A boulder lay amid debris in the patio area yesterday after it crashed into a Nuuanu home.
Barreling boulder
hits Nuuanu homeA woman escapes serious injury
in a house one block from
a fatal boulder fall in 2002
Honolulu police told some Nuuanu residents last night to evacuate or take their chances after a 4-foot boulder crashed down the mountainside and smashed into a Henry Street home.
Rose Hamakado said the rock fell so quickly she barely had time to lean backward and dodge it before it came flying by a little past 4 p.m. The boulder smashed into a corner of her house, leaving a gash big enough for her to crawl through and touch the bed in which she sleeps.
"I can just go through this," she said yesterday. "No need open the door."
The Hamakados live at 2745-A Henry St., about a block from 2527-A Henry St., where a falling boulder killed Dara Onishi, 26, on Aug. 9, 2002. In light of the previous incident and the unknown origin of yesterday's rock, police said they decided to inform the Hamakados' neighbors about the situation and allow them to decide whether to leave.
"It's going to be their call whether they want to leave or not," said officer Jon Hinazumi. "So what we did was have a geologist from the University of Hawaii to try and assess the situation.
"He got up about 100 to 150 yards, but due to darkness he could not get any farther."
Hinazumi estimated the boulder weighed about a ton or a ton and a half. Hamakado said she was cleaning up the cement patio area in the back of her home when she heard a noise from above.
"So fast, I jump back," she said. "It went past my head. ... I think if I taller, I dead."
Besides a scratch on her left hand, Hamakado said she was uninjured. She was the only one home at the time the boulder barreled through the chain-link fence that borders her property, continued into the makai, Diamond Head corner of her house, then smashed a cement bench to pieces.
"Maybe I just leave it there," she said, "make table, have barbecue."
Yesterday's boulder was not as large as the one that killed Onishi while she slept in her bedroom; that one was estimated to measure 5 feet by 5 feet.
Hamakado's husband, Bert, said they have been living in the house for 23 years and never saw anything like it before and never expect it to happen again.
Nuuanu resident Rose Hamakado looked yesterday at the large hole in the corner of her bedroom left by a falling 4-foot boulder at 2745-A Henry St.
After the 2002 incident, Bert Hamakado recalled, "In the back of my mind, we were concerned, but we didn't think it would happen to us."The Onishi family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of the property where the boulder originated, listed as Vance and Hiroko Vaughan, of the Vance Vaughan Revocable Trust. Neither the Onishis nor their attorney could be reached for comment yesterday.
Police said geologists would return today to assess the situation on the mountainside and determine where the boulder came from, whose property it is and whether there are more that could come down.
"I think we're safe," said the Hamakados' neighbor Shirley Okumoto after police told her about the boulder. "We're going to stay."
Police told residents in six to eight homes that they were taking their chances if they remained.
The Hamakados were staying put.
But Rose Hamakado said, "We sleep (in the) living room tonight."
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Hillside havoc
Major accidents involving boulders in Hawaii:>> February 2003: A 4-by-3-foot boulder rumbles down a hillside in Waialae Nui and comes to rest 20 feet from a house.
>> November 2002: Rocks tumble down a Hawaii Kai hillside, smashing into a condominium complex. The Lalea subdivision is evacuated for a year until repair work can be completed.
>> October 2002: A rockslide onto Kalanianaole Highway prompts state officials to scale back the hillside at Makapuu.
>> August 2002: A 5-ton boulder rolls down a Nuuanu hillside and crashes into 2527-A Henry St., killing Dara Onishi.
>> March 2000: A rockslide near Waimea Bay temporarily closes a stretch of Kamehameha Highway.
>> May 1999: Eight people are killed in the Mother's Day rockslide at Sacred Falls Park.
>> April 1993: A 10-ton boulder rolls down a Manoa hillside and smashes into a house.
>> October 1992: A girl is injured when a boulder crashes through her family's Niu Valley home.
>> February 1993: A boulder falls on a female hiker on a ridge above Pali Highway.
>> September 1992: A boulder tumbles down the north side of Manoa Valley and smashes into a Huelani Drive house struck by a boulder in 1977.
