September 18, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Contact: Josh Bell, Associate Director, 808.747.8051
Cindi Preller, Executive Director, 808.209.5113

Headline: The Pacific Tsunami Museum Returns to Full Hours on October 3rd

Sub-Title: Reopening Day brings live music, a living history reenactment of the 1975 Halapē tsunami, and the launch of the We’re Back! Membership Drive!!

HILO, Hawaiʻi – The Pacific Tsunami Museum is back. Beginning October 3rd, the museum returns to full operating hours, daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., for the first time since December 2024.

Everything kicks off with an expanded First Saturday celebration, featuring live music with Lito Arkangel in the morning and Kanoa Fong in the afternoon. Free admission for all Hawaiʻi residents. At noon, Jackie Pualani Johnson’s living history performance “HALAPĒ '75: A CREVICE IN TIME” returns to the museum, with a special appearance by 1975 Halapē tsunami survivor, Fal Allen.

“Stories never lose their vitality,” says Johnson, who created the piece and premiered it last November.

Founded in 1994 with a mission to save lives through education, the Pacific Tsunami Museum nearly shuttered after laying off its staff in late 2024. At that time, the Olson Trust stepped in to help, and the museum mounted a phased Revitalization Plan that successfully stabilized operations. Community support took over from there as gifts from $25 to $25,000 arrived from Hawaiʻi Island, across the state, from the continent, and beyond.

“During our stabilization we managed to be open for limited hours on weekends,” says Executive Director Cindi Preller. “We’re thrilled to be back full time!”

The We’re Back! Membership Drive launches on Reopening Day, with the Olson Trust matching every new and renewed membership.

“Join today!” says Museum Board member John Cross. “Expanding the museum’s membership and bringing visitors back into the museum will bring new life and revenues to the museum. And when we’re ready, our goal is to pull off a full transformation of the museum so that it will be an anchor and must-see destination in downtown Hilo.”

For the week of Fall Break (October 5–9), the museum will offer its ‘Nature’s Warning Signs’ interactive life-saving training for kids daily, at noon.

State and federal funding has strengthened the museum’s Kama'aina Initiative, which performs outreach and tsunami education directly to the community. New program staff have been hired and the museum is building capacity to serve more schools and train more people in partnership with county emergency managers.

“We have over 700 stories recorded from tsunami survivors, and they all help us to educate our community,” says Preller. “The museum’s own story of survival is still in the making.”

For more information, visit PTM online at tsunami.org, call 808.935.0926, or visit in person at 130 Kamehameha Avenue, Hilo, HI, 96720.

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