Tsunamis have killed more people in Hawaii than any other form of natural disaster, yet basic tsunami education — from signs of an approaching one to what to do when it comes — is severely lacking in the Islands. Located in downtown Hilo on the Island of Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Museum was initially founded 30 years ago to fill that void — a hub for education and awareness that contends “no one should die due to a tsunami.” The museum is filled with photos and videos of tsunamis that have hit Hawaii and other parts of the Pacific, along with a large archive of firsthand interviews with survivors.
Hawaii
Hawaii museum lays off entire staff, at risk of closing for good
Located in downtown Hilo in a historic art deco building, the Pacific Tsunami Museum fronts Hilo Bay, where past tsunamis devastated the town.
Courtesy Pacific Tsunami Museum
Now, it’s at risk of closing its doors for good.
Earlier this month, the Pacific Tsunami Museum laid off all 10 of its employees and suspended operations. Former staff are now volunteering their time to keep the doors open on a reduced schedule.
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“We have several problems,” Walter Dudley told SFGATE. Dudley co-founded the museum with tsunami survivor Jeanne Johnston in 1994 to educate residents and visitors about the natural disaster and to serve as a living memorial to those who lost their lives.
The museum is filled with exhibits, sharing the history of major tsunami events in the Islands and across the Pacific.
Courtesy Pacific Tsunami MuseumThe museum’s 100-year-old historic building, which was donated to the organization in 1997, is expensive to maintain. “The AC died and cost us way outside our budget,” Dudley said. “The roof sprung a leak and we used our entire supplemental budget to fix that and clear up mold because, you know, Hilo is on the rainy side.”
Dudley doesn’t want to see the museum close completely. “Sadly, that’s one possibility,” he said. “I mean, we all hope that doesn’t happen, but unless we get some, you know, some serious help for the issues that we do have, that’s the worst-case scenario.”
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The museum needs monetary donations to fix up the building and to pay the staff so that it can reopen. “As the years go by, a lot of survivors who were many of our biggest supporters have passed away,” Dudley continued. “They’re no longer around, and that actually makes our mission all that much important because people tend to forget that tsunamis are a true and present danger in Hawaii.”
The last deadly Hawaii tsunami was in 1975, when an earthquake off the coast of the Island of Hawaii generated large waves within seconds that killed two people. In 1960, a tsunami resulting from a 9.5 Chilean earthquake killed 61 people in Hilo.
The deadliest tsunami to hit Hawaii in modern history was on April 1, 1946, when a magnitude 8.6 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska triggered a tsunami with waves reaching heights of 55 feet. At least 159 people were killed throughout the Hawaiian island chain. The greatest loss of life was in Hilo, where an estimated 96 people died.
On April 1, 1946, in downtown Hilo, people are running from the third wave, estimated to be 30 feet high.
Courtesy Pacific Tsunami MuseumBecause there are spans of years between major tsunami events, education is important to remind people of Hawaii’s tsunami history and risks — and to take them seriously.
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“There’s an apathy around knowing and believing it will happen again. And it will happen again. It absolutely will,” Cindi Preller, director of the Pacific Tsunami Museum, told SFGATE. “The earth’s tectonics don’t change. It’s just unpredictable, it’s unknowable. And for the local tsunami, it can arrive in just a few minutes, so it’s really, really, really important that people know nature’s warning signs as well as the official warning signs.”
The Pacific Tsunami Museum’s mission is to educate the public about the dangers of tsunamis and to serve as a living memorial for those who have died.
Courtesy Pacific Tsunami MuseumPreller, who is now working as a volunteer alongside her staff, said visitor numbers were fine but building repairs have set them back. “If we were going to really restore this building, that would cost millions,” she said.
Through it all, Preller remains focused on the mission of the museum. She wants to revitalize the space and would like to see a new generation come in and help rebuild and do new things with the exhibits.
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“We need to strategically plan and create,” she said. “We just need to really revitalize and shake things up and create a plan so that we never ever have to shutter again.”
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A 32-year-old Pahoa man on probation for auto theft pleaded not guilty Thursday to sex assault charges.
Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota maintained Brandon K.C. Sanchez’s bail at $108,000 and ordered him to return to court for further proceedings on Oct. 9.
A Hilo grand jury on Wednesday returned a five-count indictment charging Sanchez with second-degree sexual assault and four counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. He was also charged with five counts of violating probation.
According to court documents filed by police, the alleged offenses took place on the evening of June 15 and the victim was a 21-year-old woman.
The woman reportedly told police she had just met Sanchez when he was a customer at the Hilo fast-food restaurant where she worked. She agreed to hang out with him and allowed him to drive her car.
Sanchez drove to Honolii, and at one point told the woman he had recently gotten out of jail and wanted to have sex with her, which led to her telling him no multiple times, according to the documents.
Sanchez allegedly then asked if she’d kiss him, to which she assented under the condition that he stop the pressure to have sex.
On the way back to Hilo, Sanchez reportedly touched the woman’s breast and genitals through her clothing, put his mouth on her breast, and slipped a finger inside her genitals — all against her will.
Documents state that Sanchez admitted to police that he touched the woman’s breast through her clothing once, but denied all other allegations.
Second-degree sexual assault is a Class B felony offense that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment. Fourth-degree sexual assault is a misdemeanor that carries a potential one-year jail term.
Sanchez remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in lieu of bail.
Email John Burnett at john.burnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A hiker was rescued after suffering a medical emergency on the Diamond Head Crater Trail Saturday morning.
The Honolulu Fire Department said crews responded at about 10:30 a.m. after a woman in her 30s became unable to descend from the top of the trail.
Firefighters climbed the trail on foot while another crew prepared a nearby landing zone for air operations.
HFD’s Air 1 helicopter inserted rescue personnel to the woman’s location, where they assessed her condition and provided basic life support.
The hiker was then airlifted to the landing zone and transferred to Honolulu Emergency Medical Services shortly after 11 a.m.
No firefighter injuries were reported.
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
Hawaii
Filipino dignitaries embrace RIMPAC hospitality amid outside protests – Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Aboard the Philippine navy ship BRP Miguel Malvar on Wednesday night, prominent members of Honolulu’s Filipino community rubbed shoulders with military personnel and diplomats as they wined and dined on its deck in Pearl Harbor before the ship set sail to join other warships participating in the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise.
“This warm atmosphere, the smiles, enthusiastic conversations truly echo the spirit of Filipino hospitality, or bayanihan … central to Filipino psychology, which means we see ourselves in others,” said Vice Admiral Jose Ezpeleta, the Philippine navy’s top officer, as he addressed attendees at Filipino Community Night reception.
“These cherished Filipino values and rich heritage are primarily reflected and carried out by you, our Filipino community,” Ezpeleta said. “Serving as a final bridge that links the Philippines to the United States cultures and peoples, and beyond defense and security, these vibrant people-to-people ties clearly form part of the foundational cornerstone of the Philippines and the United States of America.”
But outside the base’s gates on Kamehameha Highway, about 20 protesters carried signs and shouted slogans condemning the Philippine military’s participation in RIMPAC. During the protest, part of the group went to the base’s Halawa Gate and stood outside it until base security officials asked that they step back and return to the road.
The group included members of the Ho‘opae Pono Peace Project, Anakbayan Hawaii, Democratic Socialist of Oahu, Hawaii Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Social Medicine Hawaii, and the Filipino Artist Movement.
“Everyone here is here because they love someone and they know someone that’s been impacted by U.S. militarism across the world” said Silayan Camson, a member of Filipino Artists Movement. “We’re all united in that struggle. U.S. militarism is one of the number one polluters in the world, and it has also spread across not only in the Asia-Pacific, but also in the Middle East, and that impacts day-to-day working people here, not only here in Hawaii, but across the oceans into the Philippines.”
In a statement preced-ing the protest, the HICHRP said that “while mainstream media views RIMPAC as providing valuable opportunities for the Philippine Navy to enhance interoperability with its allies and partners, the Philippines continues to enter into military agreements with the U.S. at the expense of its people.
“Filipino citizens risk becoming collateral damage amidst increasing U.S. tensions with China,” the group said. “Recent events, including the massacre of 19 individuals, including two Filipino-Americans in Negros Occidental, highlight the dire human rights situation in the Philippines.”
The American citizens in question were Lyle Prijoles, 40, and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, 26. Both had friends in Hawaii, who gathered with local activists to hold vigils after their deaths. They were among a group of activists and researchers taking part in a program put together by leftist organizers taking them into the countryside.
They were killed in a controversial operation by Philippine army troops hunting down members of the New People’s Army — the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines — in the town of Toboso.
The Philippine military described it as an hours-long gun battle with rebels that wounded one soldier before they ultimately called in air support, while activists say indiscriminate strafing fire from the sky rained down on helpless civilians below. The NPA has confirmed that 10 of those killed in the incident were armed members of the group, but maintains the other nine were unarmed civilians.
“The U.S. has been assisting and aiding the Philippine military and its human rights abuses,” argued Camson, who told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Prijoles and Sorem were “learning about Filipino struggles in the Philippines, they were unjustly murdered by the Philippines military, and the Philippines military has continually neglected its people.”
Manila has sought to deepen military ties with countries around the region as it has been locked in a bitter dispute with Beijing over maritime territorial and navigation rights in the South China Sea, a busy waterway that nearly one-third of all global trade travels through.
Beijing claims nearly the entire sea as its exclusive territory over the objections of most neighboring countries and many others around the world who depend on goods flowing through it. In 2016 an international court ruled in favor of the Philippines and found that China’s claims have “no legal” basis.
China rejected the ruling and has built bases on disputed islands and reefs. The Chinese military also has harassed and sometimes attacked fishermen and other marine workers from the Philippines, including scientists trying to study the ecological impacts of operations in the area.
“The officers and sailors aboard this ship are more than members of our Armed Forces of the Philippines,” said Consul General Arman Talbo, the Philippines’ top diplomat in Hawaii. “They are our fellow Filipinos, our sons, our daughters, our brothers, our sisters, who have chosen a life of service. Their dedication helps safeguard our nation’s sovereignty, protect our people, and contribute to regional peace”
“The presence of this remarkable ship in Honolulu is the source of great pride for the Filipino community here in Hawaii,” Talbo said. “As one of the Philippine navy’s newest and most capable vessels, BRP Miguel Malvar reflects our nation’s steadfast commitment to modernizing its armed forces and strengthening its ability to secure peace, security, and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
The U.S. military, for its part, has conducted frequent “freedom of navigation” operations through the region, increasingly in partnership with other countries, and frequently makes use of Subic Bay and other ports in the Philippines to support its operations.
While U.S. troops left permanent bases in the country in the 1990s after nationalist protests led to their eviction, training rotations by American forces and now those from other countries have increased amid tensions with China along with port calls by warships. Last year, President Donald Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced plans for Subic Bay to become a new arms manufacturing hub.
Camson argued that “Filipinos and the Philippine budget should be going toward people’s rights and education … The working conditions and working-class people of the Philippines are struggling while their leaders are busy participating in RIMPAC when they should be focusing on how to help Filipinos both in the U.S. and back in the Philippines.”
The Philippines is also among the most likely staging areas U.S. troops would use to respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The Philippine military’s top commander, Gen. Romeo Brawner, told his troops in the northern tip of the country last year to “start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan.”
Brawner, an alumnus of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Waikiki, asserted in his remarks that “if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved. There are 250,000 (overseas Filipino workers) working in Taiwan, and we will have to rescue them.”
The Philippine navy also has sent ships, including the Malvar, to train as far away as India and Australia. Talbo said that he sees it as a source of pride that the Philippine navy can now regularly sail its ships across the vastness of the Pacific, arguing that years ago that would have been unthinkable.
Star-Advertiser photo editor George Lee contributed to this report.
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