‘You Just Want To Cry’: Kauaʻi Takes Stock Of Lowell’s Damage

Gentle sea breezes on Thursday afternoon kicked up sand and silt covering the asphalt of Po‘ipū’s Ho‘ona Road. The south shore residential street shows just what happens when beachfront homes lose a fight with storm surges.

A straight shot of the ocean could be seen through a two-story vacation rental after 20- to 30-foot waves took out its four rear windows. The back deck is gone, with only boulders and pieces of concrete left, exposing the house’s piers and foundation. The house’s interior floors were destroyed, along with all its furniture. 

Christian Roman, who is friends with the vacation rental’s owner, said the house took so much damage because waves knocked the seawall over. The force of the water pushed a baby grand piano, which once graced the house’s living room, across the street. 

Two days after the edge of Hurricane Lowell brushed up against Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, a clearer picture is starting to emerge of just how badly the storm battered the state.

On Kaua‘i, residents and businesses tried to pick up the pieces of their neighborhoods, blown askew by Lowell's winds. Tourism officials were urging visitors to stay away for now, but tourists and residents attempting to leave the island were stuck waiting for hours at the airport Thursday as ongoing power failures disrupted security screenings.

On Lānaʻi, a harbor that supplies much of the food and fuel to the island’s 3,300 residents was blocked by fallen shipping containers but was expected to reopen Sunday, state officials said. On Niʻihau, residents have been reported safe, but the level of damage there is not publicly known. 

Gov. Josh Green is now comparing Lowell's overall destruction to Hurricane Iniki, a Category 4 storm that walloped Kaua‘i in 1992 and caused $3 billion in damage. The governor has submitted an expedited request for federal disaster assistance. 

“State, county, utility and emergency personnel are working around the clock, but the scale and urgency of these impacts exceed what Hawaiʻi can address alone,” Green said in a statement. “We are asking our federal partners to act quickly so we can restore essential services, support affected families and rebuild stronger.”

Although days have passed since the storm bore down, the scope of its damage has been difficult to grasp for those outside the hardest-hit areas. Radio transmissions were down on Kauaʻi for days after the storm, and there was little communication about damage estimates from Kauaʻi officials in the immediate aftermath. There has yet to be any official update on the status of Niʻihau, the privately owned island closest to the eye of Lowell, which is home to fewer than 100 people. The Robinson family, which owns the island, is famously reclusive and people who live there are discouraged from speaking publicly.

At least two deaths were linked to the storm. The body of a 74-year-old Kalāheo man was found near a Kauaʻi shoreline. Green said another man was killed on Oahu when a large tree fell on his tent in Waimānalo. 

Many ranchers on Kauaʻi were still unable to access their farms Thursday because of massive fallen trees blocking narrow roadways. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 12,000 utility users on the island were still without electricity, out of a total of 36,000 Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative customers. Seven dialysis patients had to be flown by military helicopter to Oʻahu on Thursday so they could receive their treatment, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said.

The hurricane’s powerful storm surge buckled and washed away roads, knocked down the walls of homes and flooded resorts, sending rapids through a hotel lobby, overturning furniture and leaving debris everywhere. 

Of the small number damage assessments conducted so far — just 231 — the county said 54 homes sustained major damage, and at least seven were destroyed. But assessments are ongoing. 

Some travelers, eager to leave, missed flights because of the airport security delays on Thursday and were left with uncomfortable choices, as many area hotels lacked power or were not taking reservations.

“Most people in line have probably already missed their flights,” said Amelia Gonzalez, who was visiting Kauai from Colorado.

On Thursday evening, a long line of weary travelers snaked around the outside of Līhuʻe Airport. Amelia Gonzalez and her friend had waited in line for three hours and had heard that some travelers had waited nearly all day to get through security. One local woman and her friend who had heard about the long lines came to pass out pizza purchased from Costco, along with water. Airport staff also distributed water, sandwiches and chips. DOT spokesman Russell Pang said.

Power was restored to the airport around 5 p.m. Thursday.

Sinkholes Wreck Lānaʻi Harbor

The storm surge caused by Hurricane Lowell was so intense that shipping containers were washed into the ocean at Lānaʻi’s only commercial harbor. Bollards around the edge of the harbor were dislodged or broken, damaging the protective seawall and causing large sinkholes to form, state Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen said.

“One hole is about 65-by-70-feet or so, and the other is 10-by-20-feet,” Sniffen said.

The damage was severe enough to close the harbor and halt shipments to the island, prompting a wave of panicked grocery shopping and gas station runs. Officials said Thursday that the state would ensure residents had sufficient resources until barge shipments resume — something expected as early as Sunday. 

“It's not going to be a problem,” Sniffen said. “We're going to have other means to bring stuff in as needed.”

State officials are in active communication with interisland shipping company Young Brothers, and are working with the local group Pūlama Lānaʻi to set up a fuel barge drop-off over the weekend. They've also been in touch with Lānaʻi Air about the possibility of flying in other supplies that may be needed, Sniffen said.

Throughout Thursday and Friday, officials plan to use sonar, a barge crane and divers to remove the containers and any other debris that might be clogging up the harbor’s channel. Transportation department crews were also working to fill in the sinkholes, repair the seawall and install new safeguards that should prevent similar damage in the future.

The total cost of repairs is expected to be between $2 and $3 million, he added.

All Accounted For On Battered Niʻihau

On Ni‘ihau, a privately owned island where communication infrastructure is limited and the flow of information is tightly restricted by the Robinson family, details about Lowell’s impact have been slow to emerge.

“The Ni‘ihau community is incredibly resilient and resourceful, and they know how to make the best of what’s available to them,” said Jamie “Tia” Koerte, a Kaua‘i resident of Niʻihauan descent who serves as principal of a Ni‘ihau dialect Hawaiian language immersion school. 

Koerte spoke to island management Thursday and was told that all Ni‘ihau residents had been accounted for. They also said the island has a supply of food and water on hand. Ni‘ihau does not have traditional water infrastructure and instead relies on a system of rainwater catchments. Residents, who number between 50 and 100, rely on solar-powered generators for electricity.

Island management planned to make their first visit to Ni‘ihau since the storm on Thursday, Koerte said, where they would conduct an assessment of the damage. They were not optimistic about the state of structures on the relatively undeveloped island. 

“They're not built to withstand 115 mile per hour winds,” Koerte said.

Reached by phone Thursday, island co-owner Keith Robinson declined to comment due to lack of firsthand information. 

Many of the island's residents were on Kauaʻi for a funeral as the hurricane approached Niʻihau, and they did not have time to prepare for the storm, according to public testimony on Wednesday from Waiui Kanahele, whose family is from Niʻihau.

Supplies to the remote island are typically barged over. Kanahele was on Oʻahu and had been gathering supplies to send back to Niʻihau via Kauaʻi, where most of the island was still without power, but was waiting for approval from the Robinson family.

“Right now we are just leaning on Ke Akua to give us the manaʻo and strength to carry on,” she told trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. 

She said the most pressing needs for residents right now are access to wifi to communicate with their families, gas and food.

Schools Damaged, In The Dark 

As of Thursday morning, nine out of Kauaʻi's 15 campuses had power, and schools were prepared to reopen Monday, the education department said in a news release. Kīlauea Elementary and Hanalei Elementary have no power and limited water, and the two schools will determine whether they can reopen next week by Friday afternoon. 

Teachers are returning to their schools on Friday to prepare for reopening, including planning paper-based lessons in case power isn't available on campus. 

In Līhuʻe, Wilcox Elementary sustained some of the greatest damage after a portable classroom lost its roof and part of the campus' fence was destroyed, Superintendent Keith Hayashi said during Thursday's Board of Education meeting. So far, Kauaʻi schools have filed 90 work orders for campus repairs, reporting damaged roofs, flooding and fallen trees. 

"Our focus is supporting our school communities, restoring safe school operations and welcoming our students back as soon as conditions allow," Hayashi said in the Board of Education meeting. 

Community Support 

Generators sounded throughout Kauaʻi’s Kekaha neighborhood Thursday as two men stood atop a roof, cleaning up damaged pieces. 

Sand and rocks sat piled on the sides of Kaumuali‘i Highway, which was previously impassable to cars. The storm surge carried boulders past the breakwall, onto the highway and into people's driveways and yards.

Kekaha resident Rosie Largo, who had just finished making multiple runs to the landfill with her mom, Rose, said she was shocked to see the state of the road after the storm.

“You just want to cry,” she said.

The last time she saw rocks on the highway was after Hurricane ʻIniki. South swells normally push waves onto the highway but not sand and rocks.

In a testament to Kekaha’s strong community spirit, residents immediately began clearing the highway and people's driveways. Some brought backhoes, others used shovels to clear out driveways and yards covered with several inches of sand. 

Community groups are banding together as well. Mālama Kauaʻi, a local food production nonprofit, is working with a team of volunteers and other community organizations to assess damage around the island, said Executive Director Megan Fox. The goal is reach people who need help immediately rather than wait for government assistance, which can take days or weeks and require lengthy applications to receive. 

“We can have checks in their hand by the end of this week,” Fox said. “And for someone in a state of crisis, that can make a difference and give them some autonomy to get what works for them and what their needs are.”

Kauaʻi Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster — a collective of local nonprofits, faith-based groups, community organizations and businesses working to streamline relief efforts —  has set up a crisis cleanup hotline to connect residents with volunteers who can assist with downed trees and debris removal. The hotline number is 211, and it will be open through Sept. 25. 

The collective is also distributing a Google form for residents to request help, which could range from emotional support to shelter and food. 

Julie Souza, whose family has lived on Ho‘ona Raod for generations, was surrounded by family and friends Thursday picking up wood and other odds and ends that the storm surge had pushed into her yard. After two days of cleaning the larger items, the ground was still littered with pebbles, pieces of asphalt and tiny pieces of drywall.

Every day, she said, people have come by and stayed all day to help her clean up her yard.

“This whole storm,” she said, “has told me once again that aloha is living.”

This story includes reporting by the Associated Press as well as dispatches contributed by Civil Beat reporters Noelle Fujii-Oride on Kauaʻi; Erin Nolan on Maui; Madeleine Valera and Blaze Lovell on Oʻahu; and freelance reporter Guthrie Scrimgeour.