The Risk of Living in Paradise

Living in paradise on a tropical island is a wonderful experience. As in most areas around the world, we have our risks. So far this year, we have experienced a hurricane watch, a tsunami warning and a false alarm missile attack warning.

The rain forecasted for Saturday, April 14 was nothing out of the ordinary. We received typical flood watch alerts and went about our day.

The afternoon brought torrential rains but still we were not concerned.

A few hours later we nervously watched the little creek directly behind our first floor condo turn into a raging river with strong currents ripping out everything in its path and widening the bed wherever it could.

We had backpacks ready to go. Our plan was simple. Go up to a second story unit. In hindsight maybe we should have been more concerned about the structure of our building but truthfully, it did not cross our minds.

As the tide went out, the river height subsided enough that the Sunday storms did not reach the top of the banks.

The U.S. record breaking 48.69 inches of rain that fell in 24 hours fueled monster waterfalls which in turn caused landslides across the narrow road that is the only source to exit our side of the island.

Six larger and six smaller landslides have been discovered and thousands of pounds of mud, trees, and debris must be cleared from the roadway to allow passage.

Hanalei (Remember Puff the Magic Dragon?) is the first village from our community of Wainiha. The Sunday rains completely flooded the low lying lands, taro fields and homes and stores. The water forged new paths in their race to the ocean taking with them foundations, sheds, belongings, kayaks, etc. I hate to say it but there was a dead wild pig in our beach this morning that probably tumbled his way to the ocean and drowned.

The bison in the picture above was forced to the surf by the raging waters and thankfully rescued by good samaritans.

We lost power for a short period but many other areas were out for 48 hours. Our water was out for two days and we were thankful to have it restored much sooner than we thought.

Our only issue is that we are cut off from any services, stores, the post office and for now, the internet.

Early reports on our road is one to two months before we can use it. We could have been evacuated with the tourists, elderly and infirm but we want to stay.

We can work from here with our phones using data from an unlimited plan.

The U.S. Army, National Guard, and the County of Kaua‘i have airlifted over 125 people from our area.

Our resort, Hanalei Colony. is also offering food and other supplies to those in need through relief efforts of the National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, Kaua‘i Fire Department, Kaua‘i Police Department, American Medical Response, the American Red Cross, along with Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers and other partners.

They are providing essential public safety services, food, water and supplies into Wainiha and Hā‘ena.

The immediate appearance of people from all these agencies is amazing. Many people have lost their homes and belongings and are in dire need of assistance.

Yes, it was a scary experience. More rains are forecasted but we believe they won’t be as severe. I do have concerns about Hanaleitown handling more water. But Hawaiian people — both locals and transplants are resilient. They beat Hurricane Iniki in 1992 and will survive the 2018 Kauai Floods.

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