Blog 22: Kauai: Part III

On the plane going back to Oahu, many stories erupted. The horrors that many guests from the Sheraton Poipu shared, deadened superficial exchanges between passengers. Landing in Waikiki we were somewhat relieved. Everyone was cheering when we touched down. At the same time we almost felt guilty.  In some ways it felt like  we were abandoning the people left there.    It would be months and maybe years before a sense of normalcy could return. And there was reality again, getting in the way of our fantasy trip. We could go home, but many had no home to go back to, and I read that around 500 people lost their homes. Many other structures, to include businesses, luxury hotels and condominiums were added to the statistics. In Kauai alone, 5,800 people were evacuated to higher ground, but in some cases not before IWA began ravaging the southern part of the island in Poipu.  

Then the justification for the departure came.  I’d seen Hawaii. Enough. Take your beaches, no thank you! I had the living soul taken out of me. Whoa, wait a minute. Upon landing, I remembered. It’s Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, I was surely thankful.  Fortunately, our hotel was still there, in Waikiki.  Few wanted to look too hard for the damage cast upon the frequented  tourist destination. But there was damage, flooding and destruction. The north shore got hit pretty hard. Only Kauai got it worse. We preceded every sentence that day it seemed with thankfully. How appropriate was our sentiment.  After all it was Thanksgiving.  We thought of all the things that might have  happened.  We stepped outside the saga that still seemed to be lingering in our hearts and minds, and checked into our hotel rooms. We would be staying  in Waikiki for 2 nights. 

 

There were many power issues on the island, and so no chance to relax yet. For the next two days, we received early morning calls, alerting us to rolling blackouts. The message went something like. “Good Morning, this is the hotel management. We will be shutting the power off in approximately 1 hour and it will be off and on all day. You might want to get showers, and use the elevator while it is available.” We were on the 10th floor. 

 

We complied. Mom would have struggled with the stairs so we took off for several hours at a time. We were able to find a restaurant that served a Thanksgiving meal, but said very little to each other.    Going through the motions, it was exhaustion not joy we felt.   Walking down the street after dinner,  my sister-in-law was accosted by someone that grabbed the strap on her purse. Finding humor in this moment, she said “That’s my purse. Let go or I will hit you in the head with it.” The thief said, “Give me your purse and I will hit myself.”  We laughed. Then he took off, and without the purse.

It would be some years before I returned with my significant other to Kauai. People that lived through IWA  had many stories, and in spite of  the despair flung at them, they were somehow happy to share and exchange their experiences. It seemed almost irreverant though,  that the island was operating as though nothing had stolen it’s beauty.    But something had been stolen, and it would be impossible to return to the sheltered confidence that existed before IWA.  Hurricane IWA, named after a Frigate Bird, known as a thief, had lived up to its name.  

Since IWA, there have been many publications recalling the events of November 23, 1982, on an internet that didn’t exist then. Haunting images of the past, escapes the starry eyed tourist of today. IWA would not be the last to bring devastation to the island. On September 11, 1992, Hurricane Iniki came back to finish the job. In many ways it did. It destroyed the Coco Palms Resort. It is far too easy to find images of the resort in its current abandoned and dire state behind chain links.  The glory days are found mostly in vintage post cards, and snapshots here and there.  The following link provides background of its history.

 Rise and Fall of the Coco Palms Hotel 

There has been much debate as to who are the rightful owners of the land, and what should replace it.  Proposals have been numerous, being carried out like a tug-of-war but for now it appears that an agreement is in the works.   The following link discusses plans in the works for a 3 year reconstruction project on the property.   We'll see.

Coco Palms to be Rebuilt

It is amazing there were not many more people that lost their lives with IWA.  The following link provides additional details around that day.  The injury mentioned in the article appears to be the one we witnessed when a woman fell off the bleachers in the gymnasium and injured her back.   

Additional Facts IWA

The first significant hurricane to hit the Hawaiian Islands since statehood in 1959, Iwa severely damaged or destroyed 2,345 buildings, including 1,927 houses, leaving 500 people homeless. Damage throughout the state totaled $312 million (1982 USD$, 876 million 2023 USD). Wikipedia


“A radius of maximum wind was right over the island, causing maximum destruction.  ”

 

The End