Hanalei without food, water as a result of rains and flooding

TGI Staff Writer

Hanalei residents yesterday found themselves without water, and with no place to get groceries, as weather-related incidents caused problems.

Residents began reporting water outages around 11 a.m., and by 12:30 p.m. water service was restored through the county Department of Water’s emergency interconnection with the private Princeville system, explained Ed Tschupp, DOW deputy manager.

A manager at the Big Save Value Center in Ching Young Village who lives on the Hanalei side of the bridge over the Hanalei River, closed by rising river waters since early Monday morning, did not risk opening the store because she didn’t have enough staff to run the store.

So, the store did not open at all yesterday. It is the only grocery store on the Hanalei side of the river.

The closing of Kuhio Highway in the vicinity of the bridge over the Hanalei River meant a DOW electrician had to take a ride on Inter-Island Helicopters yesterday afternoon to see exactly what the problem was with the Hanalei system, which serves around 1,000 people through 317 metered accounts, Tschupp said.

If the suspected culprit was an electrical problem the electrician could fix, he planned to fix it yesterday. If it was a complicated problem requiring a Kauai Electric crew to respond, the fix may have to wait until today, or whenever a KE crew can get across the river, he explained.

Regardless of the outcome, customers on the Hanalei system (Hanalei to Ha’ena) are requested to conserve water until further notice, so as to not place a strain on the Princeville system, he said.

No DOW employees live on the Hanalei side of the river.

The Princeville Utilities Company, Inc. water operation will bill the county for water usage until the Hanalei system is back online, Tschupp said.