Like you, I’m oh so tired, yet totally consumed by the “waiting for Lowell” – speculating, predicting, watching one weather report after another, waiting for that inevitable “turn to the north and north-east”. My “go to” weather source is the NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER and CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER (NOAA)

But at the end of the day, I’m waiting, wondering, and thinking about September 11, 1992.

Hurricane Iniki ripped the roof totally off our Wailua Homesteads home.

Fortunately we were “off island” when the storm hit but I’ll never forget those post-Iniki days.

I remember going through my half destroyed home, salvaging photos and personal memories – praying that I’d paid the insurance bill.

Our family of 4 moved into a nearby house, along with my brother and his family of 4, plus my wife’s parents and her sister – 11 of us living in a 3 bedroom house.

We lived without electricity for weeks, perhaps months.

The National Guard brought food through the neighborhood in the form of MREs (Meals-Ready-to-Eat), and I’ll never forget standing in long lines waiting patiently with cooler in hand, for ice.

I remember seeing those South shore ocean front homes, devastated by the monster surf that washed completely through the ground floor units, pushing furniture and appliances out into the yards.

My business at the time included publishing “Kauaʻi Magazine”, a hotel “coffee table magazine” which depended entirely on advertising sales from tourism based businesses.

On 9/12 every single one of our customers was closed, along with every single hotel on the island. Some would never open their doors again, and certainly none were interested in purchasing advertising.

The entire Kauaʻi economy shifted overnight from tourism to construction, and stayed that way for a long, long time.

I remember wondering if our lives would ever return to normal again.

But we survived, adapted, and learned from the experience.

And here we are, waiting and wondering, rehashing our memories, and praying and hoping Lowell will pass us by.

In any case, we again will survive – of that I am sure.

Stay safe my friends.

Stay safe and check on those friends and neighbors who might be without a support network, but too embarrassed or shy to ask for help.