After laying off his 10-person team and cutting his hours ahead of the new year, the Pacific Tsunami Museum (PTM) in Hilo, Hawaii‘i is doing everything it can to stay open in the face of mounting financial problems that threaten to close the space completely.
Strategically placed along Hilo Bay which was devastated by many deadly tsunamis in the 20th century, the museum plays a crucial role in educating locals and tourists about the signs and safety maneuvers for tsunamis. The institution includes the accounts of survivors and commemorates the hundreds of deaths from natural disasters along the coast.
PTM president Cindi Preller, who said she had forfeited her own salary during the layoffs, said this Hawaii Public Radio that the museum is currently completely dependent on weekend volunteers and docents – including themselves. Preller and the museum are looking for financing options and investors to help alleviate the financial strain of a leaking roof, broken air conditioning system, subsequent mold and other building maintenance work, along with reduced traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Olsen Trust, a Hawaii‘i-based nonprofit recently investing in sustainable local agriculture and social and environmental causes donated $200,000 to the museum and has called on other Hilo businesses to do the same, as repairs could cost up to $1 million.
The museum did not immediately respond Hyperallergic‘s request for comment.
Tsunami expert Walter Dudley and Jeanne Branch Johnston, who survived Hawaii‘i’s deadliest modern tsunami in 1946 that killed 159 people, he co-founded the museum in 1994. The First Hawaiian Bank donated the historic Kamehameha Branch building to the museum in 1997 as a permanent home, where it remains today. The building is almost 100 years old and therefore requires major renovations and maintenance.
In a separate interview with the Kaua’i news station Garden islandMuseum President Carol Walker explained that the institution was suffering from fewer visitors due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Hawaii tourism‘i, and acknowledged the passing of several major donors.
Walker also noted that while the museum has thrived in the past, it has “become a little less immediate for some people because there hasn’t been a tsunami in a long time, which is great.”
“But it also means that people’s memories are fading, and some of the people most directly affected have died,” Walker continued, noting that this may have impacted fundraising. She explained that the three critical elements that make the museum worth saving are its meaningful history and place in the community, the failure of the science behind tsunamis, and its commitment to safety and risk reduction through education.
In addition to financing options, Preller said Hawaii Public Radio that she is looking for an archivist to preserve and digitize the museum’s collections, including hundreds of oral interviews with tsunami survivors conducted by co-founder Johnson.
‘It is thanks to the interviews with survivors that we know what they are [tsunami] warning signs are … the stories of the survivors teach us exactly what is happening at that moment,” Preller said. “I mean, we can’t set up instruments to measure what’s happening during the event because it’s all being destroyed.”
