Flooding in downtown Hilo. Courtesy Tsunami Warning Center

He climbed a 20-foot ladder to scaffolding in a harbor warehouse, dodging the tsunami wave as it smashed through the wall and roared under his feet.

"The water was just 2 to 3 feet below me," he recalled.

From the height of the ladder he estimates the water depth at 18 feet.

Lee was to be a featured speaker today at a memorial at the Hawaii County Building, along with county Civil Defense Administrator Harry Kim.

Survivors of the 1946 tsunami planned to gather today, with another gathering planned for Thursday at Laupahoehoe. A total of 159 people were killed in Hilo and Laupahoehoe.

Fifty years ago, events began relatively calmly with someone shouting to the warehouse workers to come out and see water going down in the bay.

Several stevedores ran to the exposed bottom of the bay near the shore to pick up fish. The water receded and rose slowly several times, Lee said.

The harbor was about 30 feet deep, and water receded enough for ships' propellers to be exposed while their mooring lines snapped.

Lee decided to get a better look out to sea, so he climbed a short distance up an abandoned Coast Guard tower.

"I saw a brown wall of water the length of the harbor coming in. The wall began to get higher and higher and higher. The whistling sound that accompanied it got louder."

Lee yelled to another worker to run, then rushed to climb the scaffolding ladder.

After the water smashed through, it pulled back - but was still a foot or more deep as Lee climbed down and ran through the warehouse. Outside, he saw a railroad car lifted 3 feet off its tracks and, in the distance, 2-ton boulders rolling in the bay breakwater.

With his glasses still on, Lee jumped into the bay, boiling with rubbish, and swam to a ship with a gangplank dangling out.

Just as he got aboard, the next wave washed the gangplank away.

The captain turned the ship toward the sea and headed full speed toward Maui.

The ship's crew offered Lee coffee but, he recalled, "I was so shaking I couldn't drink."That night he called his wife from Maui to tell her he was all right.