Robert Basques had a cart full of basic supplies ready to fly back to Lanai. Basques and his wife, Leilani, stocked up on commodities in anticipation of a shortage of goods in Lanai.
Shortages stir
residents to fly
to Oahu for supplies
With no barge service, neighbor island residents are flying to Oahu to get extra food and supplies.
Leilani Basques, from Lanai City, brought boxes of supplies from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club to fly back home. She flew to Honolulu at 8 a.m. yesterday and flew back on the 5 p.m. plane.
Her receipts totaled over $400, but she said that's not enough.
"This won't even last us one month," she said, motioning to two 36-packs of Pepsi, a 20-pound rice bag, a 24-pack of Gatorade, lots of cereal, saimin, toothpaste, a box of detergent and three large coolers full of miscellaneous food items.
Basques, 34, a ticket agent for Island Air, dragged her husband, Robert, along to help her carry all the groceries.
Because she works for the airline, she was able to fly to Oahu and ship her supplies back without extra charges.
"It sucks," Basques said of the workers' strike. "On Sundays, only one store opens on Lanai and I thought, 'We better go and get some food now.'"
But she wasn't able to get everything she was looking for.
"Everyone in our family is asking, 'Where's the ice cream?' but I can't even get that there or here," she said.
Maria Diesta, also of Lanai, was on Oahu for three days, but didn't have enough room in his luggage to bring back any groceries.
Diesta, 41, was traveling with his girlfriend, Edna Sedano, and her daughter to buy school supplies and personal items.
"They only allow 44 pounds for each person, and it's too expensive to pay for any more," he said.
The strike not only affects individual households, but businesses, too.
Donni Sheather brought a cooler along on her trip to Oahu from Waimea on the Big Island in case the restaurant she works at needs her to bring back extra food.
If the strike lasts for a while, she said, the restaurant will need to think of other alternatives.
"We may have to take things off the menu," said Sheather, who is the catering manager. "Everything reflects in the price and the consumers will have to pay."
