CALAMITOUS TIDAL WAVE IN HAWAII

Chronicle (Levin), 3 April 1946, Page 5

CALAMITOUS TIDAL WAVE IN HAWAII

Press Assn

BIG DEATHROLL AND THOUSANDS RENDERED HOMELESS s 100-Foot High Waves Race Across The Pacific \ "

By Telegraph

..-Copyright

Received Wednesday, 1.45 a.m. HONOLULU, April 2. ^ Scores are dead, thousands are homeless and miliions of dollars damage was. done by tidal waves which, stemming froin a world-shaking submarine disturbance near the Aleutians yesterday fanned out in a 4000-mile arc from Hawaii to California. The hardest hit area was the once beautiful Hawaiian city of Hilo, which has been reduced to a shambles. The known toll so far totals 86 dead, ineluding 60 in Hilo, but the Hilo dead alone may exceed 300. The waves, which in some places attained a height of. 100 feet, raced across the Pacific at 30 to 40 miles an hour, piling up into terrifying walls of water as they neared the coastlines. The tidal ,waves were today reported to be sweeping , toward the Alaskan coast. Scout planes reported that a wave 100 feet high was travelling at 30 miles an hour and was likely to engulf islands in its path. The fate of hundreds of ships at sea is still unknown. Huge waves which reached a height of 20 feet struck every island of the Hawaiian Group. Ships burst their moorings, small craft were smashed and hurled high ashore and waterfront buildings were wrecked and flooded. The Coastguard reported that the waves completely inundated little East Island, on French Frigate Shoal, 450 miles northwestwards of Honolulu. The fate of 'the small naval garrison on the island is at present unknown. The collection of damage and casualty reports is hampered by rupture of communications. The heaclmaster of Laupahoehoe School said that four teachers who lived in beachfront houses have been missing since the waves inundated them, carrying two cottages out to sea and sending three others crashing inland. The headmaster said that eight school children were also missing, with little chance that they were alive. The children ran down the beach after the first wave subsided to see what had happened, but the second wave engulfed them. The headteacher added that many people were clinging to driftwood offshore. A naval bomber dropped rescue equipment to four persons adrift on debris near Laupahoehoe. The Associated Press correspondent, who fled to Hilo from Honolulu, said the waves flattened a huge warehouse, swept buildings from their foundations and made huge gaps in thick concrete walls. Eailway trains, cars, trucks, oil barges, and molasses tanks were strewn about like toothpicks. One oil barge crashed through a warehouse. All business life eame to a standstill while ■ ' rescue crews sougbt survivors. Food is Hilo's urgent need, be- ! cause most of the island 's food supply was stored in the wrecked 1 warehouses. 1

Reports from the island of Maui said that Katului naval aif station sustainea severe damage. The police estimatea the damage on Maui alone to total hun dreds of thousands of dollars. Commodore Norman Leslie, district Coastguard officer at Ketehikan, Alaska, reported that a tidal wave, preceded an earthquake, destroyed Scotchcap lightliouse station, with the loss of five men. News of the disaster came from a nearhy station which was badly clamaged but escaped casualties. Scotchcap is located at the entrance to Onima.v Pass, which provides an entrance to Bering Sea from the North Pacific. ,'ts lighthouse was easily 100 feet above water. The Navy later warned shipping in the North Pacific to be prepared to face 90-foot waves. A radio niessage from Maena Point said there appeared to be considerabi-i damage and many injured. Dr. T. A. Jagger, a noted voicano exp>rt, said the catastrophe resultca from a world-shaking submarine earth quake. The first wave struck Oahu at exacti 7 a.m., the second wave at 7.7 and tln. third wave at 7.14. A transport plane loaded with doctors, nurses and medical supplies was rushed to Kilo as reports of the damage ,

casualties mounted, and the Hawaiian Reef Cross summoned its disaster relie^. forces" to afd the stricken areas. Pearl Harbour is believed to have suifered no damage. Eight American school teachers were washed to sea from Laupahoehoe, on the Hawaiian coast. California apparently escaped the fui: force of the tidal wave, but giant waves which crashed on Central Californian beaches terrified householders. The only death in California reported so fai happened when a huge wave enveioped two men strolling on Santa Cruz beaca I The survivor said he seized his com | panion, helped him to his feet and then j lost his grip as the outgoing wave | tumbled both in the surf. j Army planes flew 30 tons of emer1 gency Red Cross supplies to HUo, whiic I other planes returning from their first j search of nearby ocean areas reportea i that they had not 'sighted any ships in J distress or any swimmers. The Army placed on the alert ai. j troops in the Hawaii area and warneo. them to be prepared ta give disastei relief. The Army also ordered thc j Territorial Guards to be mobilised foi | traffic duty and to prevent looting. I The Coast Geodetic Survey warnerl ; that a fourth wave presumably mighl j foilow.