Hilo tsunami clock memorial to be moved? – Hawaii Tribune-Herald

The Hilo tsunami clock — a landmark along Kamehameha Avenue at the edge of the Grand Naniloa Golf Course — might find itself with new digs as part of the Waiakea Peninsula revitalization.

State Sen. Lorraine Inouye, a Hilo Democrat, said she secured $200,000 in capital improvement funds to move the iconic clock, which is forever frozen at 1:04 — the time it was damaged and disabled by the early morning tsunami that flattened the sleeping Hilo waterfront on May 23, 1960, killing 61 people.

According to Inouye, the clock’s current location doesn’t maximize its potential as either a historical marker or a tourist attraction.

“Nobody can enjoy it, because you cannot park. And this was such a historical event,” Inouye said.

Inouye added that she’ll be “working in tandem” with the Hawaii Community Development Authority and consultants working on the redevelopment of the peninsula to move the clock.

She said she’d like to move it to a location in the development with parking and encase the memorial “with a good storyboard.”

Cindi Preller, executive director of the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo, said Inouye approached her about moving the clock earlier in the year. Although Preller doesn’t know where the clock might be moved, she’s in support because in its current location, “people can’t stop and park there.”

According to the Pacific Tsunami Museum’s website, the clock was at the Waiakea Social Settlement building at the corner of Kamehameha Avenue and Lihiwai Street, a few hundred yards in the Hamakua direction. The clock, which was destroyed along with the Waiakea Social Settlement by the third and largest tsunami wave, was found amongst the rubble, the time of 1:04 on the clock’s face a perpetual reminder of devastating occurrence.

Waiakea Town — once a vibrant community with shops, schools, restaurants and even a movie theater — wasn’t rebuilt.

The clock, which stands as a memorial for those who lost their lives in the 1960 tsunami, is listed on the tsunami museum’s website as the “Waiakea Kai Clock.”

It also has a status and following among a niche group of visitors. The website RoadsideAmerica.com, which markets itself as “your online guide to offbeat tourist attractions,” lists the memorial as “Tsunami Clock of Doom.”

“The clock, on its green metal pole, is now a memorial, standing along a busy thoroughfare in one of the areas of devastation, in front of a golf course. A 20-ft. high wave hit here. The clock’s hands are frozen at that moment: 1:04 a.m.,” the website states.

Email John Burnett at john.burnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.