurricane Lane he was suppose to turn and go another way and miss us completely. Not so. As he started coming closer and closer and getting bigger and bigger we decided that we better get prepared. We mostly had our 72 hour kits ready but when he turned into a CAT 5 and was headed straight for us everyone started to panic a little bit. Tuesday when they said that we would see strong winds and flooding from Lane we really began to prepare. Our landlord came on Wednesday night to fix a window and told us we better prepare to evacuate because the flood waters in this area get extremely high. They told us we could evacuate to higher ground so Lisa and I went to the girl's dorms on the second floor to await the onslaught or wind and rain. Thursday evening when Lane was a CAT 5 we checked ourselves into Hale 8. 

It hadn't started raining yet so we decided we needed food. Lisa had not been to the famous "Giovannis" food truck in Kahuku, yet so we ventured out for our "last good meal." It was very good.

Then we finished moving into our Hale 8 to await the storm.
Hey! Wait a minute. This Hale room and courtyard is a lot nicer that the place I am living in. I was about to start college life all over for the next 3 months so I wouldn't have to leave but they said I was too old and to get out! I wanted to handcuff myself to the bed but couldn't find any.


Thursday we went into work part of the day and finished moving ourselves into Hale 8. They closed the PCC to guests on August 23, 24, 25 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This was getting more serious by the hour.

Friday we waited around most of the day and towards evening we decided to go get a second last meal, and watch the ocean. The waves were spectacular by not much rain, yet. This time we went to Domino's in Hauula. Pizza was very good.
Lisa waiting for pizza. Not too much excitement yet and Lane was slowing down and moving west a bit.

Saturday morning we woke up to the bad weather. It looked like it was going to get very ugly. This is actually the worst part of Hurricane Lane which turned out to be a tropical storm by the time he hit Oahu. We did have a few scary days but the Lord helped us, heard our prayers and spared us, yet again, from a disaster.



After all is said and done it was quite a humbling experience because if we presume to think we are in control we are highly mistaken. The Lord performed a miracle right before our eyes and I was very humbled and thankful for the outcome. (Although, I could have stayed at the Hale a few more nights)
We had to be out of our Hale by noon on Sat as the rains subsided.

Monday at work Elder Crookston came into our office and said "the weather people," whomever they are said they had never seen a hurricane act the way Lane did at the end. To fizzle out like he did. The other islands got hit harder than we did and I am sorry they did. They have had lots of other disasters this year with rains and flooding. I was still thankful to be safe.

AMEN!