Kipahulu hit anew with road closure
WAILUKU » One day after celebrating being reconnected with the rest of the island, residents of East Maui were lamenting the county's closure of a well-used back road yesterday because of a rockslide.
A rockslide Saturday led county officials to barricade a stretch of the back road between Kipahulu and Kaupo. The closure means that Kipahulu residents who work in Ulupalakua will have to take a 2 1/2-hour drive around the other side of Mount Haleakala, instead of the usual half-hour ride.
Kaupo Store owner Manny Domen said the road has been used by several hundred people daily and that residents are aware of the risks.
Domen said the county should clear the road and let people continue to use it.
"Every now and then rocks come down. It's a normal thing," Domen said.
On Sunday, East Maui residents were applauding the opening of a temporary span that replaced the damaged Paihi Bridge, which was closed after earthquakes and torrential rains in mid-October. The bridge closure had cut off direct access from Kipahulu to Hana.
While residents decried the latest closure, county official Lyn Araki-Regan said the county cannot put people's safety at risk by opening the back road.
"We need to protect both residents and visitors," she said.
But Peter Gaffney, a Kipahulu resident, said more people have died at the pools at Oheo, commonly referred to as the Seven Sacred Pools, yet government officials haven't shut down the pools.
"It's a hardship all the way around for people," said Gaffney, who has lived in Kipahulu for 24 years. "I just don't understand why they think this is serious."
County workers put up barricades yesterday on the back road at the Kalepa and Alele areas after rocks and boulders fell on the highway on Saturday.
The county has hired a consultant to recommend how to scale back the cliffs at Kalepa and Alele, where a rock slide occurred following an earthquake and torrential rains in mid-October. Work to scale back the cliffs is expected to start in January.
County officials said until they receive the consultant's report on Dec. 12, they don't know how long the work will take.
Jonathan Star, a Kaupo resident, said the closure wouldn't have been so bad if the county had given people advance warning.
"What it appears to me is they're creating a disaster where none exists," he said. "There's no need to do it."