Tsunami Museum

signature attraction, occasionally violent forces of nature wreck havoc with the otherwise peaceful lifestyle of islanders. Hilo has been particularly battered. In 1946 and again in 1960, this tin-roofed agricultural community on the Big Island's east coast was hit by devastating tsunamis that claimed 220 lives and destroyed hundreds of buildings.

These huge waves, sometimes incorrectly referred to as tidal waves, can streak at amazing speeds (up to 500 miles an hour) over thousands of miles of open ocean before colliding with the shore. On April 1, 1946, tsunami waves, generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands, raced 2,300 miles across the ocean in five hours and sent a 25-foot-tall wall of water ashore in Hilo. The tsunami struck with little warning claiming 159 lives and destroying more than 1,300 homes.

Fourteen years later, on May 22, 1960, an earthquake on the coast of Chile sent tsunami waves tearing across the Pacific at 442 miles per hour, reaching Hilo in 15 hours and culminating in 35-foot waves that yanked buildings off their foundations and left 61 people dead.

In 1975, an earthquake off the coast of the Big Island triggered another tsunami that hit at Halape, a beach park at the base of a large cliff where 32 people were camping. Two people died in this disaster.

Evidence of Hilo's two tsunamis, which leveled a wide swath of homes and businesses from Kamehameha Avenue, downtown, to the shores of the Wailoa River near Banyan Drive, can be seen in the bay front area, which was never redeveloped. Almost the entire area fronting Hilo Bay is open grassland.

The Pacific Tsunami Museum, at the corner of Kamehameha and Kalakaua avenues across from the Kress Building in Hilo, is coordinating self-guided, walking/driving tours of tsunami sites. The tour is laid out in the East Hawaii Tsunami Corridor that stretches from Laupahoehoe Point to a strip of beach parks in Keaukaha. Guidebooks are available at the Laupahoehoe Train Museum, the Waiola Center, the Pacific Tsunami Museum and, for cruise liner passengers, at the Port of Hilo. The driving tour will take about three hours and covers seven sites. The 90-minute walking tour, around Waiakea Peninsula, begins at the Wailoa Bridge and ends at the Waiakea Kai Creek.

The Pacific Tsunami Museum features videos and other information about tsunamis. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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