Just realizing today that I’ve failed to post anything “post hurricane Lowell”.

I wrote earlier “Waiting for Lowell” and I wrote about “The preparations and morning spent waiting for Lowell” but until now I haven’t written about what actually happened when Lowell struck our island.

So here’s a first draft pass with no real editing or grammar checks…just want to get the thoughts out.

We lost electricity in our home on Monday night September 7th…and got it back on Wednesday September 9th. During that time we also had no “connectivity” via internet, phone, nor even commercial radio…both AM and FM stations were “off the air” at least from our home on Kaua`i in the Wailua Homesteads.

Even after getting our power back, our internet/phone connectivity was limited and we had to drive to find “hot spots” to use phones to call, text, check email etc.

Needless to say, except for a few FaceBook posts, I’ve not done much writing during or since then.

It’s been 7 solid days since Lowell arrived and departed.

The first day Monday September 7th…started out ominous and ended up verifiably frightening. The winds came up during the late afternoon and continued building through the early evening…then the power went out (I saw the flash of what was probably a transformer blowing up)…and then there was just darkness.

Darkness and the sound and fury of the wind.

Claudette and I were mostly sequestered in our bedroom which seemed to be the safest and furthest from the winds…but all night long it seemed…the entire house would flex and shudder…and you could feel the pressure changing…and hear the thuds of whatever objects were flying through the air in the darkness…as they hit our roof.

We lay on the bed fully clothed with our shoes on…ready to run and hide further should the roof go.

We had not put plywood on our windows (which I regret) and we kept thinking that at any moment the wall of windows we have facing the winds…was going to blow in…with shards of glass everywhere…but thankfully that did not happen.

Fortunately the winds subsided and the sun came up the next day…as my mother would always remind me was the case.

Probably about 5:45am I ventured outside to an absolutely beautiful orange/red sunrise and light winds…which quickly turned to clear skies and no winds as the morning progressed.

A quick walk around the inside of the house discovered zero issues or problems, outside a small section of roofing shingles had blown up and off, but nothing major, and no water had come through the roof/ceiling.

In our back yard, both our mango and our ulu trees had lost large branches…our young papaya trees had been pretty much shredded…and the ground was littered in avocados…probably 70 of them at least…on the ground…large and small…some ready to ripen and eat and others not so much. Fortunately the tree survived…but lost 90% of its fruit.

(more on the avocado story later (IYKYK) )

On the State lands behind our house several large African Tulip trees were knocked down…but not in a way that was harmful or dangerous to anyones home or property.

Amazingly our 3 bunches of banana’s survived the winds AND I was greeted by 3 enormous and incredibly beautiful Dragon Fruit Flowers…they only “bloom” for one day and must have started the process during the night as the winds started to dissipate. Was amazing to see them. An omen perhaps?

By this time it was just after 7am. The winds had definitely subsided…and I then decided to “walk the neighborhood”…and was greeted on the street by several neighbors all who had survived the storm with minimal damage but lots of “clean up” to do.

There was one home where the trees had fallen across the driveway and myself and others on the street proceeded to help the owner who was home alone at the time…one neighbor grabbed a chain saw…and with about 5 of us (from 3 different neighboring homes) helping…the driveway was clear after 30 minutes or so.

I’m thinking 2 or 3 homes sustained serious damage…out of 30 or so on my road. I did not see any structures that appeared to be “totaled”.

On the main “feeder road”…Kuamoo Road…I started to see cars driving up and down appearing to indicate the road was “open”.

Later that day I drove down towards the main Kuhio Highway and was able to drive into Kapaa Town…all of the traffic lights were “out”. People were very courteous at the intersections, taking turns letting each other drive through the intersection.

I drove around seeking a “hot spot” that might have “2 bars” or more so I could find out the extent of damage island wide and to contact my son and his family who live in Koloa on the other side of the island. They lived in a 100 year old plantation house…and own a “food truck” business “The Smash Cafe”…and of course I was concerned about their safety.

Unfortunately it was not until late that afternoon when I finally found a place with the much sought after “2 dots or more” and I parked at the side of the highway near Hanamaulu and was finally able to connect…discovering much to my relief that my family was ok…no major damage…but also no electricity…but the home was intact and the family of 4 (including my 2 grandchildren) were ok…stressed and worried about their food business and losing all refrigeration…but ok.

Wednesday morning we continued struggling with the lack of power and connectivity…but slowly started hearing news of major damage on the south and west coastlines from the waves and storm surge…, there was major flooding from the rains on the north shore…and some of our farmer friends had entire orchards flattened by the winds…avocado trees especially seemed to have been a favorite target of Lowell…and there were avocados everywhere…we literally could not give ours away…even though they were beautiful and tasty. But yes…our farmer friends were hit hard…and it will take years to replace those trees that were lost.

Late afternoon on that same Wednesday our electrical power and internet connectivity was restored to our home…which was a HUGE relief.

We woke up on Thursday feeling good…and then read that during the night there had been a major fire at the Lihue Civic Center – which houses numerous Kaua`i County services including the Department of Motor Vehicles where you get your drivers license renewed and pay car license fees, AND the Real Property Tax Office, AND the Planning Department and I think the Building Department…this is potentially a MAJOR disaster itself depending on the extent of the fire and how well the County has “back up” electronically all of the information held by these offices…all the tax records for the entire county…all the building approvals and permits for the entire county…and the history of those permits (think Coco Palms Resort)…it’s going to be a mess that is for sure…how big a mess we do not know…AND it will be a mess that the NEXT mayor will have to figure out.

So…now here it is one week later…the full extent of the damage island wide is still not fully known. It’s bad…but we don’t know how bad…

But I do know we will survive this…as we survived Iniki and Iwa…and Dot…and yes Lala brushed against us as well.

Now that I have electricity, connectivity, and some basic life stability…I’ll return again to my regular writing…though it’s hard to write about politics, elections, and policy…when you remain surrounded by the very real struggles of everyday life following a natural disaster such as hurricane Lowell…but at the same time “life goes on” and the statewide elections will go on…and the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) will be scheduled AND it is essential that all of us…make our voices head…

Bye for now…apologies for the disjointed nature of the above ramblings…but it’s the best I got at the moment.

gary

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