We traveled around the island on Sunday, including another visit to Poipu Beach Park. If we’d looked only toward the ocean, it would have been easy to think Kauai was much farther along than it is.
Turn inland, and the picture changed completely. Poipu Beach Park was trashed, heavy equipment worked through piles of debris, and sand had been pushed roughly halfway from the normal beach toward the hillside and highway, as you’ll see in our lead photo. Brennecke’s was still standing, but water had reached the downstairs area, while excavators and cleanup crews worked only yards from a beach that already looked ready for vacation photos.
Lowell wrecked some places, barely touched others, and left very different amounts of work behind. Nearly a week later, even the people charged with guiding visitors don’t have one answer about when they should return, while conditions on the ground make clear why that’s so difficult.
Kauai officials and visitor-industry representatives are scheduled to meet Tuesday morning to discuss their messaging about what comes next for visitors. The situation is becoming critical due to the importance of tourism to Kauai and its residents. Discussions are now including potential layoffs and other catastrophic financial measures. We’ll update this as we learn more.
Power is back for most of Kauai, but not everyone.
About 81% of KIUC member accounts had electricity restored by Sunday, but many still lacked service. Some of the remaining work is in parts of Kauai where access and damage make repairs much harder, and some of those outages may not disappear nearly as quickly as the first ones did.
Outside help has arrived in force. About 100 additional workers from Hawaiian Electric, Southern California Edison and HMS Construction were expected to bring the restoration workforce to roughly 250 people, with particular attention being paid to the North Shore.
The video above shows a Hickam-based Air Force C-17 landing at Lihue carrying Southern California Edison crews, utility trucks and equipment. Those trucks were originally flown to Hawaii Island after Hurricane Lala and were redeployed to Kauai over the weekend to speed restoration.
Some North Shore power could begin returning in Kilauea, Princeville, and Hanalei early this week, but KIUC still has no estimate for full North Shore restoration, where infrastructure damage remains extensive. Even living here, it still surprises us what is and isn’t back online, sometimes within the same neighborhood.
Monday traffic was bad but normalizing.
We hoped the extraordinary road congestion of the past several days would begin easing as the new week started. Monday morning, it was awful again, with commutes stretching far beyond what was workable for residents or visitors. But by about 10 a.m., the traffic started to clear once again.
We’ve watched caravans of utility and recovery trucks moving along Kauai highways with police escorts while tree crews, heavy equipment, and debris hauling use the same roads. A Poipu to Lihue drive that normally takes about 20 minutes has taken as long as two hours one way, and Kauai has no alternate route when the highway backs up.
What strikes us is that we aren’t seeing anything close to the normal number of visitors ourselves, yet traffic can still become nearly impossible. Adding normal visitor volume to roads being used this heavily for recovery work would only put more vehicles into the same constrained corridors.
For someone on vacation, that can wreck a day even when the hotel, rental car, and destination are all available. Crossing the island for an activity or simply getting to the airport for a flight can become a very different proposition when travel times bear little resemblance to normal.
Monday is bringing back more of ordinary Kauai.
There are encouraging signs too. Most public schools and state offices are reopening Monday, airline operations have stabilized substantially since last week’s LIH problems, and businesses continue coming back as electricity is restored.
Those changes are happening at the same time as the recovery operation that remains highly visible. Some water systems still depend on emergency power, repair crews continue working around the island, and the places hit hardest by Lowell have much farther to go than those that largely escaped serious damage.
Our weekend report on what’s working on Kauai, what’s not, and where visitors still can’t go captured how many restrictions remained then. Conditions have changed since that article was published and will keep changing, which makes any fixed islandwide return date increasingly difficult to pin down.
Kauai also needs its visitors back.
When we were at Lihue Airport Sunday, it was nearly dead. After the extraordinary crowds earlier in the week, the contrast was striking, with rental-car operations, vendors and other visitor-facing businesses remarkably quiet. It looked to us as though many visitors had left, fewer had arrived, or some combination of both.
That missing visitor spending has consequences that ripple throughout Kauai. It reaches far beyond hotels and vacation rentals to restaurants, tours, rental cars, airport businesses, shops, and the countless other people whose livelihoods depend on them. After losing business during Lowell and its aftermath, many of those businesses need customers again as soon as they’re actually ready to serve them.
Kauai is now caught between the two. The island still clearly needs room for recovery crews and basic infrastructure work to continue, while businesses and workers in places that are ready need visitors and the income they bring.
Your trip may determine when you should return.
We’ve already seen visitors make both decisions. Julie wrote to us, saying she has clients arriving at a fully operating East Side resort, where they planned to stay without renting a car or sightseeing. They’re still coming as planned. She said that others have postponed because their resorts aren’t open or the beaches and places they planned to use aren’t accessible or desirable right now. “Each property, venue, activity, business, etc., will have its own timeline as to when it is ready for visitors.”
For an arrival in the next few days to weeks, we’d also add checking what is happening between those places, because ever-changing traffic shows that having two operating destinations doesn’t necessarily mean getting between them will be easy or workable. Though it may be.
Trips several weeks away shouldn’t be judged by what Kauai looks like early this week. Recovery has moved remarkably fast in some places, while the manpower and heavy equipment now being brought in show how much work remains elsewhere.
Earlier in the recovery, we asked whether Kauai was ready for visitors at all. At that point, when most of the island had lost electricity and basic services were badly strained, we were discouraging near-term visitors from coming. That advice was subsequently quoted as far away as London’s The Sunday Guardian.
Conditions have changed since that article was published and will keep changing, which makes any fixed islandwide return date increasingly difficult to pin down. When that changes, visitors should focus on the trip itself: where you’re staying, how much driving it requires, and whether the places you came to Kauai to experience are actually ready for you.
If you have a Kauai trip coming up, what would need to be back to normal for you to feel comfortable coming, and if you’re here now, what are you finding? Please join the discussion in our comments.
Photos at Poipu Beach © Beat of Hawaii.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →
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Aloha, Waikomo Stream Villas 2721 Poipu Rd. Is undamaged & saltwater pool BBQs & grounds fully operational & open.
I’ve been visiting north shore Kauai since right after Iniki hit the island with a double whammy years ago. I remember the horrific damage then and my heart goes out to all the wonderful people living and working on Kauai who are experiencing this now. Even paradise has its thorns and we/I must take the good with the bad. I have a trip planned for the end of November and I plan on coming knowing that I will likely stay at my resort and enjoy just being in Kauai but also want to support the island in its recovery. Is there a trustworthy and effective charity you know of and can recommend for donations?
I want to give back to this unique and precious island that has given me so many cherished memories.
Just checked the KIUC Power Outage Map, and as of 1:30 am HI time, they appear to have repaired the cross-island transmission lines, and power restored in PV and Hanalei. This is big progress. Now they have to work back east to Kilauea and west to our last but not least neighborhood Wainiha and Haena. Island wide, about 90% of their accounts are back on. Got to give those crews a big tip of the hat – They are getting it done!
Lets all predict the future. Are we all just to stay away from Hawaii’s September-October hurricane season or wait until the damage gets cleaned up and then the next hurricane thrashes Hawaii again. What do you do just say no tourists allowed to visit Hawaii for 3 months during storm months. Visitors plan trips maybe a year in advance and who’s to advise whether one should come or go other than mother nature. Mother Nature decides what happens and nobody else. IMO it’s not up to the resident’s because Mother nature can take them out anytime it wants to.
Hi Rob+Jeff I have been wondering about any damage up at the Allerton Botanical Gardens. Any info on that???
I received a call this afternoon from Outrigger Kiahuna Plantation to confirm my December reservation. She did state that the property is currently closed but that the building our reservation is in, is open. We have until mid November to cancel for a full refund, deposit too. Or rebook without any penalties. Thanks Rob and Beat of Hawaii for these updates!
We have reservations for Kauai for Nov 7-14. Our lodging is in Kapaa. We still plan to come, knowing that some venues and sight seeing locations may be limited or unavailable .
We have been to Kauai many times, and so our plan is to do things that are comfortably available.
I’ll return when the power has been restored, the water is safe to drink, all of my favorite restaurants are up & running, and the beaches are open & safe to swim.
FYI, Kapaa is up and running more or less as usual besides the traffic but what’s new? We’re not as fancy as Poipu but we are up and running. Just saying.
I will be arriving in Kauai on October 6th with work gloves and shoes ready and willing to pitch in at my beloved Lawai Beach Resort. Kauai has given me so much over the years. I can’t wait to give it back. I rarely, if ever, use a rental car on my yearly visits to Kauai so not a problem.
I agree there are so many beautiful places you miss in a car. Mahalo for your reporting! Between your reporting and our wonderful management and Ohana Associates at the Lawai Beach Resort we are ready to come back better than ever!
We have a trip scheduled from October 16th thru November 2nd
staying in a condo just south of Kapaa.
We can cancel with a 100 % refund no later than September 22nd.
At this moment we are planning on coming although our favorite swimming area at Lydgate Park is probably full of sand and logs (:
Aloha All. Finally got a call last night from my girlfriend. She lives in Kilauea and said still no electricity. She also confirmed all of what you wrote about. Her thoughts on travellers visiting was to hold off for another month. By then, most everything would be somewhat back in operation. Keeping the road clear for cleanup is the most important aspect of recovery right now. Stay safe and Godspeed. Mahalo for all of your excellent reporting as usual. Warm regards. I also cancelled my Sept trip. May go in Dec instead. Just being patient.
Hi Debra.
Mahalo!
Aloha.
Oh in a few weeks you’ll be writing a story about how the island needs tourists back.
Because you all worry about trivial things like the evil mainlander visiting instead of focusing on why the power has been out for over a week and a half.
I’ve lived along the Gulf Coast all my life and have experienced too many hurricanes to count. Since most power lines are above ground… it’s very common that it takes time to restore the power to an entire city or Island after a catastrophic weather event. Just have to prepare as much as you possibly can before the storm, and be patient with the recovery process after the storm.
Any word on the Sheraton?
There is a video on Facebook of a drive from Lihue to Poipu through the tree tunnel yesterday afternoon, there was no traffic & the road was completely cleaned off. They posted a sheet the Sheraton at Poipu had given out (the section across the road is open) , and there were at least 30 restaurants in Koloa & Poipu open. The Beach House was showing reservations on OpenTable after Oct 1st, I got a hold of them, that is incorrect & they are going to fix it (they didn’t know). The golf course at Poipu by the Hyatt has been open since last Friday. We are visiting mid October, staying near Lihue, so will avoid the North Shore, but with the mall at Poipu already open, we will at least visit that side to patronize the local restaurants.
Keoki’s Paradise just posted they are opening today
FWIW – the Poipu Grand Hyatt has this “important message” on their home page:
“Our team is working diligently following Hurricane Lowell and we expect to be fully operational by September 20, with Anara Spa, Poipu Bay Golf Course, our pools and restaurants open. The saltwater lagoon will remain temporarily unavailable ….”
After Iniki they told us to wait a year and we did. That was very good advice at the time. Lowell was quite different in severity
But areas that we normally hang out in were hit very hard. Poipu,Koloa,Lawai, Hanapepe,Waimea. Travel time to Lihue
Can be frustrating in normal times. I would think a few months at least. Samo
Our visit was for mid Oct. Our final payment is due mid Sept. We regretfully chose to cancel. We didn’t want to negatively impact the limited resources, nor impact the recovery, nor be in the way. We know that the economy is also dependent on the tourist money. We took all the factors we could gather … Hawaii Tourist Authority, YT Videos, FB videos, Kaua’i Mayor videos … very little input from our resort other than to say they were very busy … and made the extremely difficult decision to cancel. We Love Kaua’i and the people. We visit basically every 3 years and we’ve stayed in multiple locations from Moloa’a Bay to Poipu. It was extremely emotional to send the cancellation eMail. Nothing compared to what the people of Kaua’i are experiencing … but we have looked forward to our return for quite a while. We have already started planning our 50th wedding anniversary for 2030.
As a full-time resident, Deacon & Lay Leader in a Hawaiian Christian Church and a volunteer with Food Bank on the front lines serving hundreds of families, Mahalo nui loa. A Hui Hou 🌺
We have a trip scheduled for early October with three young kids. In order to make this trip, we would definitely want the beaches accessible and safe to swim in.
Re North Shore – no one other than residents can cross the double bridges in Wainiha. Looks like this will be the case well into October. One of the bridge abutments failed, and (according to HI DOT) a “temporary” one will be built “during October”. So, likely Ke`e beach park and the Kalalau trail will remain out of reach for tourists and residents, alike (other than maybe for us “lucky” ha-ha people living past the bridges until the temporary abutment is completed. If memory serves me right, the bridges themselves were supposed to be “temporary,” and the county had budget for installing a permanent bridge back in early 2018, and then the April 14 flood happened, and the budget was redirected, and not revived.
I have a wedding planned for mid October do you think the island will be open by then
It’s not “the Island”. It’s what’s your itinerary? Where is the wedding? Grand Hyatt probably OK. Sheraton Poipu – not happening. RumFire is gone. Lava’s is gone. The pool and hot tub are now beach. If a North Shore hotel depends if power is back. From. KIUC standpoint Princeville will take the longest. My neighbor is a Union electrician lineman. Working around the clock. He knows what’s going on
Many residents of Kauai drive the Kuhio highway without realizing the transmission line that parallels the highway doesn’t do anything past Anahola. The transmission line that feeds North Kauai comes over the mountains. It line in the mountains was originally built there with wood poles, and replace with sturdy steel poles after Iniki. But it is hard to get to, exactly why the power is slow to come on back North. After Iniki, Kauai Electric tried to put in a second line following Kuhio highway. That’s what you see along the highway. But Princeville stopped the last 1.5 miles, objecting to the aesthetics of the line. So here it sits all these years later not doing anything.
I’m wondering if Kauai residents are ready to finish the line over Princeville’s objections?
That’s perfect. Princeville HOAs also measure your grass with a ruler and send owners violation notices and fines. Couldn’t happen to a more entitled non-Hawaiian group of people living in their Haole Bubble. Karma
All of those beyond the turnoff for Larson beach suffer though, as the whole are won’t have power until the line over the mountains can be repaired.
I thought that the power lines are underground in PV.
We were booked at Barking Sands for a 2 week vacation beginning Sept 9th. 2 days earlier the base posted that all recreational services had been suspended until further notice. We were later informed that base recreation housing was being used to house displaced active duty members and FEMA personnel. Luckily we were able to cancel our airline and rental car reservations. We were able to rebook on Ohau as a backup. No news coming forth from the military.
Isn’t the “downstairs” area of Breneke’s the Puka Dog restaurant? Or do they have part of the restaurant downstairs?
Yes, they also operate on one side of the downstairs & Puka Dog occupies the other side. Both downstair entrances have heavy steel red doors that kept the storm surge from coming inside. Can’t wait to enjoy another Puka Dog…YUM!
“Some North Shore power could begin returning in Kilauea, Princeville, and Hanalei early this week, but KIUC still has no estimate for full North Shore restoration”
We’ve been told by KIUC rep that (1) Haena / Wainiha will be last to have electricity restored (we always are, so nothing new), and that we should expect up to 3 more weeks. In addition to the North Shore transmission network being badly damaged by wind and (mostly) falling trees, the extension out to our ‘hood was extra damaged. Dialed up to 11.
I have a trip booked October 7-17. This was supposed to be a mainly hiking/outdoors trip. As Kaua’i State Parks are currently all closed (with no reopening date as of 09/14), it would radically impact our trip if that remains true for another few weeks. Everything is refundable until 09/23, so I’m hopeful we know more in the next ten days. If not, we will most likely cancel.