The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-02-12
HILO'S TIDAL WAVE
HILO TRIBUNE.
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Through the courtesy of Sheriff ]. c.
SearIe. the Tribune is able to repro
duce herewith vivid account of the
tidal wave, which deluged Hilo on May
10 1877. and resulted in the loss of
many lives and property. The account
is in the form of an official report of
Sheriff Severance addressed to Mar
shall w. c. Parl1e. and is as follows:
Hilo, May II, 1877.
W. c. Parke, Esq, Marshal.
Dear Sir: We have had a great
disaster at HiIo. On Thursday morn
ing the 10th inst, at about 4 o'clock
a. m, the sea in the bay was seen to
rise and fall in an unusual manner.
and at o'clock it swept in, in
mighty wave, washing up and into
nearly all the stores in the front of
the town, carrying off a great deal of
lumber and all the stone wall makai of
the wharf. The perpendicular height
of the wave Gas We have since ascer-
tanned by levelling with the lamp-post
on the WHARF was II feet 8 inches
above the ordinary low water mark.
But at Waiakea the damage was
frightful; every house within a hun
dred yards of the water was swept
away The steamboat wharf and the
storehouse. Spencer's storehOuse the
bridge across the stream, and all the
dwelling houses were swept away in
an instant, and now lie a mass of
ruins far inland. Five lives were lost,
and numbers bruised and had limbs
broken. The body of one woman was
found by the boats off Honolii. The
boats of the American whaleship Pa
cific, Capt. Smithers, lying in the har-
Dor, picked up six people who were
swimming for their lives in the Bay.
The Pacific was lying in 4 fathoms of
water. but she grounded when the sea
receded, and then would be whirled
round and round as the sea came in
again. All expected to see her drag
ashore.
The sea continued to rise and fall all
day. 1 timed one of the tides in the
morning about o'clock, and from it's
lowest ebb to its full flood was only
about 4 minutes. 1t rose about Il feet
perpendicular height in that time. In
the afternoon in the space of one hour,
the sea rose and fell three times with
feet each time.
Mr.. Roses tin shop was foated off
its foundations, and is now in the mid
die of the street.
The poor people at Waiakea are in
a sad. state; houses destroyed and ut
terly destitute; their goods and furni-
ture scattered far and wide on sea
and land. The water was inches deep
in awe c-+a -hAr, h. or IL
wave came in. The wave at Waiakea
must have had a perpendicular height
of 16 feet, to have taken the bridge
and wharf where they now lie. The
water swept completely over Cocoanut
Island, and the hospital there has dis
appeared. The oil of the bark Pacific,
stored in Spencers storehouse, has
been nearly all found scattered about
among the bushes and trees, a long
ways in shore from the place where
the storehouse stood.
There has been nothing like this tidal
wave since the year 1887, nearly 40
years ago, when many grass houses
We're destroyed.
I have made a careful investigation
of the extent of the disaster, and find |
as follows, viz: Thirty-seven dwell |
ing houses entirely destroyed; seven |
teen badly injured; five people drown |
ed and killed; seven badly injured; |
one hundred and sixty-three left home |
less and destitute; seventeen horses
and mules drowned-this is exclusive |
of the government property. Sisson |
estimates his loss lin lumber) at sew
eral thousand dollars. The total dam |
age has been estimated as high as
$4,000 to $4,000. which is, [ think, |
low estimate, as several thousand dol |
lars worth of stores belonging to the |
ship Josephine, and about thirty bar
rels of oil, of the Pacific, are still to i
be accounted for.
Yours, in haste,
L. SEVERANCE.
At a meeting of the Cabinet Ministers
today, it was decided to send pecuni-