LIHU’E — The Pacific Ocean is our most dangerous ally.
While the vast blues and greens stretching to the horizon can be so inviting, they also prove deadly each year to visitors and residents alike.
Tragedy and grief gave way to rejoicing and newfound respect for the island’s residents on New Year’s Day, when a visiting father and son due in part to some perfect timing and excellent coordination were able to be rescued after being sucked away from Hanakapi’ai Beach along Na Pali Coast shortly before dark.
According to rescuers, perfect timing is probably the reason father and son are alive today.
First, Kaua’i Fire Department Ocean Safety Bureau Water Safety Officers Gavin Kennelly and Jody Simpson were already off work when the call came in at 5:51 p.m., right around dark, that a boy was missing.
They came back to work, and were picked up by firefighters on KFD’s inflatable rescue boat for the trip to Hanakapi’ai, Simpson said.
While the boat went out, Gary Hudson climbed an area known as Windy Point to establish a communications link between the boat and other firefighters on the North Shore, including incident commander Charles Metivier.
Information then came in from family members that, in fact, two members of the Smith clan, father Jeff and son Joshua, 13, were missing.
The rescue boat, now at the secluded beach and in the dark, deposited Kennelly in the water to gather information and search for the victims. But no one, except campers, were on the beach.
Around that time, they heard screaming from the victims, said Dane Smith. Tucked in a safe spot were the man and his son.
“They were right in this perfect little pocket, in front of the cave,” where the waves were not crashing right into them, said Simpson. He added that they had been there for only around 15 to 20 minutes.
Right after they were spotted, Luca Rostagno and Inter-Island Helicopters’ Air 1 (as it is called during rescue work) arrived on the scene to provide light.
But if he had been a little earlier, the blessing of the helicopter’s light might have been a curse, with the helicopter’s noise potentially clouding rescuers’ abilities to hear the missing family’s cries of help.
With a small swell in the mix (six-foot face heights) and “a lot of water moving around,” Simpson said, the rescuers, Kennelly, Simpson, Makali’i Andrade and Lehia Pomroy, hit the water armed with fins and rescue tubes.
They took turns swimming towards the cave to establish contact and check on the Smiths’ conditions.
With a break in the swell and the lighting in place, the swimmers nabbed the Utah visitors and brought them back to the boat. They came in at Ha’ena Beach Park, where the Smiths were treated by medics at the scene.
While the dramatic rescue unfolded, other members of the Smith family were treated to some genuine Kaua’i aloha.
They wanted to thank those who showed the internationally acclaimed Kaua’i hospitality as well.
“To the people who offered us help at Ke’e Beach and were willing to open their homes to us and waited and prayed with us, we also say ‘thank you;’ you truly touched our hearts with your kindness and generosity,” Sandee Smith said.
“We have been to Kaua’i many times. We love your island for its beauty, but most of all for the wonderful people who are its citizens,” she said. “You always make us feel welcome.”
The county’s infrastructure to protect people from the darkest parts of our most valuable resource starts with the KFD and its ocean-safety officers keeping watch from towers stretching from Ha’ena to Kekaha.
It leads into the firefighters and medics, and also to helicopter pilots who respond to emergencies in unreachable areas.
It was these protectors, 11 of them, whom Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste honored yesterday with certificates of commendation in the courtyard of the Lihu’e Civic Center’s Mo’ikeha Building.
The 11 men, 10 KFD personnel and Rostagno, were honored for their actions on New Year’s Day.
The Smith family, back home in Draper, Utah and safe in the snow, also wanted to express thanks, in a letter to TGI received Monday, to their rescuers of New Year’s Day.
“These rescuers truly did do a remarkable job under extreme conditions of high surf and darkness of night in a very dangerous area,” said Sandee Smith in the e-mail letter.
“We are so grateful for their willingness to rush to our aid and risk their own safety in order to save my son Joshua, age 13, and husband Jeff.”
The letter continued: “We wish to express our most heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the rescue crews from the Princeville fire station, the Inter-Island Helicopters, the Lihu’e fire station, the Kaua’i Police Department, and especially to North Shore county lifeguards Jody Simpson and Gavin Kennelly and rescuers Gary Hudson, Lehia Pomroy, Makali’i Andrade and Dane Smith for rescuing them.
“All of the rescuers were extremely professional, and exhibited great kindness to all of our family during a very trying and frightening time.”
The team effort included Rostagno, Kennelly, Simpson, Hudson, Pomroy, Andrade, Smith, Metivier, and other firefighters Lance Yamada, Roy Constantino and Shawn Hosaka. All were commended by Baptiste.
Hosaka, Hudson, and Metivier were not able to attend, but received commendations anyway.
“Thank for your work. Thank you and all others who put their lives on the line to do this over and above the call of duty,” said the mayor at the informal ceremony. “It must have been intimidating doing it in the dark.”
It surely was for the Smiths.
“We are so grateful for their talents and services and will never forget them,” Sandee Smith’s statement read. “We thank you for turning what was a horrifying and near-tragic experience into a remarkable and miraculous rescue.”
Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mailto:tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
