Kauai News & Information

Mark Niesse, Canadian Press
Published: Monday, May 08, 2006
HONOLULU (AP) – Without passenger boats, bridges or tunnels linking the islands of Hawaii, the state’s four island counties in some ways are as isolated from each other as they are from the mainland.

That may change when the Hawaii Superferry, a four-storey catamaran, begins running from Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, to Maui and Kauai in a little over a year. A second boat connecting Honolulu with the Big Island is expected to start service in 2009.

“This is like the coming of the jet age. It’s a new transportation mode,” said John Garibaldi, president of Hawaii Superferry. “How much of the beauty of Hawaii do you experience from 20,000 feet in the air?”

Over the past several decades, other boat services have tried to provide a viable alternative to commercial airliner service to move people around the islands, but every effort has failed.

The latest ferry service was originally scheduled to start this year, and it still has a long way to go before its new July 1, 2007, launch date. Even if the $235 million US project starts then, it’s unclear whether it will be able to turn a profit.

Environmentalists, lawmakers, farmers and lawyers stand in the way.

Some are worried that the Superferry project is being rushed without researching traffic effects on each of the islands, without planning to prevent humpback whales from being struck by the big boats, and without protecting against invasive species such as biting ants spreading across the islands.

“We’re not being given the whole story. The shortcomings are being glossed over,” said Lucienne de Naie, chapter leader of the Hawaii Sierra Club. “We need to get real and examine these things. All we’re getting is shiny promises and platitudes.”

The Superferry is expected to start service with one boat the length of a football field offering daily service from Honolulu to Maui and Kauai. It will carry up to 900 people and 250 cars at one-way fares of $42 per person and $55 per vehicle.

The ferry will travel up to 64 km/h, with a trip from Honolulu to Maui taking about three hours, compared with about 40 minutes by plane. The shortest trip, from Honolulu to Maui, would be about 165 kilometres. The Honolulu-Big Island line would be the ferry’s longest voyage at about 260 kilometres.

Plans for the Superferry have been moving along at an uneven pace for several years.

In a rush to take advantage of federal funding, a downtown Honolulu ferry terminal was completed in 2003. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta visited the unused terminal two years ago and called Hawaii’s ferry plan one of the nation’s most ambitious and forward-looking transportation projects.

Construction of the first boat is 75 per cent complete in Mobile, Ala., and the state began construction this month of floating ramps to load and unload cars at each port.

Past ferry services have never lasted long, said Panos D. Prevedouros, a University of Hawaii professor of civil and environmental engineering.
“They had issues with the waves. . . The ride was choppy and the demand was low,” he said. “The current project is different. This is a full-sized ferry that can transport hundreds and hundreds of passengers at a low price.”

Some state legislators have questioned Superferry officials over how they will be able to compete with the soon-to-be four interisland airlines, which recently offered $39 one-way promotional fares.

Superferry officials argue that they will cater to a different kind of customer than the airlines, and that they don’t believe the low airfares will last. Regular airfares range above $72 one-way.

One of the keys to the Superferry’s success is its plan to allow vehicles onboard with the passengers.

Families wouldn’t have to check in their luggage, farmers could load their produce in vans and school buses could bring children on field trips, said Terry O’Halloran, who recently filled a job as public affairs director to help improve communications with critics of the project.

“The interisland ferry is going to connect the islands in a way we haven’t ever seen before,” he said.

But the Superferry may yet run adrift.

Several lawmakers have threatened to withhold $10 million in harbour improvements because they say the Superferry hasn’t adequately addressed some residents’ concerns. A lawsuit on appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court seeks a lengthy environmental review process before the ferry can proceed with its plans.

“Like anything else, you’re never going to make everyone happy,” said Warren Watanabe, president of the Maui County Farm Bureau and a member of a Superferry advisory panel. “From my perspective, I think they are putting forth their best effort to get everything resolved.”
© The Canadian Press 2006

After what everyone on Kauai was calling 40 days and 40 nights of rain, Easter time on the Garden Island resurrected the sun — good news to both residents weary of downpours and mainlanders anxious about their summer vacations. I spent seven days and eight nights traveling around Kauai in mid-April, taking stock of what residual damage visitors might notice, and was relieved at how little there was.

Outside of Kilauea town, where a burst dam caused flooding that killed seven people March 14, the highway once again had a lane open in each direction, although signs slowed the traffic to 15 mph for a brief stretch. The ingenious Kamalani Playground and the main swimming lagoon at Lydgate Beach Park, which had been closed because of rain-related sewage overflow, were busy again with children and snorkelers, respectively. The Kauai Marriott’s sprawling pool, briefly inundated with red mud in March from a buried creek that suddenly resurfaced, was as inviting as ever.

But nature had also inflicted a few wounds that clearly needed more time to heal.

During my Easter visit, the flood-muddied waters near Kilauea Bay were not the only ones raising concern among locals. In front of the Marriott, Kalapaki Beach — which health authorities had closed briefly — still had a noticeable brown stripe along the shoreline, dissuading some swimmers. Some of the sands around the Kamalani Kai Bridge and the keiki lagoon at Lydgate remained closed due to contamination, while enough plant debris bobbed in the main lagoon to make me wonder why the snorkelers bothered.

The waters of famous Poipu Beach on the south shore were cleaner, but half the parking lot was inundated. Hanalei Bay, Anini Beach and Salt Pond State Park also showed, to a lesser extent, the murky effects of rain-driven runoff. Fortunately, the sun was starting to evaporate Poipu’s broad puddles, while beach watchers believed a few days of big waves could clear out the lingering debris.

Time alone won’t clean up the first floor of the Marriott’s Ha’upu Tower, a victim of the pool flood. Not knowing anything about the damage, friends of mine staying on the tower’s second floor the week before Easter found their room’s musty scent unbearable and asked to be switched to another room. (The hotel wisely put them on a higher floor.) The Marriott already had a major parking-lot reconstruction project in process when I last visited in December, which the heavy rains have hardly expedited.

But one thing island communities know how to do is pull together. Lydgate’s Hawaiian-themed Kamalani Playground, for example, was built by 7,000 volunteers in 1994; thousands more returned in 2000-01 to create the mazelike Kamalani Kai Bridge. Many also donated their time for an Earth Day park cleanup as well as in the immediate aftermath of the heaviest rains, and are now busy planning expanded sports fields, a new arts pavilion and a campground (for details, see www.kamalani.org).

Helping hands: I stumbled across another example of lokahi and laulima (unity and cooperation) — and some California connections — on Kauai not far from the scene of the fatal reservoir flood.

Anyone who’s turned off the highway into Kilauea to head to the lighthouse or Kong Lung Shopping Center has passed tiny Christ Memorial Church, a native stone building in a small churchyard with crumbling tombstones. Inside the Episcopal church, consecrated in 1941 on a former Hawaiian Congregational Church site, are beautiful stained-glass windows made in England, and a locally hand-carved wooden altar. The doors are usually open during daylight hours so visitors may pop in for photographs (or prayer, although the former seems more common).

Unfortunately, the little church’s roof, the stained-glass window behind the altar and the altar itself are all in need of repair, and the small congregation (currently seeking a rector) can’t afford the upkeep on its own.

Enter Laurel Lemons, a jeweler from Covina (Los Angeles County) who moved to Kauai about two years ago. She’s not Episcopalian, but something about the picturesque place of worship spoke to her — “It was just so pretty,” Lemons says — and she wanted to help.

What she came up with benefits the church, her fellow artisans and even Kilauea, often given short shrift by tourists busy heading to the lighthouse or nearby Secret Beach. Lemons created a Thursday craft fair on the lawn and porch of the parish hall, just across Kolo Road from the church. The artisans pay a fee for their tables, which goes to the church repair fund; the vendors, primarily from the north shore, get another venue for their wares, and the town gets another reason for a detour.

I visited on the craft fair’s first day after several weeks of being rained out, when some of the usual vendors were at another show on Oahu, but the handful who were there displayed distinctive, high-quality work that you’d be unlikely to find in Hilo Hattie’s or a hotel gift shop.

Teena Manes of Aloha Shells designs ornaments and wall hangings using the translucent capiz shell, with images of marine life courtesy of Wyland; Mary Felther makes glass, coral and shell necklaces and earrings, and covers small boxes with locally collected shells; Kirsten Westrip crochets leis and jewelry. But I confess I had the most fun browsing through Denise Tjarks’ handbags, in vintage aloha, mod and contemporary fabrics. (Can’t make it to Kauai? You can see some of her kicky wares at denisetjarks.com.)

Tjarks recently moved from Honolulu to Kauai, but she has a Bay Area connection, too. It’s not the kind most of us would want: She recently spent five months in Palo Alto with her husband, who was receiving bone-marrow transplants at Stanford University Hospital. But, she says, “We love San Francisco — they’d encourage us to get out of the hospital whenever he could and we would just drive around the city, which is beautiful.”

I had my own beautiful drive to attend to — we were heading north to meet friends in Hanalei — so sadly, I didn’t have time to linger over Lemons’ table of jewelry or those of the remaining vendors. But I’m grateful that they’re supporting one of Kauai’s architectural treasures, and I hope other visitors will support them.

The craft fair takes place 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. most Thursdays. For more about the church, which also has a thrift shop, visit www.episcopalhawaii.org or call (808) 828-1825.

Guided by voices: Lenore Horowitz of Atherton also wanted to help visitors and residents of Kauai when she first published her “Kauai Underground Guide” in 1980, giving a portion of the proceeds to children’s charities on the island.

Based on the experiences of her family of six (including daughter Mirah, now a co-author) and feedback from renters of their Lae Nani vacation condo, Horowitz’s guide is in its 17th edition (Papaloa Press, $12.95). That has meant nearly $100,000 so far to Kauai nonprofits, she says.

The 2004 “Underground” guide is more upbeat and family-oriented than the wisecracking, adventure-oriented “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed,” by Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman (www.wizardpub.com), but as with the latter, you can get updates online (see www.explorekauai.com). Unique to the Horowitz guide: a five-song CD sampler by noted Hawaiian singer-songwriter Keali’i Reichel. Look for both guidebooks in stores or online.

Hilton headed: In other Kauai news, the former Radisson Kauai Beach Resort near Lihue is getting a $14 million makeover of its 350 rooms and 25-acre grounds, in anticipation of its becoming a Hilton Hotels property this summer. The improvements include new beds, decor and high-speed wireless Internet access in the rooms, and waterfalls, a lava tube slide and a grotto whirlpool spa among the resort’s four pools

NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga Officials in Tonga say a tsunami warning system failed to alert officials after a massive earthquake rocked the sea floor not far from the island nation.
The warning was issued for Tonga and for places as far away as Alaska after the magnitude seven-point-nine quake. Authorities in New Zealand went briefly to high alert. But Tonga says it never got word.
The deputy director of Tonga’s National Disaster Office tells The Associated Press the system that should have passed on a warning from a monitoring station in Hawaii malfunctioned. He says Tonga received a notice of the alert cancellation, but not the initial warning.
The alert was lifted after scientists recorded an ocean wave from the quake of less than two feet.”

NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga May 3, 2006 (AP)— A powerful earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, prompting tsunami warnings for as far away as Fiji and New Zealand. But the warning never reached Tonga and was lifted after a tsunami of less than 2 feet.

There were no reports of injuries from the quake or tsunami, and a Tongan official said a few broken windows were the extent of the damage. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu lifted its warning for all areas within two hours. It said there was no data indicating that the 4:26 a.m. earthquake generated a giant wave.

The magnitude 7.9 earthquake, classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as “major,” struck about 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred 20 miles beneath the sea floor.

A warning said it was possible a tsunami could strike Fiji within two hours of the quake and then, an hour later, New Zealand.

But in Tonga, Mali’u Takai, deputy director of the Tonga’s National Disaster Office, told The Associated Press a system that should have passed on a tsunami warning from the monitoring station in Hawaii malfunctioned.

“We didn’t get a warning, we only got a cancellation. Nobody got a warning through the emergency satellite system in our meteorological office,” Takai said. “Judging by the location of the epicenter we would have been caught out without any warning at all because of the system’s malfunction.”

Takai’s comments raised troubling questions about protections in place for inhabitants of the sparsely populated islands scattered thousands of miles across the earthquake-prone region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says its first alert went out 16 minutes after the earthquake but it was not received in Tonga because of a power failure there.

Gerard Fryer, the center’s acting director, said “there was problem in Tonga where there was a power outage and they didn’t get our initial message.”

He said the center needs to work with Tonga to correct the problem. He said he did not know whether the power failure was caused by the earthquake.

Wednesday: May 3, 2006

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled its statewide tsunami advisory at 7:39 a.m. today, reports The Honolulu Advertiser.

Based on all available data, there was no tsunami threat to Hawai’i, the center said.

Some coastal areas could still experience small sea level changes and strong and unusual currents that could begin as early as 11:33 a.m. and last several hours.

Barry Hirshorn, a staff geophysicist, said a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Tonga at 5:27 a.m. Hawaii time appeared to generate a localized tsunami “about a half-meter” high near Tonga.

He said that experts at the center have concluded there is no tsunami damage threat to Hawaii and have not received any reports of damage in Tonga or elsewhere.

The temblor, classified by the U.S. Geologic Service as a “great” quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred 20 miles beneath the sea floor.

A police officer in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, said there were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami. Another officer in Neiafu, 180 miles to the north, said the quake was felt for about 90 seconds.

“It was strong but not long,” duty constable Salesi Baongo said. Asked whether the tsunami warning had been received, Baongo said, “No, we haven’t heard about it.”

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave. It issued the warning for Tonga, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Wallis-Futuna, Fiji.

A tsunami advisory was issued for Hawaii, but the warning center said the earthquake, based on historical records, was not sufficient to generate a tsunami damaging to the Pacific coasts of the United States and Canada, and Alaska. Some areas may experience small sea-level changes.

KGET TV 17 – In the Spirit of the Golden Empire – Tsnunami warning lifted after earthquake: “NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AP) – A tsunami warning has been lifted for the South Pacific.

The warning was issued after a magnitude 7.8 quake rocked the ocean bed 95 miles south of the island nation of Tonga. A tsunami warning was issued for New Zealand, some 1,300 miles away.

The warning was lifted after a tsunami of less than two feet was recorded.

An American visiting Tonga told CNN that some stuff had fallen out of shelves and had broken in her hotel kitchen but everything seemed pretty much intact.

A reporter who drove through the city saw no damage to buildings, but inside buildings he could see bookshelves that toppled over. Power in the city was out for about two hours after the quake. “

A small tsunami was generated off the Pacific islands of Niue and Pago Pago following an 8.0-magnitude quake in Tonga, but the threat to New Zealand and Fiji was subsiding, United States monitors said on Wednesday.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, which issued a warning following the 8.0 temblor that struck at 4.26am local time on Thursday (3.26pm GMT on Wednesday), said a half-metre tsunami welled up in the Pacific but that it did not appear to be destructive.

Earlier, monitors had issued a tsunami warning for New Zealand and Fiji.

There were few early reports of injury or damage in Tonga, although a hotel guest hurt his leg when he jumped from a third-floor window.

“He was the only tourist injured. He jumped from his room, maybe he was afraid,” said William Vea, the night receptionist at the Pacific Royale hotel.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre had called on New Zealand and Fiji to take immediate action against a possible giant wave caused by the quake.

The epicentre was 155km south of Neiafu island and 160km north-east of Nuku’Alofa, the main island of Tonga, the United States Geological Survey said.

The quake was recorded 16km below the Earth’s surface, a relatively shallow distance that increases the likelihood of a tsunami.

“We have a tsunami warning for Fiji and New Zealand and for the rest of the Pacific we have a tsunami watch,” said Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre oceanographer Nathan Becker earlier on Wednesday evening. “That means a tsunami is likely and New Zealand and Fiji should take the appropriate action.”

There was no immediate evidence a tsunami had been generated, although the scale of the quake suggested there was a strong possibility. Becker stressed that it was not known whether a tidal wave had formed or what the expected magnitude of any such tsunami would be.

“We are determining the situation as we have an earthquake with the right conditions to produce a tsunami, but we don’t know yet whether one was generated,” Becker explained.

The quake was the largest recorded by the USGS since an 8,6 temblor off the Indonesian island of Sumatra in March 2005.

On December 26 2004, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale struck off the Indonesian province of Aceh, unleashing a tsunami that killed 220 000 people around the Indian Ocean, most in Aceh. — AFP

Chron.com | Magnitude-8.0 Quake Strikes Near Tonga: “By RAY LILLEY Associated Press Writer
� 2006 The Associated Press
WELLINGTON, New Zealand � A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, and a tsunami warning was issued, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
A warning said it was possible a tsunami could hit Fiji and New Zealand. Police in Fiji and Tonga said there were no signs of impact from a tsunami.
Speaking about the time a wave was forecast to reach the islands, police spokesman Mesake Koroi in Fiji’s capital, Suva, said there had been no immediate reports of a tsunami.
A police officer in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, said there were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami.
Another officer in Neiafu, 180 miles to the north, said the quake was felt for about 90 seconds.
‘It was strong but not long,’ duty constable Salesi Baongo said.
Asked whether the tsunami warning had been received, Baongo said, ‘No, we haven’t heard about it.’
The temblor, classified by the USGS as a ‘great’ quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred 20 miles beneath the sea floor.
The U.S. National Weather Service warned that a tsunami could strike Fiji as soon as 1:13 p.m. EDT Wednesday and New Zealand by 2:21 p.m. EDT Wednesday.
The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave. It issued the warning for Tonga, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Wallis-Futuna, Fiji.
A tsunami advisory was issued for Hawaii, but the warning center said the earthquake, based on historical records, was not sufficient to generate a tsunami damaging to the Pacific coasts of the United States and Canada, and Al”

Earthquake hits Tonga, tsunami warning issued�|�Reuters.com: “LONDON (Reuters) – An earthquake measuring 8.1 hit the Tonga islands, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Web site said on Wednesday and a tsunami warning was issued for Fiji and New Zealand.
The warning said it was not known if a tsunami had been generated by the quake but that any such wave would hit Suva, Fiji, at 1713 GMT and Gisborne, New Zealand, at 1821 GMT.
A warning was also issued for Hawaii in the United States but no destructive threat was seen, according to the Pacific Tsunami Center.
‘It is not known that a tsunami was generated. This warning is based only on the earthquake evaluation. An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami,’ said the Pacific Tsunami Center said.
The earthquake was at 1526 GMT, said the Web site monitored in London. It was not immediately clear what damage it caused but a report on Sky Television said it was felt in several islands. A resident of Tonga told Sky he felt tremors lasting over 30 seconds.
The earthquake struck 95 miles south of Tonga’s Neiafu island and 1340 miles north east of Auckland, New Zealand, USGS said.
The Tonga islands are an archipelago east of Australia and north east of New Zealand.
An earthquake in December 2004 off Indonesia caused a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed more than 200,000 people in several countries.”