State says boulder
was from private lotA Nuuanu neighbor
assesses the hazard
after his family's loss
News that a large boulder clipped a Nuuanu family's home this week triggered heart-wrenching memories for a neighbor whose daughter was killed by a falling rock two years ago.
Patrick Onishi lives about a block away from where the boulder hit Bert and Rose Hamakado's Henry Street home on Monday afternoon. Onishi's daughter Dara, 26, was killed on Aug. 9, 2002, when a boulder smashed through the family home and crushed her while she was sleeping.
"I felt like I had rubber legs," Onishi said yesterday. "Anytime something like this happens, it just triggers all kinds of emotions."
Monday's boulder narrowly missed the head of Rose Hamakado as it went sailing through the air, smashed into the corner of the couple's master bedroom, and crushed a concrete bench.
Although police had said the state would be sending a geologist to assess the situation, personnel from the Department of Land and Natural Resources said yesterday that it was not its responsibility because the land from which the boulder came was privately owned.
"We sympathize with the homeowner who had this experience, and who, fortunately, escaped unharmed," said Peter Young, DLNR director. "As with other instances where rocks have fallen from slopes, it is the landowner's responsibility to take necessary actions."
DLNR officials said the land above the Hamakado's home at 1745 A Henry St., is a 17.67-acre parcel owned by various private individuals.
Some Henry Street residents have built their own barriers to protect their property since the 2002 rock fall.
"I think everybody has to take action," said Hamakado's neighbor, Donald Chun.
After Onishi's death, he built a 4- 1/2-foot guardrail with 3-inch pipe filled with concrete and reinforcing steel bars above his 15-foot retaining wall. "If you wait, you might become a statistic."
Onishi has filed a lawsuit against Vance and Hiroko Vaughan of the Vance Vaughan Revocable Trust, an owner of land above Henry Street. As part of the lawsuit, a geological survey of the cliff above Onishi's property was done.
According to the survey by Masa Fujioka & Associates, there is a "boulder cluster which is very loose and may be unsafe" at the top of a 50-foot cliff above the Henry Street homes.
The boulders were affected by a flow of water "from a drainage culvert at the entrance to the Vaughan property," according to the survey.
The survey recommends that "the Onishis move out of their residence until the situation is remedied" and that "the other residents on both sides of the Onishi residence be notified of the hazard."
Onishi said: "I shared this with my neighbors because they're elderly, in their 80s and 90s ... All I could tell them was that there is a peril threatening."
Onishi said he invited the landowners above him to a neighborhood meeting but that the response he received was "it was your survey, you tell your neighbors."
"I started to get upset and angry," he said. "I had hoped that the landowners could at least answer the question about what should be done."
Onishi's lawsuit alleges that the Vaughans "failed to assess the stability of their property for dangerous conditions."
The Vaughans' attorney could not be reached for comment.
Onishi's attorney, Steven Kim, said that according to their geological survey, the boulder that hit the Hamakado's house is likely not from the same property where the Onishis' boulder originated. Even so, Kim said, he believes the basic message to property owners living at the top of ridges to be the same.
"Talk to your neighbors, let them know what's going on," Kim said. "We're not talking about a tree on someone's property dropping leaves, we're talking about boulders dropping."