LIHUE — Kauai Community College instructor Dr. Brian Yamamoto said Friday was just like Okinawa during the typhoon season.
“When they get a typhoon, everybody comes out to watch the surfers,” he said. “Normally, they don’t even have waves.”
Yamamoto was one of the KCC escorts who took advantage of the calm before the storm to give their guests from the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing a sightseeing tour.
“The students are supposed to have home stay,” said Kyoko Ikeda, overseas instruction coordinator. “But the weather conditions are uncertain, and since the college is closed through the weekend we’re housing the students on campus. This is something for the students to do.”
The student group was among the throngs of people who collected along Kauai’s southern coastlines where the storm surge from Hurricane Lane made its appearance.
Then-Hurricane Lane generated the life-threatening surf that impacted the south-facing shores with wrap-around effects on the eastern coastlines.
Combined with the winds generated ahead of the storm, surfers converged at the Ammonia’s break in Kalapaki to take advantage of the surf-able waves generated by the storm surge. Current observations from Honolulu Harbor indicate water levels running about a half-foot above the predicted tide levels, and significant overwash along low-lying coastal areas and roadways will be possible.
County officials posted a monitor at the jetty parking area access gate as Nawiliwili Harbor was closed Thursday night in consideration of the approaching storm.
“We have to make sure people don’t walk to the jetty area,” said a water safety officer from the Kauai Fire Department Ocean Safety Bureau. “They had the sheriffs doing this duty earlier in the day, and we do get help from the roving patrols. The Coast Guard checks on us every hour, and when the ocean settles they put out the patrol boat.”
The National Weather Service issued a high-surf warning through early Saturday morning for south-facing shores.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
