Hilo tsunami museum and farmers market day

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Wednesday morning saw us heading out to take the saddle road back across to Hilo. We arrived just at lunch time so found a little cafe for a quick sandwich and then walked over to the Pacific Tsunami Museum, just across from the waterfront.

The museum is dedicated to education and awareness of tsunamis so that no one should ever die due to a tsunami. If you go to hIlo, the museum is located at 130 Kamehameha Avenue and is now open Monday through Saturday, 9 to 4 pm.

The first photo (credit: Cecilio Licos) was taken of people fleeing before the waves hit on April Fools Day, 1946 around 7:00 in the morning which was about an hour before most businesses opened, or the death toll could have been a lot higher. This tsunami was a result of an 8.6 earthquake off the Aleutian Islands and because there was no warning system at that time, people were unaware, even though it took 5 hours for the first of 9 waves to hit shore. There were 159 deaths throughout the Hawaiian islands that morning but Hilo took the brunt of it (96 dead) mainly due to its topography. Rebuilding took place, more or less in the same location.

14 years later, on May 23rd, 1960, a quake registering 9.5 off the coast of Chili, over 6600 miles away, generated a pacific wide tsunami. By that time, Hawaii had a tsunami warning system in place. The sirens were sounded and most people reached higher ground, still, 61 people died from that tsunami. The waves began to arrive at midnight and still, some people went into the evacuation zone to watch and wait to their peril. At 1:04 am, a 30 foot wave came crashing down, destroying the bay front once again.

The Pacific Tsunami Museum has a live-cam on its roof top with real time photos looking out on the ocean front. Go to http://tsunami.org.

As well as information, videos and photos of tsunamis at Hilo, there is information and photos and videos of the Indonesian and Japanese Tsunamis. It's all very sobering watching these either through photos or live on television, but it makes me scratch my head wondering why do people continue to build and rebuild at ocean level and on flood plains?

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