Road to rebuild was rocky after the rolling stopped

WAIMEA, Hawaii » Dennis Martin, Foursquare Gospel associate pastor, likes to joke about the aftermath of the Oct. 15, 2006, Big Island earthquake that destroyed his home in Waimea.

"Red-tagged" by county inspectors, the damaged house was ruled too dangerous for anyone to go inside, but Martin sneaked in once or twice to get personal papers and a little clothing.

Then he was stopped by visions of potential newspaper headlines: "House falls on pastor and wife stealing clothes."

Jokes aside, the pain remains.

Martin, who works as a landscape maintenance contractor as well as a pastor, is paying $4,406 a month for housing, the total of his old mortgage on the destroyed house, the new mortgage on his replacement house under construction, and rent on temporary housing.

Of 67 homes receiving red tags like Martin's, 22 belong to families who still cannot go into their old homes and have no replacements, according to the Hawaii County Department of Public Works. Of 227 homes receiving yellow tags, meaning parts of the houses were dangerous to go into, 72 still need repairs.

The worst damage was in the Waimea area because homes are built on soil that magnified earthquake effects.

Quake damage was less in North Kohala, which was farther from the 6.7 quake, offshore from Kiholo Bay in North Kohala. The ground there is also harder, a kind of partly decomposed rock, but rock nevertheless.

Waikoloa, which is generally thin soil on top of rock, although closer to Kiholo than Waimea and Kohala, had less damage.

The worst damage was suffered by homes on "post and pier," built off the ground rather than on concrete slabs, said Gary Chock, an engineer and a member of the state Earthquake Advisory Committee.

Homes in Waimea suffered sideways stress of one "g," one gravity, Chock said. He explained that's like tipping a house on its side and letting gravity pull it, then in a fraction of a second, tipping it on its opposite side and letting gravity pull in the opposite direction, and on and on for 15 seconds.

Houses in North Kohala suffered much less stress, Chock said. Houses in Waikoloa suffered only about a quarter of a "g," he said.

Martin found out what all of that meant when the quake struck while he was at a prayer gathering on Oct. 15. His wife, Leona, called and said, "You'd better get home right now." Their house had fallen four feet to the ground from its support posts.

In the months that followed, Martin learned some lessons about humanity. "It brings out the best and the worst in people," he said.

One landlord doubled his price, thinking earthquake victims would be flush with federal relief money. Martin found a place that rented him its biggest room at its smallest price.

When he needed pre-fab storage buildings, the manager at Lowes sold him two valued at $2,300 each, for $500 each.

Concrete contractor John Contreras and building contractor Mike Gregg are building his new house at cost.

This isn't exactly a happy ending. Before the quakes struck, Martin had all his bills paid except for his mortgage. Now at age 51, he'll be paying until he is 81.

Martin's neighbor Steve Greenspan was much luckier -- at first. His house also fell off its support posts but was undamaged. Greenspan hired a licensed contractor to raise the house on jacks. On the third day, the house fell again, destroying it.

"It's pretty much trash. What the earthquake didn't do, my contractor did," Greenspan said.

Insurance will eventually pay for a new house.

Even before that, Greenspan ran into state bureaucracy. He needed to get his reconstruction loan registered at the Bureau of Conveyances. That took six weeks.

"Can you have some compassion? I just want to fix my house," he pleaded. The woman behind the counter answered, "Sorry. I can't help you."

Fifteen miles to the north, Virginia Graham has the unhappy distinction of being the only person in North Kohala whose house was destroyed beyond repair.

Graham had spent 10 years converting the 120-year-old Arakaki Store into a home. She was in a hospital in Washington state being treated for heart disease when she saw a television report that a major earthquake had hit the Big Island. Like the Waimea houses, hers had fallen off support posts.

Graham's children moved her into a tiny cabin behind the house, once used as a tofu factory. Graham has been living with an outdoor kitchen and outdoor bathroom since then.

Finally, in tears, she called friend Ted Ferguson in Florida. "I can't do this. I need help," she told him.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave her the maximum grant allowed, $28,500 -- not enough for a new house. Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters stepped in and authorized the whole sum needed for a new house.

A national organization called Baptist Builders is supplying the labor. A crew comes for about two weeks at a time. When they leave, Graham never knows when the next one will come. Right now, she and Ferguson are trying to get the roof on the new house.

For some, the whole process went smoothly. A man in Waimea told the Star-Bulletin he got his federal money, put his house back up on supports, and has been living in it. But he never got final inspection from the county, and he didn't want his name used, lest an inspector come and find something to complain about.

Others just kept their mouths shut. Martin said he knows of people who never reported damage.

"A lot of people are afraid to report the damage. If you're told you can't get back in your house, where would you live?" he asked.

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Hotel shuttered by quake delays its reopening

SOUTH KOHALA, Hawaii » The only hotel to suffer major damage in last year's earthquakes is still closed and may be closed for at least another year.

Damage to the 310-room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was immediately visible after the quakes. A heavy concrete trellis at the roof line of the south wing collapsed, severely damaging a balcony it fell on.

An exhaust flume running up the side of the building was also damaged. But on the whole, the building seemed sound enough to allow the hotel to continue operation with half of the rooms open.

On Dec. 1, the decision was reversed. The hotel was closed, and 250 employees were laid off, although 100 of them were hired at the neighboring Hapuna Prince Resort, which is under the same management.

"As we continued to open up the walls, there were some issues," said general manager Charles Park.

Engineers discovered structural bracing was damaged.

Park says he now hopes the hotel can reopen in the fall of 2008.

The project has been complicated by the fact that the hotel intended to do renovations anyway. The company is holding discussions with its insurer to determine which projects are repairs, subject to insurance coverage, and which are renovations.

Park put the repair cost at several million dollars.