KAUAI, September 12 — The first floor of Mona Garcia’s home in Kekaha is open to the sky in places now, two walls torn out by the high surf Hurricane Lowell drove ashore, and on Thursday she and her neighbor Delcynn Lagazeal were still hauling out what the water left behind. That image — neighbors clearing a flooded house by hand — is the scene on Kauai this weekend, as the island does two things at once.
It is digging out from Lowell, the storm that passed closest to Kauai and Niihau overnight Monday into Tuesday morning after threatening Hawaii for more than a week. And it is marking the anniversary of Hurricane Iniki, the 1992 storm that devastated the island.
A track that echoed Iniki
Lowell took a path that residents here know too well. It passed to the south before making a sharp turn north toward the state, a track similar to Iniki’s. Kauai County absorbed the worst of it.
Detailed damage estimates have yet to be determined, but Lowell left its heaviest damage there. On Friday, the body of a 69-year-old man from Wainiha was discovered near Kuhio Highway and Wainiha Powerhouse Road.
Kauai police said the area where he was found had seen significant flooding during the storm. His identity has not been released pending notification of next of kin. Crews from across Hawaii are on the island now, working alongside local responders to restore electricity, clear debris and roads, distribute food and check on residents and homes.
‘Who showed up’
Mayor Derek Kawakami framed the moment in a statement Friday, drawing a line between the storm the island remembers and the one it is living through. “Thirty-four years ago today, Iniki changed our island,” Kawakami said. “Many of us remember the hard days that followed, and we also remember who showed up.” He said Kauai is once again seeing an outpouring of support from communities across Hawaii, with crews joining local responders in the recovery work.
The damage was not confined to Kauai. On Oahu, 31-year-old Floyd Ruiz died Monday after a tree fell on him while he was in a tent at Sherwoods in Waimanalo.
The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death an accident caused by multiple blunt force injuries. On Kauai, the search for the dead continued into the weekend. On Wednesday, the body of 74-year-old Steven Palama of Kalaheo was found along the shoreline fronting Nomilu Fishpond, where he was the caretaker.
What comes next is the slow accounting. Damage estimates are still to come, and the power and road crews working across Kauai County will determine how quickly the island gets back on its feet — even as it pauses to remember the last time it had to.
