The Nome Nugget

Advance Warning Saves Many
Hawaii Islanders from Crushing Tidal Waves

HONOLULU. (AP) -- A series of surging tidal waves killed at least 15 persons in Hilo today, police said. They reported dozens of others were missing.

The awesome waves, generated by the earthquakes in Chile, rolled relentlessly across the vast Pacific.

Mass evacuations because of forewarnings sharply cut the losses in the Hawaiian Islands.

All deaths occurred this time in Hilo. Many persons were injured and others reported trapped there.

One eyewitness said the waves hit "with the roar of a freight train."

The massive waves rolled across the Pacific from their suboceanic birthplace on the Chilean coast where a continuing series of heavy earthquakes and tidal waves caused more than 300 deaths and tremendous damage.

The waves smashed the island of Hawaii in four mighty surges, with Hilo taking the brunt of it.

Hilo is on the northeast coast of the island, easternmost in the Hawaiian chain.

The biggest wave - topping six feet -- hit at 1:05 a.m., sending a wall of water into the Hilo Theater and plunging the city in darkness when it shorted out the city's power station.

Hit Before in 1946

Hilo, with a population of 25,000, bore the brunt of a tidal wave in 1946 when 159 persons were killed and 163 injured.

Residents and tourists in Honolulu's plush Waikiki Beach resort area and other low-lying coastal zones were evacuated to higher ground.

Civil Defense authorities said the death toll might have been much higher if residents had not been warned to head for higher ground.