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Families split,
kids stuck at school
A standoff forces some
children to sleep at school;
3 schools stay closed todayTraffic: Time to watch, worry, wait
Standoff over, roads open
Second route lacking
Kids, motorists stuckBy Mary Adamski
and Leila Fujimori
Star-BulletinAll three Nanakuli public schools were closed today as a result of the standoff near Nanaikapono Elementary School.
Schoolchildren who couldn't be reached by their parents yesterday, spent the night camped out in school dining halls along with faculty and staff.
Some special education students and some van drivers were diverted to Kapolei Elementary School where they spent most of the night, said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen. He said four students remained there until 3:15 a.m., when the drivers took them home.
Initially, about 400 to 500 Nanaikapono Elementary School students were evacuated to Nanakuli High and Elementary School, he said. Only about 16 were still at the school when the roads opened, he said. "By 5:45 a.m., everyone was back home."
More than 100 of the 200 Kamehameha Schools children from the Waianae Coast who would normally have been bused home also were kept at school. "Through relatives picking up children, we ended up with about 46 who could not get back to their homes," Kamehameha Schools spokesman Kekoa Paulsen said today.
He said beds were made for the children in one of the gyms and the younger ones were in the learning center. Beds also were used in the infirmary, he said.
Many staff members volunteered to stay with the children as long as needed, he said. The children were given dinner, snacks and breakfast this morning before going back to classes.
"I'm sure it was interesting for them," Paulsen said.
Robert Narmore didn't make it home, but his three children did from Nanaikapono. The Waianae Valley resident was among the 200 people at the Red Cross shelter opened at Makakilo Playground late last night.
"I called my wife and she said not to worry, she already picked them up," said Narmore, who heard about the situation in midafternoon.
Children from Nanakuli Elementary School, a mile from the scene, were not permitted to leave without supervision as school officials learned of the situation before classes were dismissed.
"I'm just happy my family is safe," said Althea Watanabe of Nanakuli. She and husband Vernon searched the public bus route until they were reunited with their two oldest youngsters, headed home from Pearl City High School.
First, the Watanabes picked up son Ammon, a fourth-grader at Nanakuli Elementary. "We had to go to the classroom and sign him out," she said.
Then they took the long way around through Kolekole Pass and Schofield Barracks and a went through the backlog of buses at the Kapolei terminal before they found Zen, 16, and Aya, 15. "We knew they were on a city bus, we were supposed to pick them up," said the relieved mother after finding them with family friends stalled alongside Farrington Highway near Honokai Hale subdivision, just a few miles from home.
"It's been an exciting day off," said Vernon Watanabe, a GTE Hawaiian Tel employee, and a birthday Aya won't forget. Her gifts were still unopened at home and "we're going out to have dinner far from here and celebrate," said Althea Watanabe.
Clarence and Marlene Kekahuna of Nanakuli, stuck in the stalled homeward traffic, had worried about their son William, a Nanakuli Elementary student. The 10-year-old was home last night while his parents were trapped on the other side of the standoff.
"He's worried about when we're going home," Clarence Kekahuna said. "I told him we're going to be coming home. We're just waiting patiently."
Traffic tie-up: Time to
By Jaymes K. Song
watch, worry, wait
or just party
and Mary Adamski
Star-BulletinSalele Tau stood in the dark waiting for a city bus in front of the 7-Eleven store in Kapolei this morning.
It was 4:30 a.m., and he had to be work at Pearl Harbor in two hours.
The Waianae resident had spent the last 13 hours in Kapolei on his feet without sleep or shelter -- just waiting ...
And waiting ...
And waiting.
"Now, I gotta go back to work," he said, forcing a smile and holding a large Styrofoam cup of coffee.
Tau was among the thousands of Leeward Coast residents and commuters trapped by the standoff. They turned off their engines, sat, strolled or socialized in the snake of stalled traffic that stretched from Nanakuli to the Campbell Industrial Park exit.
Tau remained positive about going to work, saying that there's nothing anybody could do about it.
"Maybe I'll work half the day," he said.
Some motorists were evacuated in a city bus convoy last night, leaving their vehicles behind. They were the first refugees to arrive at the Red Cross shelter established at the Makakilo Community Park.
Many of the evacuees had been headed home on city buses, and were brought to the windy hillside recreation center after milling around their stopped buses at Kapolei Shopping Center. Red Cross spokeswoman Amy Sufak said a few mothers with small children came initially, but were able to summon friends or family to pick them up.
Even after the standoff was over and a couple lanes of Farrington Highway were opened at 3:20 a.m. today, many commuters decided to sleep in their cars and wait for the heavy congestion to settle.
The first thing Lindsey Kalani was going to do when he got to his home in Waianae was to hug his three children.
Kalani said he was more upset and worried than tired because his three children were left unattended over night.
"My kids were worried for us, too," said Kalani, who kept in contact with them via cellular phone. "So they kept calling us all night."It scared them," he added. "I told them to lock the doors and stay in the house."
Kalani and his wife had spent the night at the movie theater in Kapolei. He had been there since he got off work yesterday at 1:30 p.m.
The theater, Zippy's restaurant and the 7-Eleven in Kapolei were hot spots overnight.
"We were extremely busy," said Alan Shiohira, Zippy's assistant manager, who estimated that they sold double the amount they do for a weekend.
Shiohira said the restaurant had orders by the hundreds for their "Zip Paks" from the Honolulu Police Department and the American Red Cross in addition to a restaurant filled to capacity. The orders nearly ran Zippy's out of chicken.
Anna Llanos, a cashier at 7-Eleven, said it was her busiest night ever, with sales about 70 percent higher than a normal weekday; coffee was the top seller.
"People were tired and complaining," Llanos said.
Hundreds slept or milled in the parking lot and used the Kapolei businesses to buy food and use the restrooms and payphones. Many people also watched movies.
"We were spending too much money," Kalani said. "We watched about four movies and ate about six hot dogs each.
"I'm not going to another movie for a while."
About four hours after the standoff began, some motorists had an impromptu tail-gate party at the back of a pickup truck stopped across from Honokai Hale subdivision. The guys pooled their beer and someone brought a little poke, and their volume increased as time wore on. Jason Evasco, a Dyn Air employee, and Lie Lopez, who works at Campbell Industrial Park, said none of them knew each until they happened to stop in proximity.
"It's like one reunion," said Kaleo Peneku, heading home to Waianae Valley from his job on a tow truck. He and Masa Borges and Fred Domingo left their flatbed truck to visit with friends in a pickup, and to socialize on down the row. "This truck won't make it through the mountains" so the Kolekole Pass alternative route was out. Peneku also complained how cold it was during the night. "Now I wish I wore long pants to work," he said.
Thirty hula girls in close order drill, gold-edged skirts bobbing, were shepherded along the highway shoulder, walking the last half mile to Ko Olina where they had a gig dancing at a convention group's luau at the Ihilani Resort. Their parents set up folding chairs in the grassy medial strip and broke out the snacks.
One dad, attorney Bill Harrison, brought out a battery-powered mini-TV and they kept track of the University of Hawaii men's volleyball game. "We're halau parents, we know how to wait," he said.
Kit LeBlond of Honolulu and his friend Tom McLeahy, visiting from North Dakota, brought out their guitars and played awhile for their captive audience. They had intended to take in a sunset at the beach and the road stall caught them by surprise.
A tired looking woman, who declined to give her name, borrowed a cellular telephone to call her husband.
"Take your night medicine," she told the stroke victim. "I'll fix you something to eat when I get home." She hung up and admitted, "I'm not feeling so good myself."
"I've had a long, hard day of work on my feet and I want to get home," said hospital technician Harmonie Branigar of Nanakuli. She had the benefit of a refuge from the gridlock, her mother-in-law lives in Honokai Hale. "What makes someone do this at a school, putting children at risk?"
Ray Mohney and his wife, Rozella, were in the first row of cars when police closed Farrington Highway near the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill.
The Mahoneys, visitors from Spokane, Wash., who stay at a Makaha condominium when they are in Hawaii, say the same thing happened to them on their last visit.
"In January 1998, police had to close the road for another incident," Ray Mohney said. "We were on our way to a friend's house for a Chinese New Year's dinner and couldn't get out.
"That time, we just turned around and went back home. It really doesn't bother me. Hawaii's such a nice place to be."
