Hurricane Iniki: Hawaii’s major calamity

Disaster

By Ed Rampell

FOR me, Hurricane Iniki started on the morning of Friday, September 11 with ominously high waves, pounding the beach where I live at Makaha, Oahu’s most northwestern village. From my lanai , I saw at least two turtles riding the crest of the pounders off the leeward coast. Were these endangered creatures truly in danger, or were the turtles

merely having fun, surfing?

Fearful that my top floor apartment at the Makaha Beach cabanas could turn into a wind tunnel, blasting razor sharp shards of glass from the front windows and lanai door, I evacuated to the house of Hawaiian friends about six miles away at Nanakuli. En route, Farrington High way was whipped by high winds at 2.30 pm., as sand and debris flew across the four-lane road. Glass bottles blew across the path,and I was forced to drive on the wrong side of the road.

But I made it, turning off the coastal highway and inland at Nanakuli. My Hawaiian friends were prepared with lanterns (the electricity went out around 11.00 am) , propane stove, plenty of batteries for radios, and food. The brunt of Iniki spared most of Waianae, the closest part of Oahu to Kauai about 100 miles northwest, as the hurricane zoomed in a frenzy toward the Garden Isle. We passed the storm in relative safety and comfort.

For me, Hurricane Iniki ended on Monday, when, for the first time since the storm churned the sea, I was able to go back into the water. About 50 feet

from shore, a local boy and I chatted about how relaxing and unstressing the ocean was. Suddenly, about 10 feet behind us, a black dorsal fin sliced the sea’s surface. My companion and I shot each other a panicky glance, and made a mad dash toward shore. It turned out the fin didn’t belong to jaws, but rather

to two stingrays, mating. Nevertheless,

we evacuated the beach; stringray coitus interruptus is one of the last things you want to cause. Although the rays came within 20 feet of shore, no none was harmed.

Unfortunately, the same wasn’t true about Kauai, where Hurricane Iniki battered the Garden Island by 3.30 pm on September 11 with 165-mile-per-hour winds. By the time the eye of the hurricane passed, at least four people (one at Oahu) died from storm-related causes, 100 people were injured, and more than a billion dollars islandwide damage was done to Kauai.

On September 12, after the cyclone’s fury was spent, Mayor JoAnn Yukimura and Governor John Waihee took a 90-minute helicopter ride across the 33-mile wide, 25-mile long island so renowned for its beauty that movies starring Elvis, King Kong, and the current release Honeymoon In Vegas were shot on location there. Hundreds of thousands of tourists per year flocked to the Hawaiian destination; many took

chopper tours.

But after her flight, Mayor Yukimura, local girl, gasped, ‘T saw totall destruc tion it broke my heart... Huge chunks of shoreline along the Na Pali Coast (Kauai’s famed northwestern seaside

nature preserve) were washed away and there is a lot of erosion. It is like the coast aged a century in one day.”

Out of a population of 50,000 people, at least 8000 were homeless. Along with tourism, agriculture was Kauai’s main industry. Sugar cane crops were torn to pieces. Two per cent of macadamia nut trees survived. Essential services, such as phones, water, and power were dis rupted, and are still not completely restored. Hawaiian Electric Company estimates 85 per cent of Kauai will have power back by Thanksgiving in late November. Public schools reopened at the end of September.

The insurance industry says Hurricane Iniki is the third most expensive natural disaster in American history. Fifty thou sand insurance claims are expected, for a whopping $1.6 billion that does not include flood, public property, and crop damage. There are more than 12,100 applications for disaster assistance. The US Congress passed an $ll.l billion emergency aid package for the victims of Iniki, Guam’s Typhoon Omar, and Louisiana and Florida’s Hurricane Andrew.

Kuai benefitted from criticism of the federal government’s lack of preparation and response to August’s Hurricane Andrew. The Federal Emergency Man agement Agency, the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Internal Revenue Service moved quickly to assist Kauai, as did the military, National

Destruction: in the wake of Iniki

Ed Rampell Makahu, Oahu: Iniki gets ready to strike

Guard, Coast Guard,and various state rencies. The public raised hundreds ol ousands to contribute to Kauai, and itertainers held benefits. The SBA, •aded by Hawaii’s own Pat Saiki, terviewed more than 5500 people ['king disaster assistance loans. Among e many volunteers who came to help auai was the US vice-president’s wife, arilyn Quayle.

And the devastated Garden Isle no Dre needs all the help it can get. Kauai ally feels the pinch of Iniki. Kauai has it fully recovered from 1982’s Hurri ne Iwa, which wasn’t nearly as structive as Iniki. And due to the Gulf ar and recession, the SI-billion a year jrism industry, with 7600 hotel rooms, is already hurting. It is estimated Iniki 11 cost Kuai tourism S5OO million. Only e major hotel, the Kauai Hilton and ; adjoining Aston Kauai Beach Villas, ' open. Most of the 500 guests are relief irkers (there’s concern that Kauai’s Lting too crowded due to the influx of litary and aid personnel, and traffic ns are reported '.

About hall' of Kaua’s 28,700-person >our force may be out of work. Before ki, only 118 individuals filed for employment insurance; afterwards, ire than 6000 workers filed for unem lyment benefits. Nevertheless, luaians are going on with their lives re ’s talk some resorts may reopen by ristmas and on September 19, unde red voters went to the polls.

Tourism was unaffected at the rest of Hawaii. Oahu suffered 525.7 million in damage, mostly at Waianae, where 387 homes and 84 businesses were damaged.

Numerous ground floor apartments and homes were flooded. Power was out for up to three days. . , u Predominantly Hawaiian, some Waianae storm victims were neglected by the state as relief efforts were concentrated on Kauai.

Miraculously, Niihau the privately owned isle just southwest ol Kauai, where only pure Hawaiian are allowed to live, was spared the wrath of Hurricane Iniki. When Governor Waihee went on a helicopter there, Hawaii was treated to a rare video glimpse of the Forbidden Isle, where a few hundreds of past remaining pure Hawaiians live in a simple plantation type village.

Ed Rampell

Makaha: tonnes of sand on the road

Military assistance: with cleaning up at a native park