From the RC-AAM list serve forwarded to Ted Greenberg

Treasured Museum Artifacts Damaged By Tsunami - Honolulu News Story - KITV Honolulu.

Hulihe'e Palace Once Hawaiian Royalty Vacation Home, Now Museum

Lara Yamada KITV4 News Anchor

KONA, Hawaii -- "This is an old photo of princess Kaiulani," said Palace Administrator Fanny Au Hoy as she showed KITV4's Lara Yamada into the palace basement.

In it you see lithographs of Hawaiian monarchy soaked and smeared with mud, and muck, muting the silver surface of a daguerreotype picture of Princess Ruth.
"You may be able to salvage this?" Yamada asked.

"We don't know," said Au Hoy. "We're going to ask the folks as the University of Hawaii to take a look at it."

It is a scramble at Hulihe'e Palace in Kona on the Big Island to remove the irreplaceable.

"Our basic concern is to empty out this room as soon as we can before mold starts to grow," said Au Hoy.

The palace lawn is littered with artifacts that are now washed of the salt water the tsunami washed in.  Au Hoy says she's thankful for the day's sun and wind, to dry the stone artifacts, the wooden bowls, and even more so, the centuries old mats.
"Much of our artifacts like our tapa that dates back to possibly the 17 and 18 hundreds were all under water," she said.

In the basement the racks of artifacts are empty.

The walls and doors are marked with the rising water that nearly filled the basement.  With mold and mildew their enemy, they know the work down there will be much harder.  "This is like my fourth disaster I've been through!" said Au Hoy.

She said she's unsure when the palace will reopen, or what may be lost for good, but she said volunteers are working fast to help save a part of history.  "You just move on one step at a time and you do the best that you can with limited things that you have to do it with and you just move forward and don't look back," she said.

It took 1.5 million dollars to repair the damage done by an earthquake in October 2006.  The palace reopened in September 2009.  Hulihe'e is also in a flood zone, so Au Hoy says they have no flood insurance, but she said the palace itself was relatively untouched, and she knows they find a way to recover again.