Caroline Sasaki and her family lived in the same neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii, for many years. Then, they decided to rebuild their home. Sasaki explained, “We lived in this same location. We just knocked down the old house and rebuilt it.” 

A week after moving into their newly built home, a massive boulder rolled down the nearby mountain and crashed into their home. This is the third boulder that has rolled down from the mountain within 24 hours. According to Sasaki, nothing like this has ever happened before. She said, “It’s never happened before, heavy rain and hurricane warnings nothing. So, no rocks ever came down.”

It was a close call for Sasaki. At the time, Sasaki wasn’t sure what was happening. She told KITV, “All I heard was the boom when the glass cracked from the sliding door, so I backed up and I guess it passed right through me.” Thankfully, nobody was injured.

A security camera video of the boulder smashing into her home has gone viral. You can see Sasaki in the video. The boulder just missed her.

Sasaki admits that she hasn’t watched this video. She said, “I haven’t watched the video, but they said if I took one more step, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

According to the fire department, the boulder was about 5 feet high and 5 feet wide. It crashed through a cinder block wall around the property, hit the family’s car, crashed through the home’s glass sliding door, tumbled through the living room and crashed through another wall before finally stopping in the bedroom.

Hawaii News Now reports that the boulder smashed into the home just a few days after the area experienced heavy rain. Was rain the cause of the boulder crashing into Sasaki’s home? She doesn’t think so.

Sasaki suspects that a new residential development in her neighborhood might be what’s causing the boulders to roll down the mountain. She told KHON2, “We’ve had some issues with them carving the mountain, and I don’t know if that’s the cause.”

Bingning Li, the owner of the new residential development, does not think that there is any connection between the development project and the boulders; however, he plans to bring in engineers to inspect the property and reinforce the barrier wall between the mountain and his building project.

Sasaki doesn’t think that’s enough. She said, “Department of permitting and planning, the Department of Emergency Management, the mayor, the councilman, they should all get involved because people’s lives are at stake.”

Dawn Takeuchi Apuna, Director of Department of Planning and Permitting, said that after watching the video, she contacted Sasaki. She said, “After viewing the horrific video, I reached out to Mrs. Sasaki today out of concern for her and to answer any questions she may have had. We assured her that we will investigate and report back to her as soon as possible.”

In a statement, Apuna said the DPP is investigating but that until the investigation is complete “It would be irresponsible and premature to point any fingers at any particular party, landowner or event without knowing the full details of what has occurred.”