8 parks closing later for summer

Eight state parks on Oahu are due to close an hour later starting this month.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources says the parks will close at 7:45 p.m. They will continue to open at the same time, 7 a.m. Parks adopting the summer schedule are: Ka Iwi Scenic Shoreline, Kahana Beach Park, Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area, Malaekahana State Recreation Area, Puu Ualakaa State Wayside, Sand Island State Recreation Area, Waahila Ridge State Recreation Area, and Wahiawa Freshwater State Recreation Area.

Swim classes set

The American Red Cross is offering free swim classes for children and adults in June and July at Ala Moana Beach Park. Register at www.hawaiiredcross.org, or call 739-8179. Adults and teen volunteers are needed; call 739-8179 or email meinelm@hawaiiredcross.org.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Tsunami survivor recalls havoc

HILO >> Three weeks after a massive tsunami killed thousands in northeastern Japan and swamped Big Island resorts, Hilo residents are remembering tsunamis that killed 159 people statewide 65 years ago.

Waves generated by a magnitude-7.1 quake in the Aleutian Islands pounded Hilo on April 1, 1946.

Janet Kinoshita Fujimoto, now 74, told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald the waves spun her family’s two-story house on Piopio Street. Water rose to the 9-year-old’s chest.

“Then, all of a sudden, the wave started to recede, and it just pulled us. You could hear the sound of crackling from the other houses and our house breaking apart,” Fujimoto said. “Then we heard the next-door neighbor calling. He said he lost his son, couldn’t find him. He slept in the basement, and they lost him.”

Fujimoto and other Hilo tsunami survivors are due to speak April 17 at the ninth annual Tsunami Story Festival at the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo.

Hawaii installed a territorywide tsunami warning system in 1948 and used it during tsunamis that came in 1952 and 1957.

Even so, the system was unable to prevent a tsunami generated by a quake off Chile from destroying much of downtown Hilo in May 1960. Sixty-one people were killed.