GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Maui resident Paul Tatsui saw high waves break his retaining wall and take out his stairway to the second floor at his Kaikoo Street home in Paukukalo yesterday.
Powerful swells
batter outer islandsWaves destroy structures
and lead to road closures
WAILUKU >> High waves forced the evacuation of two homes in Paukukalo northeast of Kahului and one on the Keanae Peninsula in East Maui yesterday morning.
Authorities also closed beach parks in several locations, including Fleming in West Maui, Baldwin and Kanaha in Central Maui, and Keanae and Hana Bay in East Maui.
Police also temporarily shut down traffic on Kahului Beach Road near the entrance to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Hana Bay Road, Keanae (Peninsula) Road and Haneoo Road in Hamoa.
Wave surges destroyed a wall of a Paukukalo house, causing the structure to tilt toward the ocean, and swept through a storage area and carport of another home nearby.
"The big boulders were all over. This is the worst," said Paukukalo resident Paul Tatsui, who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years.
Waves in excess of 12 feet broke on the outer reef a half-mile away, surging forward with white water several feet high.
On Kaikoo Street the waves dislodged a propane tank.
"The cover of it was floating on the street," said neighbor Christy Gibson.
At Tatsui's house on Kaikoo Street fronting the ocean, boulders that once were a part of a retaining wall had rolled through his garage to the opposite side of his yard, and plywood boards and other lumber from the garage lay in piles outside the home.
But the top floor of Tatsui's house was still intact and standing on wooden stilts.
His fellow parishioners from Door of Faith Church helped him clean up the debris.
"They are my brothers. I didn't even have to call them," he said. "They're really good people."
Tatsui said he walked out of his home about 5:30 a.m. yesterday with plans to go golfing and saw sea water and large rocks on the road.
He said that about 7 a.m., high waves took away his house's outside staircase leading to the second floor.
Then, other waves broke a portion of his retaining rock wall and the wooden wall of his carport and pushed his car back three feet, he said.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Frederick Copeland and his son, Richard, cleaned up debris and water yesterday near Punaluu.
On Kailana Street just east of Kaikoo, waves broke through the wall of the bottom section of a garage and tilted a portion of a gray beachfront house toward the sea.
Craig Halley, a neighbor on Kailana Street, said the waves started surging early this morning, and a single wave punched through the wall of the gray house about 8:30 a.m.
"It chopped the sea wall in half," Halley said.
Tatsui, a retiree from Los Angeles, said he came to Maui to do some windsurfing and expected to experience high waves occasionally.
He said he also knows waves could destroy his house, forcing him to rebuild his home, but he really enjoys living near the ocean.
"I know it will happen again, but I love it," he said.
Big Island
HILO >> Big Island Mayor Harry Kim called the high surf pounding East Hawaii "dangerous and life-threatening."Although no injuries were reported yesterday, officials opened two shelters, closed roads and urged residents to be cautious.
The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency reported high and dangerous surf throughout East Hawaii, including Hilo, which was expected to continue today.
Kim, the county's former Civil Defense chief, said this situation is potentially "much worse" than a similar incident 10 years ago.
A section coastline in the Puu Maile/King's Point area was flooded in the pre-dawn hours yesterday morning, destroying six makeshift houses in the predominantly native Hawaiian settlement.
All but a dozen of the more than 100 residents sought shelter elsewhere.
Civil Defense authorities said that 29 of the area residents went to the temporary Red Cross Center at the Civic Auditorium in Hilo. The rest apparently stayed with family and friends. Another shelter was opened in Pahoa Community Center.
Hilo Bayfront Highway and several other streets were closed Thursday due to high surf and will remain closed at least through today.
In addition, the following East Hawaii beaches are closed: Kealoha Beach Park, Leleiwi Beach Park, Coconut Island, Lili'uokalani Park, Isles, Laupahoehoe Point Park and Richardson's Ocean Park Beach.
Kauai
Kauai County officials advised 20 homeowners living along the shore on Aliomanu Road north of Anahola to evacuate late yesterday."The road could be lost, and if that happens they would be trapped," said county spokeswoman Cyndi Ozaki. "But it's not a forced evacuation."
The Kilauea Elementary School cafeteria was opened at 5 p.m. yesterday for anyone needing emergency shelter.
High tide yesterday afternoon briefly closed Kuhio Highway in front of the Coco Palms Resort in Wailua. (The resort has been shut down since Hurricane Iniki in 1992.) The highway was reopened when the tide started going out.
County officials were more concerned about the next high tide at 2:30 a.m. today, which is expected to be even higher.
State Harbors Division officials were notified that the cruise ship Norwegian Star, which regularly docks at Nawiliwili Harbor on Saturday mornings, will not attempt to come into the harbor. Yesterday, waves were breaking over the inner sea wall in the harbor.
Similarly, after steaming around outside the entrance to Nawiliwili Harbor yesterday, the Young Brothers tugboat and barge that usually dock on Kauai on Friday mornings retreated and went out to sea to wait out the high surf.
Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste said yesterday that he has seen such a large east swell only once before, when he was a child.
Star-Bulletin reporter Anthony Sommer on Kauai and Big Island correspondent Peter Serafin contributed to this report.
