Hilo International Airport — Local services in Hawaii

How often in your life do you get a message that a Balistic Missile is inbound and "This is not a drill."

At 8am approx. our phones went off simultaneously with a familiar sound- an alert that always meant "Severe Storm Warning" or "Flash Flood Warning". It took me twice to read it, then I checked-in to see if it was a real message.

Intuition confirmed it did indeed come from the government.

They say we only have about 15 minutes to prepare for a nuclear detonation. In that case, we were not prepared, except of the preparation that Apache helped me with- "Its a good day to die."

It's also a great day to be ALIVE!f

So, I sprang into action. I realized that if indeed a Balistic Missile was inbound and going to detonate, it will probably be Hononulu which was not only many miles away, but behind one of the biggest mountains in the world, Mauna Kea.

Therefore, Survival meant that surviving the initial impact was likely going to result in nuclear fall-out. I realized that most of that was going to travel west with the Tradewinds.

Therefore, Standard Operation Procedures dictate the following in virually ANY survival situation:

#1 Calm- be calm no matter what. Cultivate the ability to restore calm or to engage a state of CALM as much as possible or necessary. Panic often kills instantaneously. Also, the Director of Search & Rescue International taught us that "Whatever your Consciousness is at the time of death determines where you go next."

#2 Shelter- seek warm, dry, beautiful, spacious shelter or make one

#3 Warmth- even in the tropics it gets uncomfortably cold and while not life-threatening still leads to hyperthermia or extreme discomfort. Fire is essential even when its not for heat.

#4 Water- purification capabilities is essential. Otherwise drinking Distilled Water or water from a stream following shallow and swiftly over gravel is one of best filters in the world- not so good with Nuclear Fall-out perhaps.

#5 Food #6 Activity #7 Companionship- "No one is an island." Humans require the company of other humans both for comfort...

It's been close to 40 years since I was last at this airport, and I didn't remember a thing walking through it. Even though this is an international-status airport, it's super quiet and low-key, and I loved it! The rental car desks & car lots are right across the street from the terminal. No having to wait for shuttle vans, throngs of people, nothing!

ARRIVAL: We flew in from OGG on Hawaiian. The walk to the baggage claim/exit was a bit long, easy for us but could be a task for those with disabilities, and there are no moving sidewalks. The baggage claim was a ghost town as was the majority of the airport.

DEPARTURE: After returning our rental car, we simply walked across the street, checked in on the Hawaiian Airline kiosks, breezed through TSA and was inside in 10 minutes. Lovely. We arrived a little after 5pm on a Sunday and all of the shops outside of the terminal were closed sans for a desolate restaurant. Once inside, the one big waiting room is on the first level, full of furniture that represents the retro style of old Hawaii. We had some time to kill so we had some beer in Uncle Miles Kitchen, ITO's resident bar and snack shop. When boarding time comes, you head upstairs to the gates which have limited seating.

FACTS: The airport opened in 1928 and was called General Lyman Field (named after Speaker of the House Norman K. Lyman of Hilo) and changed to Hilo International Airport in 1989.

THE NAME ITO: There are 3 possibilities on how this airport got its IATA code letters: 1) A "Mr. Ito" was the name of the first Hawaiian Airlines station manager at the airport. 2) Locals often referred to Hilo as Hilo Town; taking the "I" from Hilo and combining it with "TO" from town. 3) The code letters HIL and ILO were already taken by airports in Ethiopia and the Philippines, respectively.

OVERALL: Zero vehicular and foot traffic, easy access, laid back, cool terminal furniture. Definitely not a shopper's or high maintenance traveler's paradise, and I hope it...

Friday the 22nd around noon at American: A man who checked my friend’s bags- he threw luggage into the air onto the conveyer… and my friend politely called him out and said he didn’t appreciate being treated that way, as a customer. Moments later My friend found me inside security, after having just observed this, and having seen his whole family‘s luggage just thrown through the air. He was in shock because when he asked the man not to do that, not because of the way the bags were treated, but that the man said something like “my name is such and such and if you call my boss they will tell you I’m doing my job correctly.“ Sorry man, no. When I see you thrown my gear, I ask you politely not to do that, give a little kekua, -your answer should not be “well you should’ve packed your gear better.“

It’s true that we don’t see how our things are treated behind the scenes, but that’s not the important thing to me. When my friend spoke up, their response should’ve been “hey man sorry about that, you’re right. I’ll endeavor to be more careful with your things.” Period. Definitely not flat out belligerence.

This happened local time around noon in Kona and like I said I believe he and his wife and kid were flying American. I was flying United at the time, similar flight timeframe. He relayed the story to me moments after it happened. I’m pretty sure you’ve got this on tape and you can easily pull the file to see what happened. I asked my friend if he wanted to call someone and he said he wouldn’t waste his time on this issue any further but the story stuck with me as a real bummer after an amazing 2week vacation. If the airline is not upset about this, then maybe the tourism board should be. My friend was on a flight from KOA to...