Saturday morning on Kauai, the recovery continues, but getting to normal still depends heavily on where you are and what you’re trying to do. More electricity is back, communications are returning in places, and some businesses are moving closer to normal, while cleanup, repairs, and service disruptions continue across the island. For example, Costco lost power again Friday morning, and lights flickered in Lihue.
We still aren’t doing much driving unless we need to. People we know who live here are saying the same thing, and one reason became obvious Friday when travel between Lihue and the South Shore took roughly two hours in each direction because of debris cleanup, tree work, and utility repairs. That distance is around 12 miles. Even when the highway is technically open, getting around can remain far from normal, and a four-hour round trip between Lihue and Poipu is just that.
Two days ago, we told Hawaii News Now that visitors should wait, and based on the conditions then, we’d say the same thing again. Things are improving, but we still wouldn’t describe this as a normal Kauai vacation week.
Getting around has become its own recovery problem.
Basic services remain spotty. Trash collection is one we haven’t seen return where we live. Spectrum internet appears to be returning in places after its widespread outage, while Beat of Hawaii’s Hawaiian Telcom fiber-optic internet never went down through Lowell, and Starlink has also remained available and popular.
Cell service was less dependable. Voice was spotty, and mobile data was almost nonexistent most of the time after the hurricane, just when people needed to find open stores, gas, road information, and updates.
The Kauai emergency information system also had problems.
Lowell exposed another vulnerability that totally surprised us. Kauai’s two designated emergency radio stations both experienced serious power problems during the hurricane, with KONG going off the air for a period and KKCR reduced to very limited coverage.
That’s huge on an island where residents have been routinely told to keep a battery-powered radio available for emergencies. When internet, mobile data, and electricity are compromised at the same time, radio was supposed to be one of the systems that always stays up.
For us, some of the most useful information during and after Lowell came a different way. Neighbors, utility crews, businesses, readers, and Coconut Wireless often told us what was happening faster than any centralized source ever could.
Lihue Airport can look different within hours.
Friday was already a very different day at LIH than Thursday. Early reports showed power back, self-tag machines working again, air conditioning restored, and both regular and TSA PreCheck lines moving far better than the day before. We still saw a long line early Friday, but by afternoon conditions appeared substantially improved.
Thursday had been extraordinary. As we reported in our firsthand coverage of the Lihue Airport security meltdown, BOH readers reported waits of five to more than seven hours after LIH was reduced to a single generator backup that wasn’t functioning normally, while MyTSA continued showing a wait of only 15 minutes.
More than 250 pizzas were flown by helicopter from Honolulu to Kauai on Thursday to feed about 1,000 people, including some travelers at LIH. By late Friday morning, HDOT said TSA wait times had fallen to as little as nine minutes, and passengers could return to normal airport arrival times, a remarkable turnaround from just the day before.
Recovery still depends on where you are.
Power restoration has clearly accelerated, and many more homes and businesses now have electricity than they did earlier this week. Others are still waiting, even as outside crews and equipment arrive to help KIUC rebuild damaged parts of the electric grid.
North Shore communities face a different problem. A boil-water notice is in effect for Wainiha, Haena and Kilauea, while residents in some areas continue to work through flooding and infrastructure damage that has little resemblance to what people may be seeing elsewhere on Kauai. Visitor access to Kauai’s end-of-the-road North Shore also remains restricted. The Wainiha double bridges are open for local resident traffic only, while Haena Beach Park and Haena State Park remain closed. Ke’e and the Kalalau Trail are unavailable, and both county and state parks across Kauai remain closed for now.
Ocean Safety is also continuing to advise against swimming and other ocean recreation while the island-wide brown-water advisory remains in effect. Conditions here can be dramatically different within a relatively short drive. What someone sees at an operating resort or shopping center may bear little resemblance to what another community is dealing with only miles away.
Kitty stayed, but not as though nothing happened.
Longtime BOH reader and our friend Kitty has been coming to Kauai regularly for about 30 years and is on the island for two weeks on this trip. She and her husband stayed through Lowell, lost power from Monday evening until Thursday afternoon, and were still waiting for their pool to reopen when she wrote to us.
They aren’t leaving early. Part of that is practical because replacing their flights to the East Coast isn’t easy, but Kitty also wants to spend money with businesses that are open while making a point of staying out of the way of cleanup and recovery.
“The wind Monday night was unbelievable,” she told us. She also wrote that “Kauai does not look like it did,” with beach and pool plans still uncertain and even ordinary drives carrying reminders of what happened.
Kitty’s approach probably says more about this week on Kauai than any blanket advice to come or stay away. She’s supporting businesses that are ready for customers without pretending the island around them is already back to normal because it is not.
The question of whether visitors should come right now has become surprisingly contentious. Some residents and business owners are urging people to return and support businesses that are open, while others say Kauai still needs fewer people on the roads and drawing on services that remain stretched. We’re seeing the same disagreement in BOH comments and across social media.
Kauai’s cleanup is far from over.
Community food distributions are continuing around Kauai while restoration work proceeds and some neighborhoods remain far behind others. Recovery was further complicated Wednesday night when a major fire damaged the Kapule Building at the Lihue Civic Center, shutting down the DMV, Real Property, planning, building and zoning, Solid Waste, sewer-billing, and Kauai County IT services until further notice.
No injuries were reported, and the cause remains under investigation. Officials are also looking at whether an electrical surge when power was restored may have played a role. We’re hearing but can’t confirm that the IT area did not have an isolated Halon fire-suppression system and that water used to fight the fire caused extensive additional damage to equipment, potentially making the impact far greater than the list of closed public counters may suggest.
Governor Josh Green initially said Lowell’s damage would exceed $400 million, but estimates are already rising substantially. We’ve heard numbers closer to $1 billion, and that no longer sounds far-fetched. Cotality, a risk analytics company, now estimates insured losses alone at $500 million to $1 billion, with most expected on Kauai, while another disaster modeler has put overall damage around $600 million, with the possibility of reaching $1 billion.
Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii at Kokee before Lowell.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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We send out prayers to the people of Kauai.
We have a trip planned to go there on October 9th for a week. We are hoping to find out if we will be able to visit at that time.
It’s been hard to read about the effects of Lowell. it appears that it will take months, if not a year for all of Kauai to return to normal. That is bad, but at least no serious injuries or deaths have been attributed to Lowell, may that continue throughout the recovery. This was not Iniki #2, and that is good.
The media from the mayor’s office through the storm and during recovery has been excellent, you are fortunate to have a mayor who cares deeply about his home island. One wonders if Kauai’s recovery is hampered by recent overdevelopment of the island. The island’s population has increased by over 15,000 since 2000. Such a small island has a fragile economy and ecosystem, and is easily overburdened. The Kauai we first visited over 30 years ago has been diminished by it.
Finally, have the multi-millionaires and billionaires with estates on Kauai helped with recovery? The people of Kauai are in our thoughts and prayers.
with regard to Kitty staying on island…If you are a visitor such as Kitty rather than a tourist it may be helpful to be on island. Kitty respects what the island has been through and is willing to be patient and helpful. If tourists are coming to expect rapid clean-up as community members are piecing back their lives…stay home for now.
Also, I would love to see an article written about your Mayor. I love his updates and how he approaches the people in his community with understanding, guidance and calmness. I hope the community members support him. From I what I see he appears to be a mayor for the people and not a “mainland” mayor with his own agenda.
My only thoughts: if you’re a visitor, since you can’t be much part of the solution other than moral support, just be sure you don’t become part of the problem. It’s one thing to look on tv and computer at a disaster, it’s another to be living in it and trying to take care of your own and neighbors and having to worry about outsiders. You can offer to help, but don’t get your panties in a bunch if they smile and say “tanks, but we gottum”.
Aloha -Mahalo for the updates.
That coment about rentals is huge since most rentals were in flooded areas.
Hope to visit soon and help local businesses recover.
I also have been coming to Kauai for many years and again this year. I’m a disabled senior so having time on the Eastside with limited damage is a blessing. Amenities such as pool closure are insignificant compared to what island residents are facing. Limiting my shopping to local owned businesses like The Red Hibiscus or Big Save. Love this island, the overwhelming kindness and genuine concern for us even in this tough time has brought tears to my eyes.
We are hoping for a speedy recovery.
Mahalo 🌺 Nui for this update (from Kona)
Thank you and please continue to give frequent status updates on the island.
Kilauea is still without power as of 09/12
I’m also curious about the rental car fleet and available inventory as a result of the hurricane. In the photos I’ve seen there have been a lot of vehicles. I would think that a lot of them were rentals that will probably have to be taken out of service. Anything taken out of service on the island can take quite a while to replace. So I question what has been the impact to the rental car fleet availability. Just a curiosity 🙂
The problem is actually the other way around. The rental agencies are dependent on the cars being out on the roads or in parking lots all over the island. All of the rental companies lack parking for all of their cars. They’ve moved a bunch over to the stadium to give them enough room at the airport and the cruise harbor.
We’re in Kapaa now and have had a perfectly comfortable stay following the hurricane, but we’ve changed almost everything we planned to do. Limited hiking, no ocean swimming and much less driving. Still happy to be here.
The airport turnaround is encouraging while the road situation is not. Nine minutes at TSA after what people went through Thursday is remarkable. Hopefully the rest of the island starts recovering quickly too! We’ll be arriving in a month.
We’ve been visiting Kauai for over 30 years and would never want our vacation to interfere with people trying to put their lives back together. We’ll spend money at businesses that want us and otherwise just try to stay out of the way and off the road. Thanks for reporting.
Our flight to Kauai is tomorrow and our condo says they have power and water and that they are operating normally. Not sure what we can expect beyond that.
Cancel…unless you enjoy staying at your condo!!!
As far as the North shore goes, the main towns of Kilauea, Princeville, & Hanalei are still without power. A significant amount of the vegetation was destroyed. Hanalei suffered significant damage to commercial structures, popular food truck areas, and of course the beach is closed. Many of the residents are coordinating trips to Kappa for food, ice, & gasoline. It’s going to be awhile before the North shore recovers. Stay safe everyone & praying for beautiful Kaua’i.
Currently staying in Poipu and things really do vary tremendously depending on where you are and where you go. Our hotel is functioning pretty normally, but once you leave the property you see how much work is still actively going on. The traffic has been something else entirely so it has pretty much wrecked the idea of spending some days on the north shore.
Yvonne…Kilauea to Hanalei have No Power, limited food, mangled roofs on some structures in Hanalei, and the devastation to the vegetation looks like a bomb went off. So yes Stay Where You Are!
I was also extremely disappointed with the lack of radio during Lowell. We bought a battery radio specifically so we could get information. We live in Koloa and we could not pick up a single station. Even the NOAA weather was not transmitting for quite a while.
We have sadly postponed our trip until November. It was disappointing, but after reading about the parks, North Shore access and traffic, among other things, I feel much better about the decision.
Chris Trust Me, you made the right decision!!!
We arrive next Saturday and this is helpful in understanding why open doesn’t necessarily mean normal. I’m calling our hotel today as well as checking out every activity separately.
Otis… if you love the beach, hiking, scuba diving dining out out at all the great restaurants, etc., etc…. You’ll be out of luck, and if I were you, I’d postpone my trip at least a month if not longer. Folks living on the North Shore are being told they may not have power for another two weeks.
Been visiting Kauai every year for a month since 1986.
We left before Iniki hit and luckily we left before Lowell came through. I would wait a year before returning to paradise.
Great advice S O, but some folks just will not heed the warnings!