Tag Archives: tsunami

Photos of 1946 tsunami damage in and near Kaaawa (and elsewhere)

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A friend in Kaaawa found this online collection of photos from the 1946 tsunami that hit Hawaii. The photos are from an image database maintained by the National Geophysical Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Included are several photographs of the tsunami aftermath in Kaaawa and nearby communities, as well as spots from Nawiliwili to Waikiki to Hilo. Some are taken from the ground, others from the air. There are also a few photos of damage along the California coast.

• Near Kahana Bay

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• Also near Kahana Bay. Photo note says four children were killed when their house, on the east side of Kahana Bay, was washed into a pond.

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• Kaneohe Bay, near Kualoa

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• Kualoa and Mokolii

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• Damage near the Kaaawa Jungle Training Camp

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• Kaaawa Jungle Training Camp

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• Kaaawa

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• Damage along highway through Kaaawa

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• Damage at Punaluu, Oahu, just up the road from Kaaawa.

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• Punaluu. Wave was believed to have been about 12 feet high.

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Thinking about a tsunami hitting Kaaawa

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Wondering what a tsunami could do to our coast?

After the recent tsunami alert, I went looking for some history.

It didn’t take long to find a couple of photos.

The top photo shows a tsunami washing ashore on Laie Point in 1957 following an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands.

Laie Pt

[credit: NOAA/NGDC/Henry Helbush]

The second photo was taken right here in Kaaawa. It shows damage to Kamehameha Highway from the April 1, 1946 tsunami that devastated Hilo. It appears to be the stretch of highway between what is now Polinalina Road and Puakenikeni Road.

Road damage
[credit: NOAA/NGDC Natural Hazards Photo Archive/Orville T. Magoon]

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Kaaawa experience a 7 foot wave during the 1946 tsunami, while nearby in Punaluu it was 12 feet, and in Kahuku 27 feet.

The USGS commentary below will have to be amended following the damage from the tsunami of March 11-12, but the main point is still well taken. We’re overdue for a damaging tsunami along our windward coast.

Between 1945 and 1975, a total of 7 large tsunamis hit the Hawaiian Islands, or one every 3.3 yr, and a damaging tsunami hit Oahu every 6 yr. However, since 1976 not one large tsunami has been recorded in all of Hawaii (1986 and 1994 had 2 small events that were less than 3 ft). The historical record suggests that a damaging tsunami is overdue to reach Oahu’s shores. Ironically, it has been during this last 20 years that development within the Hawaiian coastal zone has proliferated.

If wave runups like those of the 1957 or 1960 tsunamis occurred today, there exists a high probability that low-lying coastal areas such as Waikiki, Waimanalo, Kaaawa, Punaluu, and Nanakuli would suffer damage, primarily because of the risk that has been taken by developing within these inundation zones.

“The source of the photographs is the COMET® Website at http://meted.ucar.edu/ of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), sponsored in part through cooperative agreement(s) with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). ©1997-2010 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. All Rights Reserved.”

The tsunami in Kona, Civil Beat folo on firing of OIP director, and gov’s office staffing

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Thanks to Aaron Stene (The Kona Blog) for calling attention to this video of the tsunami action in Kailua-Kona.

The guy with the camera was very, very lucky, wasn’t he?

And thanks to Civil Beat’s Sara Lin for pushing the governor’s office on the firing of OIP Acting Director Cathy Takase and the apparently improper appointment of a staff attorney. CB even came up with the letter, signed by Gov. Abercrombie, making that staff appointment.

Dela Cruz did acknowledge that Abercrombie “made a mistake” when he appointed a staff attorney.

In a letter dated Feb. 25, 2011, obtained by Civil Beat, Abercrombie appointed Linden H. Joesting as a staff attorney at the Office of Information Practices, effective March 1, 2011. (Her hiring was first reported by Ian Lind.) Joesting had left OIP last fall to become a staffer in Sen. Clayton Hee’s office.

“You have a vital role to perform which will place many demands on your time and energy,” he wrote.

Earlier this week, the Progressive Democrats of Hawaii blog shed a little light on one reason why the governor’s office seems to have stumbled a number of times.

While I knew the Governor’s Office was in considerable disarray, I didn’t fully grasp the extent to which they’re short staffed until I attended the G Force Meeting this past Thursday night.

Andrew Aoki, the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff, the office is running with less than half the necessary paid staff. As I understand it, they have filled only 24 positions, compared to the 68 Lingle had when she left office. While I’m not sure this can be used completely as an excuse to some of Neil’s budget proposals, it would explain why they’ve maybe been slow to respond to criticism and develop alternative proposals.

I think part of the problem, at least so far, has been the Office of the Governor has had no funds to hire the staff required. The Legislature very recently passed the emergency appropriation for the Governor’s Office, so hopefully at least that part of the problem will be eliminated. I also think, given that we’re now just about half-way through the session, they may simply not have the time required to go through a thorough hiring process.

Still waiting for the waves

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[text]The students at Kaaawa Elementary School hold regular tsunami drills where they walk from the school to the upper part of Kaaawa up by our house, safely out of the tsunami inundation zone.

Many Kaaawa residents did the same thing today, driving up and setting up camp along Olohu Road with their kids, dogs, cats, at least a couple of birds. Engine 21 from the Kaaawa Station evacuated to the corner at the lower end of Olohu. We moved seven of a friend’s eight cats to a temporary cat shelter on our street.

We watched and waited for a chance to see a tsunami, while in the background we worried about what might happen if a big wave actually hit.

It was hot. It was too early in the day for beer to flow. Radios reported news from Hilo and Maui.

We spotted a few whales, watched some nice surf, talked with friends and neighbors, but I don’t think we ever saw anything that could be attributed to the tsunami.

Everyone kept repeating, “nothing happened, and that’s good.”

Everyone also knew, though, that they didn’t completely mean it. At some level, we wanted to see a tsunami from a safe vantage point.

In any case, click on the photo for a look at our little corner of Kaaawa during today’s tsunami evacuation.