‘Surreal’ homecoming

LIHU‘E — The San Francisco International Airport was a ghost town Wednesday as Kalaheo resident Kathi Lee made her way back to Kaua‘i.

“It was surreal,” Lee said Thursday. “I felt like I was in one of those movies about a pandemic.”

Lee was returning from a visit with her daughter in Santa Clara, California. She left March 5 for a short stay, but the trip had been extended a few times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has uprooted normal life and restricted travel.

As she was booking her flight home, online seating charts showed near-full planes. Lee, who had been sheltering in place with her daughter for the past month, was worried her efforts to stay healthy could be compromised by being on a long-distance flight next to somebody carrying the virus.

Lee contacted Hawaiian Airlines, which is the only service flying into Lihu‘e Airport at this time, to find out its policies on social distancing.

According to the airline’s website, there are increased cleaning and sanitation measures in the aircraft and in airport terminals, and flight crews have the option of wearing gloves and masks. Additionally, cabin air is cleaned through high-efficiency particulate air filters which create a sterile environment “inhospitable to the growth of viruses,” the website states.

Nowhere on the website did it state policies similar to American Airlines’s “relaxed seating,” which blocks some of the middle seats on each plane, or passenger-capacity reductions as other airlines have implemented. One representative informed her that all seats were available on the flight, so she rescheduled her flight from Monday to Wednesday.

Over the course of the weekend before the flight, Lee got a hold of a representative who informed her that the online chart was incorrect.

“He says that there are usually about 200 empty seats on the plane and plenty of room for social distancing,” Lee said. The representative offered to make sure there would be a buffer around her.

On Wednesday, 30 people flew into Lihu‘e from out of state. This included 20 residents, one intended resident and three visitors, according to the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. On Monday, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, 189 passengers arrived in Lihu‘e through inter-island travel.

Where Lee sat, she counted two other passengers in her cabin who also wore masks, as well as flight attendants who wore blue surgical masks.

“I think Hawaiian Airlines it providing a service to residents getting home,” Lee said. “I would have been home weeks ago had I known the flights weren’t full.”

Throughout her experience, Lee was reminded of the state’s 14-day, mandatory self-quarantine, signing that she understood the policy when she landed in Honolulu and in Lihu‘e. She even had her temperature checked after deplaning a flight.

This was similar to Mike Dunn’s experience earlier this month.

Dunn recalled four instances when the crew reminded the three passengers on the flight from Seattle of the two-week, state-mandated, self-quarantine residents and visitors would have to adhere to once they landed at Lihu‘e Airport.

Since the mandate has been in effect, five out-of-state visitors have been arrested on Kaua‘i for breaking these rules that require residents and visitors to remain in a designated property for 14 days. Violators of this mandatory quarantine could face up to $5,000 in fines and/or a year in prison, if convicted.

When Dunn came into Lihu‘e on April 2, he was one of three passengers, and the only one to declare himself as a visitor. He did that even though he has owned his condo at The Cliffs in Princeville since 2015, and his wife is a full-time resident of the island. Eventually, he hopes to make the switch in the next couple of years, but as an independent engineering consultant, some of his work keeps him in California.

“We’re not vacationing,” Dunn said. “Our plan is to make Kaua‘i our home.”

As he deplaned in Lihu‘e, Dunn and the other passengers were met by state Department of Health officials. They took his agriculture form, reminded him of the quarantine, checked his identity, and wrote down the specifics of his trip.

That afternoon, officials called the general manager of the property to confirm Dunn arrived at the reported address. That same night, officials called him to confirm he was at the address he listed.

Two days later, on April 4, officials called to check on the status of his quarantine, and asked if he had any symptoms and about what he was doing.

Health officials called one last time five days later, on April 9, again asking if he was experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19.

Dunn’s quarantine ended Thursday, April 16. During the past two weeks, he deep-cleaned his condo and painted the interior. He’s now looking forward to getting some surf and seeing the sunset from outside his property.

Lee will quarantine with her husband, who picked her up at the airport. At a checkpoint as they left the airport, personnel took down their names, checked their licenses and wrote down their car’s license-plate number.

“All in all, I was touched by the travel experience,” she said. “I felt a renewed pride in Americans’ ability to work together to keep each other safe.”

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Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.