From disaster are born heroes
When the ground slipped beneath them, many turned to helping others
THE EARTHQUAKES that shook the Big Island a week ago today triggered more than cracked walls and tilted homes.
The natural disaster also evoked a ripple effect of people reaching out to help each other.
When the ground stopped moving, the safety of family, friends and neighbors was the first thought of many residents. Here are a few stories from the hardest-hit areas:
THE ONODERAS
Off-duty Big Island firefighter Charley Whittle walked outside his Waimea home last Sunday after the earthquakes and looked around.
His place looked OK, but up the hill he saw the distinctive dark smoke of a building fire. So he jumped in his truck and drove until he found the Puu Nani Drive home of Dorothy and Leslie Onodera Sr.
A couple of neighbors and Leslie Onodera Jr. already had garden hoses pointed at flames leaping from the garage of the wood-frame house, Whittle said. "I didn't do much," he said. "Just told them where to shoot."
Whittle said he was amazed that neighborhood heroes with garden hoses were able to control the fire until the Fire Department arrived.
Dorothy and Leslie Onodera Jr. were able to get out safely on their own, Whittle said, and a firefighter with breathing equipment later entered the smoke-filled house and rescued their cat.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Off-duty fireman Charley Whittle followed the smoke to this burning home to find neighbors trying to save the structure on the corner of Puu Nani Drive and Puu Olu Place in Waimea. The earthquake ruptured a gas line and started the fire. Whittle said neighbors actually controlled the blaze using water hoses before firefighters arrived. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Leslie Onodera Sr. returned home from the family's vegetable farm about 45 minutes later, he said, to see his house nearly destroyed. Fortunately, the extended family has a house the Onoderas can stay in temporarily, he said, "because, you know, I ain't no millionaire."
"The neighbors were really helpful," Onodera said -- and he's grateful his son thought to turn off the propane tank.
Had everyone not acted so quickly, the fire could have reached the tank or spread to nearby houses, said Fire Battalion Chief Ruben Chun.
Friends have given the family money and clothes, and some even offered a place to stay, Onodera said. "I'm flat broke anyway. We just go day by day as it comes around. ... Thank God for friends."
A HERO'S WELCOME
If you know of someone who went out of his way to help others during the earthquakes and power outages Sunday, tell us about it. Send us an e-mail at quakeheroes@starbulletin.com and include information on how to call you if we need to find out more about what happened.
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