Originally Posted by OzMan

I know what you mean. I was looking for the 50 foot high Tsunami video like in the movies given all the tourists with camcorders. The one they keep showing of the wave breaking over the pool is like any seawall on an average day.

As was said in above posts maybe the big waves didn't hit the tourist areas or maybe all those camcorders are floating around with bodies right now.

However, there is a lot of misinformation in this thread.

For all you living in cave for the last week, the waves don't hit the beach at 100 200 300 or more miles per hour. They slow down dramatically depending on the shape of the ocean floor as they approach the coast. There was one report I read of a guy that saw the first wave coming and was getting all his family off the beach into a building when he realized his son was still down the beach. He had time to run down to the waters edge grab his son and got about 50 yards before the wave caught up with them (they survived)..He wouldn't have been able to do this with a 100 MPH wave.

Waves in Hawaii do start hundreds or thousands of miles away, from storms and occasionally earthquakes near Japan, Alaska etc. There is nothing to stop them reaching Hawaii without losing strength as it's all open ocean. The shape of the beach determines what the water will do when it gets there but the bigger swell at Waimea washes over the road on occasion.

Everyone greatly underestimates the power of water; well actually its momentum. Momentum comes from mass and speed. If you have one or the other or both you have a lot of momentum.

It only takes water one foot deep flowing at ten miles per hour to knock you off your feet. So think about the power of a large mass of water say five feet deep flowing at 30 MPH up the beach and one mile inland. If you are in its path you will be carried away inland and then carried back out to sea, repeated four or five times as you get hit by everything along the way. Stationary suff like trees and buildings as well as debri that is moving like you are.