Boulder crashes into Hawaii home, nearly hits woman

Terrifying home security footage shows a woman narrowly escaping a huge boulder that crashed through the walls of her new home over the weekend.

Caroline Sasaki of Honolulu told the local NBC affiliate “Hawaii News Now” that the incident happened just before midnight, as she headed to her living room sofa to watch television. (Different outlets variously described the event as taking place on Saturday and Sunday evening.)

Authorities told “Hawaii News Now” the boulder, which is 5 feet high and 5 feet wide, scraped a station wagon before smashing into the cinder block wall of Sasaki’s home. It then crashed through the living room and another wall before coming to rest in a bedroom.

Fortunately, none of the four people in the house were injured – although Sasaki told ABC’s KITV 4 that she was told that if she had taken “one more step, I probably wouldn’t be here”.

“I heard the big boom, and apparently the rock went right past me, which I didn’t know,” Sasaki told ‘Hawaii News Now’. ” I have not seen it. All I heard was the boom, then someone asked me if I was okay.

Sasaki was still shaken by the incident when she spoke to the Honolulu news channel KABC.

“Basically, I’m in shock,” Sasaki told KABC. “I refuse to watch the videos, so I – I don’t know how much – but everyone tells me I’m lucky.”

The Sasaki family told local news channel KHON that they had just moved into the newly built house in Honolulu’s Palolo Valley earlier this month.

Sasaki told KHON that she grew up in the Palolo Valley and the big boulders don’t often roll down the hills, even with “heavy rain and a hurricane warning.”

She told KITV that she and her neighbors suspected the rock had fallen because of excavation work for a planned development on a mountain near her property.

“I was afraid of this happening before, ever since they started,” Sasaki told KITV.

KHON spoke to the owner of the development, Bingning Li, who insisted his project was not to blame.

“Not at all, it’s way above, I looked at one of these rocks about 50 feet from the top of the property and landed there, then came down here,” said Li to KHON. “So he hit one of the cables that was supposed to stop him and the cable snapped. It took a lot of energy, otherwise that damage would be much bigger.

“Hawaii News Now” reports that the incident is still under investigation by authorities. The outlet said the rock was still in Sasaki’s house on Monday.