Hawai'i Community Development Authority

COURTESY PHOTO
The Hilo tsunami clock memorial may be relocated to a yet-to-be-determined site that offers greater public visibility. It is currently on Kamehameha Avenue on the edge of the Grand Naniloa Golf Course. The clock, from the former Waiakea Social Settlement, was frozen at 1:04, the time an early morning tsunami struck East Hawaii killing 61 people.

The Hilo tsunami clock — a landmark along Kameha­meha Avenue at the edge of the Grand Naniloa Golf Course — might get a new home 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 frozen at 1:04 — the time it was 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 tourist attraction.

“Nobody can enjoy it, because you cannot park. And this was such a historical event,” she 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 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 swept away along with the Waiakea Social Settlement by the third and largest tsunami wave of the disaster, was found amid 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 Pacific 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.