(Hilo-AP) -- The clock on the tall green pedestal on Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo still freezes the moment.
That is -- 1:04 a-m -- the time a deadly tsunami struck Hilo on May 23, 1960, leaving the timepiece as one of few surviving landmarks. The 35-foot wall of water destroyed much of Hilo and killed 61 people.
The Pacific Tsunami Museum will commemorate the 44th anniversary with the Tsunami Story Festival, ``When Time Stood Still.''
Five survivors of the 1960 tsunami will be honored at the event, including 95-year-old Fusayo Ito who was knocked unconscious when the tsunami wave hit her Waiakea home.
When she came to, she was enveloped by both darkness and water, adrift far from shore, floating on a screen door ripped from its hinges.
After hours passed, she resigned herself to a water death. But she was eventually rescued by the Coast Guard.
Others to be honored are Robert Fujimoto, Al Inoue, June Shigemasa and Takayoshi Kanda.
The 1960 tsunami was generated by an eight-point-six-magnitude earthquake in Chile that traveled about 62-hundred miles before reaching Hawaii. It caused little damage outside Hilo.
(Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
