If you visited Hilo...
You noticed a large grassy park- very beautiful and very well kept- it used to be a busy businss and residential area until 1960 when an earthquake off of south america sent a Tsunami crashing in...
The earthquake that caused the 1960 tsunami occurred off the west coast of South America and had a magnitude between 8.25 and 8.5. The waves reached the Hawaiian Islands in about 15 hours. This tsunami caused little damage elsewhere in the islands, but the Hilo Bay area was hard hit. 61 people lost their lives and about 540 homes and businesses were destroyed or severely damaged. The wave heights in Hilo Bay reached 35 feet, compared to only 3-17 feet elsewhere. The water washed far inland through the entire present downtown area.
from: http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~sumner/Teaching/GEL116f00/tsunami2.html