HAENA — Since flood relief efforts began, Moku Puulei Chandler of Hanalei has been at the forefront.
He says he’s not alone.
“Everyone’s just chiming in when they can and we’re so appreciative of the captains, the general public,” he said Thursday. “We’re happy everybody can work and see eye-to-eye, taking personal things and putting them aside. We’re really stoked about how the community has come together.”
Now is the best time to help, he said, because those who were impacted by the record-breaking flood that dumped nearly 50 inches of rain on the North Shore in 24 hours can’t wait.
“If we were to wait for any other, like the state and those other guys, we’d still be waiting, so it was important that the community come solid together and help out each other,” Chandler said.
He said he’s helping because he grew up in the community and loves it.
“Local knowledge is priceless out here. If you don’t know where you’re going, if you don’t know the reefs, if you don’t know the water, you don’t know those hidden things that some people don’t know,” he said. “I want to be where I’m needed.”
At the Hanalei Bay Pier Thursday, a handful of boats dotted the coastline. They were waiting to shuttle passengers and goods to Tunnels Beach, a launching point for residents needing to get home or perhaps to the Colony Bay Resort, which has become a de facto flood relief headquarters.
The April 15 flooding devastated much of the North Shore. It washed out roads, destroyed homes and buildings, overturned and washed vehicles into the ocean, and stranded hundreds of people. Gov. David Ige declared Kauai a disaster area.
Meantime, the community has rallied armies of volunteers to clean, haul, and tackle any number of tasks in the recovery.
Over at Opakapaka Grill, Chef John Finnegan has been busy cooking breakfast daily for 200 to 300 people.
“I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” he said. “I’m ideally positioned to help this community and I’m glad to do it. I got up to Hanalei and Kapaa for a day to get some supplies and came right back because they needed me here.”
Not only has he been cooking breakfast for the community, he’s also been cooking for the first responders and now he’ll start cooking lunches for the satellite school that opened Thursday.
“It’s pretty much everybody on the North Shore,” he said. “This is a truly special experience. I’m glad I’m here.”
The standard breakfast, he said, is pancakes, eggs and bacon. Every now and then, he said they’ll get Danishes and pastries.
Since the amount of people they’re cooking for is so large, Finnegan said they could use more help.
“We are really, really struggling with keeping up with the volunteers, who are doing a great job, but it’s a different thing doing this great of numbers,” he said. “It’s not like cooking at home at all, but everybody’s been great. It seems like there’s been a new group of volunteers everyday, so it’s a challenge. If we could get some professionals up here, that would be great.”
The Hawaii State Department of Education opened a temporary educational site Thursday at the Hanalei Colony Resort to serve 51 students residing in Waikoko, Wainiha and Haena.
Opening of satellite classes was “awesome,” with wonderful community support, said Superintendent Bill Arakaki in a Twitter post. “AWEsome students, teacher &staff! Thank you to all that helped make this happen.”
Also at Colony Resort, Chris Crabtree of the Hawaii Health Care Emergency Management Coalition has been leading a team of medical professionals for about a week now, treating Wainiha and Haena residents who need medical assistance.
“We focus on preparedness response, mitigation and recovery,” he said. “Within that, we have capabilities and one of the capabilities is a disaster response and recovery team and that is what we brought here.”
So far, he said, they’ve seen about 200 patients and have handed out about 50 wound care kits.
The team isn’t planning on leaving anytime soon.
“What I’ve been telling the community is as long as the mayor wants us here and as long as the community wants us here, we’ll be here,” he said.
Just after 1 p.m. back at Tunnels Beach a group of residents and volunteers had gathered to catch the last boat out for the night.
Chandler was busy bringing boats close to shore so they could be loaded and unloaded. He said he’d been preparing to assist in a disaster situation his entire life.
“We live on Weke Road in Hanalei near Pinetrees and Waioli Beach park and we had just water in our yard,” he said. “I think our septic got compromised, but it didn’t get into our house. So we were good. Our family’s safe. That’s all I was worried about, get them safe, so I can help my friends, my family, my community, to be of some kind of service to them.”
Every little thing, he said, is making a difference.
“Even just the thoughts and the prayers goes so far. We really appreciate everyone out there in the world and we want to mahalo everyone that’s even thought about us and of course all of the people doing the hard work,” Chandler said. “We want to really thank them and mahalo them. I can say the families down here, they really appreciate it. Every little thing.”
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Bethany Freudenthal, courts, crime and county reporter, can be reached at 652-7891 or bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com.
Great to see this happening. Kauai has adopted a saying. Come together. Come together. Instructions from Kevin McHale to his players. Not bad. NBA. A wonderful place to be.