[ COMMEMORATIVE EDITION ]

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"You know, young as I was, I remembered this worst event. We lived in a tent for about a week, then got to live with friends in a house. Do I remember? Yes. Tragic!!"

Lovely Kwock,
Honolulu

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HAWAII STATE ARCHIVES
It was 55 years ago today, on April 1, 1946, that a tsunami
hit Hilo, leaving destruction in its wake.

A devastating
tsunami roared into
Hilo the morning
of April 1,
55 years ago

A child watched her house
and everything in it go
into the ocean

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Lovely Kwock,
Honolulu

ON APRIL 1, 1946, early in the morning around 7 a.m., my brother and I got ready to go off to school. We lived in Kawaihae, Hawaii (Island of Hawaii). Dad walked the beach, looked at the ocean, saw how low-tide it was, so he went to tell the neighbors (of the coming) tidal wave. People never believed Dad, of course. Dad came to call us to come home. We were waiting alongside the road to go to school with a friend. My brother and I had to go to Waimea School, nine miles away from Kawaihae.

All the neighbors tried to run to uplands to be saved. We lived right near the beach. It was only minutes when we saw the pier go out to the ocean.

Of course, it was so early in the morning, people were still sleeping. Our family -- Mom had two babies to care for and to get out of the house. My baby brother was so sick, 3 years old, and Mom had my baby sister, only 7 months old. So Mom had to grab whatever she could and grab my baby sister and brother, so sick, also another brother 5 years old, and get out of the house.

There was enough time. We stood outside and watched our house and everything in the house go to the ocean.

We had nothing -- no food, money and only the clothes on our bodies. Mom, Dad, my three brothers, sister and myself. Things happened so fast. I was almost 7 and my older brother almost 9 when this devastating event happened. We had no house, so Red Cross took care of us with tents to live in for the night, can-rationed foods to eat, and clothes (used kind).

My great-granduncle was old and could not move so fast. He also lived with us and his wife in the same house. He hung on to a coconut tree while the water just swept his legs to and fro until we could get him to higher land.

You know, young as I was, I remembered this worst event. We lived in a tent for about a week, then got to live with friends in a house.

Do I remember? Yes. Tragic!!

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[ THE HILO TSUNAMIS ]

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PHOTO COURTESY NOAA
The tsunami that hit Hilo in 1960 devastated the town,
as evidenced by this photo of debris and despair.

‘I heard eerie moans
and groaning’

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Manny Russo,
Honolulu

I was there when the huge tidal waves washed away waterfront in hard-hit Hilo. I heard what sounded like a freight train approaching. Being a night owl, I was not asleep in bed. There was not time to do anything else except head for the hill four blocks upward away from the coast. Atop the hilly part, I watched what was like a surreal, slow-motion nightmare.

When the deafening din ended, I ventured downward to piles of rubble everywhere. Wooden buildings were reduced to kindling. I heard eerie moans and groaning and cries for help, and, as if in a bad dream, I started yanking at planks with my bare hands. Big bills ($20 bills fluttered loose all around), the drowned nude plastered against a fence, chaos. Someone handed me a bottle of beer to wash my face of grime. Water was not available. Many of the drowned were my friends.

I was in total shock by the time the national guardsmen arrived, and I was evacuated to Hilo Hospital, exhausted and dehydrated.

I lost my housing and all my possessions, my jobs, many friends, but not my life. After nine years enjoying working in Hilo, I was forced to return to Oahu to recuperate and recover. It was the worst experience in my life, more traumatic than the seven years in the Army during WWII. You unearthed many sad memories.

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NOAA
This car was hurled into the stream bed on Piopio Street in Hilo
when seismic sea waves struck the Big Island town on May 24, 1960.

Mom met teen daughter
with the warning

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Delmarie Motta Klobe,
Kailua

It was a week or so before my high school graduation. The PAAC debate team had returned from a conference in Kona in the afternoon unaware that tidal wave warnings had been issued. My mom met us with the news. Through the evening my family remained glued to the radio (no instant TV news). My dad was in the hospital seriously ill, so my mom, two brothers and I brought my grandmother to stay at our house, on higher ground than hers. In the wee hours, the sky lit up in a flash of light as the Hilo Electric Light Co. plant was hit by a wave. We could see this from our house in Kaumana.