Donnie’s Thanksgiving: _ First-hand Story of Halape’s 1975 Tsunami By Leslee Engler and Donnie Cruz
KeOlaMagazine.com | March - April 2022
I
24
f you lived through an earthquake and The soothing rhythm of the waves as they danced on the tsunami on the beach where your family was camping, you beach sang the perfect lullaby of Hawai‘i. The pickers felt the would remember that very clearly. It took place 47 years ago, magic—and then they felt the quake. and Donnie Cruz remembers every minute of that terrifying The earthquake Madam Pele made at Lae‘apuki between night in 1975 when Madam Pele took the life of her brother. Halapē and Kalapana stunned everyone for miles. People all It was Thanksgiving Eve when the Cruz ‘ohana rode several over the island stood petrified, all senses on high alert, waiting horses on the long trail to Halapē Beach in Kahuku, Ka‘ū, to for what would come next. The 5.7 magnitude quake jolted camp. All 13 keiki the ground all of Alfred “Rico” the way to Hilo, Cruz were there. but Halapē felt it The low tide at most. midnight was their The keiki, still time to pick ‘opihi awake picking from the rocks ‘opihi, looked to add to the to the kūpuna wedding feast of who had felt Donnie’s cousin. the rumbling ‘Opihi are a of Madam Pele traditional delicacy many times, but that would assure not like this. It many children to was 3:36am. the celebrating The horses couple. became very Thirty-two restless before people were the quake and enjoying the now were near perfect weather panic. Donnie’s on the beach that brother, Michael night; a Boy Scout “Micky,” 27, went troop had also to check on hiked there from them. All were Chain of Craters tied up and safe, Road to camp until suddenly under the trees came the crash called Coconut of boulders flying Grove, as they did downhill. The every year. sound came from The kūpuna everywhere, were gathered bouncing off uphill at the Hilina Pali and cabin talking then back again. story, watching The ‘opihi Donnie Cruz, on a recent flight from Hilo to Halapë. photo courtesy of Donnie Cruz the horses that pickers didn’t were in the corral know where to beneath Coconut Grove, and overseeing the ‘opihi picking. run in the confusion, until they saw the water being sucked With campfires burning on the beach, the Boy Scouts told away from the beach and knew to run fast, away from the each other ghost stories on this night of a bright full moon. beach. A tsunami! But, the crashing boulders were coming Low tide was timed with the highest point of the moon. The downhill in a huge wave of their own. Which way was safe? pickers went down to the beach with their sacks for gathering, The campers were between two huge powers of nature they and knives for prying the shells holding fast. The waves could not stop. Most ran uphill. They sensed the thundering were not large on the south coast of the island that night. sound was a huge landslide bearing down on them so they ran
