April Fools' Day 1946. A day for tricks and fun everywhere...everywhere but Hilo, Hawaii, that is. It was 7:00 a.m. and as the fishermen were getting the last of their early morning catch, the sea decided to play a trick on them. Suddenly the ocean rushed out, leaving fish and boats stranded on bare sand. The fishermen, quite aware of the impending danger, rushed to shore to warn the town of the approaching disaster.

On July 10, 1958, an earthquake triggered a landslide, which created a wave that wiped out trees 1,700 feet up a hillside on the opposite side of Lituya Bay, Alaska.
 

        Within minutes a wave that had traveled 2,500 miles from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska came crashing into Hilo. It killed one hundred fifty-nine people and caused millions of dollars in damages. The wave that destroyed Hilo is one of the most powerful and most feared natural disasters of all: the tsunami!

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