Kauai News & Information

Below is a Q&A of the most frequently asked questions of the Kauai Visitors Bureau in the past few days. Information provided curtesy of the KVB.
Question: What is the weather like?
Answer: At the moment, the entire state is under a Flash Flood Watch until March 30 at 6:00 a.m. The rain is not continuous. Weve had several days of sunshine recently. For a seven-day forecast of Kauai weather, visit online at www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/hnl.

Question: What is the weather going to be like when I get there?
Answer: It has been hard to predict the weather more than 24 hours in advance. If you are coming this week, you may encounter some rainfall. Beginning next week (April 2-8), we are cautiously confident the rain will subside and life will quickly return to normal on our beautiful island.

Question: What roads are closed?
Answer: None, all roads are open. A 400-foot section of Kuhio Highway at the 21-mile mark is operatingwith one lane as repairs are being made to the road. Drivers are advised to allow for a little extra time when driving to and from the North Shore.

Question: What beach areas are closed?
Answer: Presently, only Lydgate Beach Park, Kalapaki Beach Park, the Small Boat Harbor at Kikiaola and the Salt Pond in Hanapepe have signs posted advising people to stay out of the water. However, avoid any shoreline area with brown water caused by runoff from the rainfall. For the next week, check with your hotel concierge, outfitter or activity provider for the most up-to-date information.

Question: What areas have flooded?
Answer: A few isolated areas experienced some flooding a couple weeks ago, but these problems have been dealt with and it is no longer a problem.

Question: What damage have the hotels sustained?
Answer: A few properties sustained some water damage, but nothing to the extent that has kept them from accepting guests and maintaining operations.

Question: Can I hike during my visit?
Answer: During heavy rainfall, the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources is strongly advising people to avoid hiking for their own safety. We agree.

Question: Should I cancel my trip?
Answer: We believe you would regret not coming, especially if you are planning a trip in the weeks and months to come. This unusually heavy rainfall will pass soon and Kauai natural beauty and calming serenity are not to be missed. You will still have a wonderful time.

Question: Where can I get more visitor information?
Answer: Call the Kauai Visitors Bureau at the toll-free number 1-800-262-1400, or visit the website at www.kauaidiscovery.com.

More enhancements to interisland air service are in the offing, as Hawaiian and Aloha airlines defend their turf against the new carrier go!
Go!, a service of the Mainland carrier Mesa Air Group, launches in June with $39 fares that Hawaiian and Aloha matched even before go! announced them.
Now the legacy carriers are moving to match or beat go!’s flight schedule.
Hawaiian this week quietly added extra flights late in the evening, allowing neighbor island visitors to return to Honolulu as late as the 9 p.m. hour.
Aloha executives met Tuesday to work out their own changes.
“We will be adding flights to and from Maui and Kauai in the late evening and we will also be adding some early morning flying to ensure that our schedule is more than competitive,” said Aloha Senior Vice President Thom Nulty. “It is our plan to continue our flights every hour on the hour to Maui and Kauai and to supplement those flights with additional trips where justified and or needed.”
Nulty said details would come later but he expected also to be adjusting some flight times between Honolulu and Kona and Hilo “to better meet customer needs and to be more competitive.”

KAUAI, Hawaii, March 28 /PRNewswire/ — In response to inquiries about the state of Kauai and its businesses following heavy rains, Princeville Resort and Sheraton Kauai Resort join with state officials in saying “E Komo Mai (welcome) to Kauai.”

Princeville Resort and Sheraton Kauai Resort flank Kauai’s north and south shores respectively, and are Starwood Hawaii’s two properties on the island. “The Princeville Resort and the Sheraton Kauai Resort are open for business and are welcoming visitors,” stated Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawaii and French Polynesia. “We want to reassure our guests and the public that our Kauai hotel properties continue to provide the exceptional service they are known for.”

Kauai, also known as “Hawaii’s Island of Discovery,” beckons visitors to venture out and explore the many natural offerings of the island. “Kauai’s airport, its harbor, and businesses are open and ready to accept our visitors in the same way they have always been. Kauai’s aloha spirit remains intact and the island is green and beautiful,” said Kauai mayor Bryan Baptiste. In a March 22nd news release by the Kauai Visitors Bureau, executive director Sue Kanoho echoed the mayor’s sentiments stating that visitors can book a Kauai vacation in the weeks and months to come with certainty knowing that the island will be as beautiful as ever.

Both Princeville Resort and Sheraton Kauai Resort have all services and facilities available to guests, including the beaches and pools. Roads to and from the resort properties are open and accessible. “We have received inquiries related to the unusual rainfall the island has experienced in March,” said Kelly Hoen, general manager of the Princeville Resort. “The hotel has suffered no damage and is fully operational with all services and activities currently available,” she concluded. Angela Vento, general manager of Sheraton Kauai Resort, stated, “Our property encountered minor water damage, but nothing that would affect the guests’ experience in any way. It is business as usual with guests enjoying the beach and pools … and bookings for our oceanfront luau and activities are strong.”

More than 50 people signed up on Friday on Kauai for emergency disaster relief or assistance. It’s been 10 days since the devastating dam break that killed seven residents there.
The Disaster Assistance Recovery Center drew many people who had many things ripped away from them — family, property, peace of mind.
Street level, where three structures and seven people were swept away, a driveway leads to nowhere.
It’s quiet now, so different from March 14.
“It just kept getting louder, louder, and louder, and we started hearing the cracking of the trees as the water came through,” says Terry Wells, Kilauea resident. “I wasn’t thinking of a dam breaking. I was just thinking a flash flood from sudden rain swell, but we were really shocked when we woke up and got outside, it was light, and saw what had really happened.”
Carole and Terry Wells lost hundreds of trees on their mahogany farm.
“This is my granddaughter, and it was her magical forest, two weeks ago,” says Carole, looking at a picture of her granddaughter in their mahogany farm. “This is where she was standing. She said, ‘grandma, what happened to my forest?’”
But something more tragic — they lost their next door neighbors, Aurora Fehring, her husband, toddler, and four others.
“I mean, we have a two-year-old granddaughter and we think, oh my God, if we lost them, you know, our trees are nothing compared to losing family and friends,” says Carole.
All along the path of the flood, you see piles of trees, also of personal affects. A few distances away lies a lauhala mat, and here what looks like a piece of furniture.
More than 50 people who suffered losses from the flood check in at Kilauea Assistance Center. Lives in this town are permanently altered. As is even the landscape — top soil and earth are torn away, exposing bedrock, polished clean by the force of the flood.
A flood that dug a cliff so deep, there’s now a rushing waterfall where before there was only a small pond.
On Saturday, the disaster center moves to Kalaheo’s Neighborhood Center, open from 10 to 4.

By Associated Press

KILAUEA, Hawaii (AP) _ Senator Daniel Inouye surveyed the damages on Kauai today after last week’s dam break and recent flooding from heavy rains.
He says he is seeking between 15 (m) million dollars and 30 (m) million dollars in emergency federal aid to help Kauai recover from flooding and the disaster that killed up to seven people.
Inouye surveyed the disaster area by helicopter with state and county officials and visited the recovery center at the Kilauea Community Center.
The senator said he was impressed with the cleanup efforts.
He hopes the state completes a damage assessment soon so he can ask Congress for emergency funding.
Inouye says there’s only a limited amount of emergency funding because Kauai will be competing with everything from the war in Iraq to the damage in the South left behind by Hurricane Katrina.
About 50 residents have requested assistance from various agencies as a result of the flooding.

By Associated Press
KILAUEA, Hawaii (AP) _ Home to one of the wettest spots on earth, Kauai is no stranger to rain. But this island has been under a downpour for more than a month now, flooding roads, homes and farms while testing the patience of residents and tourists.
Long-standing monthly rainfall records have already been broken with several days left in March.
The lush and soaked Garden Island has been under a flash-flood advisory or warning for most of the days since heavy rains started on February 19th. And more rainy days are expected ahead.
Through March 20, Wailua had 38 inches of rain, nearly triple the March record set in 1967.
Lihue Airport recorded nearly 26 inches of rain in the first 20 days, breaking the March 1951 record of 14-and-a-half inches.
Mount Waialeale, considered among the rainiest places on the planet, had 79-and-a-half inches in the first 20 days of March. The record for the entire month is 82 inches set in 1951.

Update from Kauai – 54 Island Dams Inspected; Search Resumes for Four Missing People
By Kauai County Government, 3/21/2006 9:06:11 AM
LIHUE – Visual inspections of approximately half of Kaua‘i’s 54 dams were conducted Monday.

Multiple teams of engineers from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are involved in this effort. One team include Hawai‘i-based members of the U.S. Geological Society.

According to a spokesperson for the assessment teams, based on preliminary findings, none of the dams inspected today are in danger of failing. It is expected that assessments of all of Kaua‘i’s dams will be completed by Friday.

Anyone interested in finding out the status of Ka Loko and Puu Ka Ele dams where USGS gauges have been installed may log on to the USGS Pacific Island Water Science Center website, http://www.hi.water.usgs.gov and click on the link to whichever reservoir they’d like to learn more about.

The search for the four people still missing since the Ka Loko dam breached last Tuesday will continue tomorrow. Personnel from the Hawai‘i Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, Kaua‘i Fire Department, Kaua‘i Police Department, state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Hawai‘i National Guard are working together in the search.

National Guardsmen have also been involved in the transport of water pumps to several locations around the island including the Ka Loko Dam, Kapa‘a bypass, Kekaha, Ko¯loa and the Morita Dam.

All of the Red Cross shelters on Kaua‘i are now closed, but Disaster Relief Assistance Centers are scheduled to open in Kala¯heo and Kilauea by the end of the week. More information on this is forthcoming.

Besides one lane of Kuhio Highway in the vicinity of Kilauea, the only other major road closure is Kokee Road, from Kekaha to Waimea Canyon Road. One lane of the Westside road is expected to reopen at approximately 7 am tomorrow.

Anyone who sustained damages to their homes, farms, businesses or other property due to heavy rains is encouraged to call 211, toll-free, anytime day or night to report the damage. The information provided will be forwarded to the appropriate agencies for action.

Pacific Business News: Kauai arrivals undampened so far – 2006-03-20: “Kauai arrivals undampened so far
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) – 10:48 AM HAST Monday
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It appears so far that most people who planned Kauai vacations this month are proceeding with their plans come rain or high water.
Arrivals estimates from the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism put recent arrivals at these levels:
Monday: 879.
Tuesday: 759.
Wednesday: 769.
Thursday: 751.
The Thursday count was down 18 percent from the 914 who flew to Kauai on Thursday, March 17, 2005, but the other three days were up substantially from year-before arrivals.
The dam break and widespread flooding on Kauai made national news all last week. There was disruption to tourism when the road to Princeville was cut off for a few days, and flooding also caused problems on the Koloa coast, which also is home to several resorts. “

KAUAI DAM BREAK

CASEY AND CYNDI RIEMER, JACK HARTER HELICOPTERS / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
The water path of the Ka Loko Dam burst was evident yesterday.

Destruction shocks, angers residents
By Tom Finnegan and Diana Leone
[email protected] | [email protected]

LIHUE » Residents of Kilauea are shocked that two homes and families were swept away by an early-morning flood, killing at least one and leaving another six still missing, said Linda Pasadava, president of the Kilauea Neighborhood Association.

“People that were there said it sounded like a Mack truck coming down the hill and Norfolk pines snapping sounded like crackling fire,” she said yesterday. “It was probably feet from the next nearest home.”

There are a number of construction projects in the area that slid and “all of the (lands) that have been cleared have just washed away, Pasadava said.

“This is what happens when you dig into mountains,” Pasadava said. “The community I’ve spoken to is furious — they just don’t know who to be furious at.”

As of sundown yesterday, the body of a man in his 30s was recovered a mile out to sea, while six other Kilauea residents were still missing after an earthen wall of the Ka Loko Dam crumbled away and a rush of water 100 yards wide wrecked everything in its path, including at least two homes.

The missing were identified by numerous Kilauea residents as tenants and members of the Fehring family, a well-known Kilauea clan who managed vacation rentals and also ran a Waldorf nursery school on their Wailapa Road property.
Kilauea residents said the two families, including Aurora Fehring, her husband, Adam, and their 2-year-old child, lived in cabins near the banks of Wailapa Stream, usually a gentle-moving tributary of Kilauea Stream that is known for a small waterfall and wading pool nicknamed “Bette Midler’s Falls.”

Among the missing is 49-year-old Wayne Rotstein, who worked as a gardener and landscaper for the Fehrings.

Rotstein’s parents received a call from landowner Bruce Fehring yesterday, saying their son was missing along with Fehring’s own daughter, son-in-law and grandson, who were swept up in a surge of water, Rotstein’s brother, Gary, related.

Rotstein, a Pittsburgh native, had moved to Hawaii about five years ago from Las Vegas.

Gary Rotstein, a reporter with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, said he is searching for any information about his brother and trying to understand the situation by using the Internet and making phone calls. He said his parents were shocked and astonished.

“It’s flabbergasting for everyone because it seems like a one-in-a-million freakish thing that he would have been caught up in the middle of,” Rotstein said.

Kuhio Highway was closed because of the threat from the Morita Dam.

Visitors and tourists rushed local food stores, worried that the closed highway will mean no deliveries to the local supermarkets.

“We have no bread, we’re low on water and rice. … Our sales are comparable to Christmas Eve,” said Maria Berdon, an office clerk at the Princeville Foodland. “It’s just nuts. I don’t know why … people are just panicked.”

COURTESY OF STATE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Damage downstream from the Ka Loko Reservoir Dam breach was shown yesterday in this aerial view.

County officials gave no time frame on when the highway might be open, leaving frantic vacationers no choice but to try to fly out of Princeville Airport via helicopter.
Those flights were booked quickly, and numerous visitors were stuck, complaining to police that they were missing international flights.

Kilauea residents and friends of the Fehring family, longtime Kauai residents, tried to do their part in aiding in the search.

Amy and Rick Marvin, who live just east of Kilauea Bay, spent the morning looking for their friends as debris collected along the shore fronting their home. Among the mess of trees, branches and earth were signs of the cabins, including treated wood and household items.

“I feel so terrible for our friends and the loss they are suffering,” Rick Marvin said. “There was so much debris.”

State Rep. Mina Morita said in a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the people missing after the dam burst, as well as with those who have lost their homes and their agribusinesses in the flooding.

“At this time, my office is helping to make sure that the repairs to the highway are done as quickly as possible, and that all resources are available for the search and rescue, as well as the overall recovery effort.”

WSOCTV.com – Weather – 7 People Missing After Water Overruns Kauai Dam: “7 People Missing After Water Overruns Kauai Dam
Search For Survivors Under Way
POSTED: 4:21 pm EST March 14, 2006
UPDATED: 4:29 pm EST March 14, 2006
HONOLULU — Teams from multiple agencies are working to find at least seven people reported missing after a dam was overrun on Kauai’s North Shore Tuesday morning.
The Kaloko Dam overfilled after heavy rains pounded the area overnight, causing flooding on an already saturated island, and closing roads on the Garden Isle’s north shore.
The Kauai Fire Department called on the U.S. Coast Guard to help with the search for seven people who may have been swept away when water plunged over the dam.
Officials said that dispatched a C-130 search plane and a helicopter to look for the missing people in the Kilauea Stream, which feeds into Kilauea Bay.
Officials closed Kuhio Highway between Hanalei and Princeville early Tuesday morning. Crews also closed the highway at Wailapa Road, east of Kilauea. Kauai County Civil Defense says the nearby Waiakalua Reservoir overflowed mauka of the highway.”