On April 1, 1946 the Big Island of Hawaii was struck by the so-called “April Fools Day tsunami”, originating from an Aleutian Islands earthquake. Approximately 160 people on the island were killed. While the greatest number of deaths occurred in Hilo, the school building at Laupāhoehoe was inundated, and twenty students and four teachers were drowned. A monument to the dead now stands on Laupāhoehoe Point. The town was moved up on to the hilltop so that they would never be hit by a tsunami again.
