Why is April Important?

For decades, officials from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC), along with the Pacific Tsunami Museum, and other government officials have used April 1st as the beginning of a month-long campaign to spread the word on how to recognize and mitigate hazards from tsunami. 

This post was written by Dr. Walter C. Dudley, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii at Hilo in partnership with the Pacific Tsunami Museum. 

Tsunamis are by far Hawai‘i’s most dangerous natural hazard, having killed more people over the past 200 years than earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes - combined. The Hawaiian Islands sit right in the bullseye for tsunamis generated all around the Pacific Rim coming from Alaska, Chile, Japan and even the southwest Pacific. But not only are we struck by tsunamis from all those far-away places, but we create our own tsunamis right here in the islands.

We have records of deadly tsunamis striking in 1837 and 1868, but the greatest loss of life from a tsunami here in the islands was on April 1st, 1946. That tsunami was created by a large undersea earthquake off the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. It crossed the North Pacific, first striking the Island of Kaua‘i.

Project Vision Hawai‘i is a Hawai‘i-based organization that provides vision assistance, hot showers, wound care, case management, housing placement, SNAP & Medicaid enrollment, and more. 

Anaina Hou is excited to partner with Project Vision Hawai‘i to provide a safe place to administer healthcare services to the community. We look forward to hosting Project Vision Hawai‘i soon! Stay tuned for more details. 

“Project Vision Hawai‘i works to ensure that vulnerable populations and

access-challenged communities across the state have access to vital health and human services. We are so excited to partner with Anaina Hou Community Park to serve the North Shore community of Kaua‘i.”

– Project Vision Director of Philanthropy, Ryan Naka