Over the weekend, a Hawaiian woman experienced what can only be described as a harrowing and terrifying encounter.
Caroline Sasaki, 65, was walking toward her couch to watch television near midnight when a boulder came crashing through the wall of her Palolo Valley home, nearly crushing her. A security camera captured the shocking moment as the boulder came barreling through the cinder block wall, rolling through the living room and smashing through another wall before finally coming to a stop in a bedroom.
The boulder, estimated by fire officials to be around 5 feet in height and width, had first struck a car outside the home before crashing into the house.
The family was only in the newly-built home for about a week when the wrecking boulder came barreling, the station reported.
Sasaki was left stunned and shaken by the incident and was thankful that she or anyone else wasn’t hurt. “I heard the loud boom, and apparently the boulder passed right in front of me, which I didn’t know, I couldn’t see it,” she said. “All I heard was the boom.”
“Basically, I’m in shock,” Sasaki told ABC7. “I refuse to look at the videos, so I — I’m not sure how close — but everybody’s telling me I’m lucky.”
She continued by saying, “God is with me.”
“We lived in this same location. We just knocked down the old house and rebuilt it; and it’s never happened before, heavy rain and hurricane warnings nothing. So, no rocks ever came down,” Sasaki told the station. “We’ve had some issues with them carving the mountain, and I don’t know if that’s the cause.”
The boulder remained in the home as of Jan. 30 and insurance adjusters are assessing the damage. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a boulder has caused damage to a home in the Palolo Valley section of Honolulu. In April 2020, a boulder crashed through the roof of another home, causing significant damage.
It’s unclear what may have caused this weekend’s boulder to move and roll into Sasaki’s home, other than the fact that the area had experienced some heavy rainfall. However, Sasaki and other homeowners in the neighborhood believe that nearby excavation work at a new development is the cause of the boulder falling, according to a report by KHON 2.
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