I spent 24 hours in Haena last week as I was given the opportunity to offer a minimally significant medical assist by working in the context of a very appreciated makeshift but surprisingly well- stocked medical clinic housed in a hotel room at the Hanalei Colony Resort. This temporary and free clinic has been established by a disaster-relief company called Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management, and it has been supported by various pharmacies and by some special people at Wilcox Hospital. I came away from my 24-hour shift with a number of impressions about the people out there, some of whom are long-time friends.
(1) The storm itself was terrifying, with 12 non-stop hours of earth-cracking and explosive thunder, violent lightning that lit up the skies like a strobe, and the hardest torrential rain that you can imagine. Unlike hurricanes, this storm had no name. We miraculously escaped death but I heard many accounts of terror as powerful waters ran through peoples’ first floor while the families and pets huddled together in a loft. Everyone got through it safely and many dove right into remarkable clean-up and salvage labor. Some people are more sensitive to debilitating PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) than others, but a week after the storm and even in the hardy, high-functioning people I could sense post-trauma stress, sometimes in the form of anxiety and depression and physical symptoms, sometimes in the form of relief and laughter, and sometimes (e.g., in young children) not noticeable but still probably lurking.
A second impression was of the grinding and grueling, day-to-day existence taking place out in Haena and Wainiha. Some people lost their homes and that’s obviously grinding and grueling. For many who didn’t, try living in a house that smells of dank mold, stronger day by day and as more rains fall. Other than asthma itself, I’m not aware of diseases that this can cause, but still it isn’t a healthy-feeling environment. Some people have been able to clean out the moldy furniture and carpets and dry wall, but replacement construction materials still can’t be brought in and it’s a hard road ahead for our Kauaians out there. No mail any more, unless you catch a ride on a Zodiac for the day and hitch a ride to the Kilauea post office. No newspapers. One huge positive is that they have electricity and running water, possibly making it less of a disaster area than some cut-off parts of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irma. And there has been outstanding work done via Jetski and Zodiac and military access.
A third impression had to do with the community coming together. Some even expressed how nice it’s been to “have our neighborhood back” — without hundreds or maybe thousands of cars making their daily way to Ke‘e Beach and to the lush and stunning world-class beauty of the area. I saw mothers walking on the road with their baby carriages, kids playing on the road on their bicycles — sights you wouldn’t have seen with all the traffic that was there preceding the no-name storm.
And a fourth impression had to do with the other side of this “back to the old days” coin, namely a catastrophic loss of business for some. I already mentioned the Hanalei Colony Resort and it is a prime example. Empty rooms other than those occupied by relief workers. A nice curio and boutique story that is closed. (Hanalei town itself, although it’s no long cut-off physically, has also suffered catastrophic business loss as well as physical damage. And many miles away, an area in Koloa was badly damaged by a raging stream that overflowed its banks. Similarly with certain areas in Kaepana and Anahola).
An interesting side story is The Opakapaka Cafe that is at the resort. Thanks to donations and amazing volunteers, they have been serving three free meals a day to all comers. For any “Casablanca” aficionados such as myself, the dining area is reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart’s Rick’s Cafe, a gathering place for the full hodgepodge of people who are out there — some rich, some working-class, some leftover “hippies” from the Taylor Camp days, some very local Hawaiians who have lived and ranched in Haena for generations, and some relief workers.
Many pages and in fact some books could be written about the no-name storm and its aftermath, but it’s time to get to the title of this piece. As many of you know, I’m president of the Kauai Lifeguard Association and I have a particular interest in a sub-story of what’s taken place. Two of our Towers, Ke‘e Beach and Haena Beach Park, are now shut down. (Note: Two of our Lifeguards, Chris Pico and Josh Lindstedt, live in Haena, and they along with a couple of resident Kauai Fire Department Firefighters, Gavin Kennelly and Ambo Hedstron, were involved with the critical and remarkable, 48-hour immediate-aftermath recovery work, and they continue to help in the area in many-faceted ways.) A third tower, Lydgate Beach Park, has been crippled because the pond is full of logs that washed down from the Wailua River and that breached the wall of the once-beautiful pond. With so many other priorities of recovery work, it’s not clear when the pond will be restored to the wonderful recreation area that it once was.
One bright spot in the face of all this is that on May Day, we held the blessing for our new Nukumoi lifeguard tower, the first new Kauai tower to go up in the last 10 years. (Note: We have enjoyed the creation of the roving patrol program during this period, and this has been very significant and very effective in our KFD Ocean Safety Bureau’s presence). The tower is a terrific “satellite” complement to the “mother” tower that has already existed at Poipu Beach Park for decades. The mother tower was unable to see around a point that is called the Nukumoi tambolo, and each year for the last five years someone has drowned within 100 yards of the tower, but in the blind-spot area. The Nukumoi tower has solved this problem, and I believe that we can now be assured that some families will be spared the catastrophic loss of one of their members.
I won’t go into details, but it was impressive how many hoops had to be jumped through to get the new tower in place. It required approval from multiple county agencies and committees (including the County Council and the mayor) as well as from two state Department of Land and Natural Resources subcommittees. Much paperwork was involved with all this, but it got done. Then, thanks to our outstanding donors, the Kauai Lifeguard Association was able to purchase the tower itself and donate it to the county Ocean Safety Bureau. Staffing, of course, is provided by our beloved county lifeguards. The timing of the installation of the tower turned out to be special since our South Shore beaches have become slammed with people ever since the Haena and Lydgate sites have temporarily been taken away as beach-goer destination sites.
There is, then, a connection between this South Shore tower and the North Shore disaster that I so briefly described. In some ways the Nukumoi tower’s significance is miniscule in comparison to the North Shore’s troubles and challenges — but, then again, “when a butterfly flutters its wings in New York’s Central Park it might affect a wisp of wind in Hong Kong.” And my hope is that this tower has added a wisp of lift to Kauai.
I close with thanks. Thanks to our donors who made the purchase of the tower possible. Thanks to the county and state officials who guided us through the approval hoops. Thanks to our incredible highway construction workers and engineers who have done amazing and dangerous work on the Haena highway such that one lane is now open for emergency vehicles. Thanks to our firefighters and lifeguards and all manner of disaster relief personnel. And thanks to whoever your God may be for no loss of life in Haena, Hanalei, Koloa, Kaepana, Anahola, and other Kauai sites that were severely impacted by this storm that had no name.
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Monty Downs is a physician and president of the Kauai Lifeguard Association.
Thanks for your insights, Monty. You are a great guy and a credit to our community. Much aloha.
AND THANKS TO YOU DR DOWNS!
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