Hikers find apocalyptic scene exiting Kalalau
The scene on the beach in front of Hanalei Bay Resort on Monday morning was one of organized chaos.
The previous day’s historic rainfall left travelers and locals alike stranded along Kauai’s northern coastline. Volunteers collected bottles of water, cans of gasoline, green bananas and other donations.
Local watermen periodically dropped off refugees from the storm who were trapped on the Hanalei side of the river.
I stopped to talk to a group of hikers who had incredibly hiked out of Kalalau to Hanalei after the storm. Hiker David Kazz recounted some of his experience:
“We took off from Kalalau (and) a lot of the cliffs were missing … We had to find ways around washouts … We got down to Kee Beach and there’s not one human anywhere … there’s cars parked in the middle of the road and just abandoned … There was no food or water and along the way there were landslides we had to climb over, power lines we had to go under and mud up to our waists … we had no information, we had no internet, we had no idea if we could get out of here (Hanalei) … We had to keep moving because there was no food or water.”
David went on to tell me about the condition of the road along the way: “The road in front of (Limahuli) Gardens is just gone, no concrete at all … There’s probably 12 major landslides between Hanalei Bay and the end of the road, I don’t know how they’re going to get it open anytime soon.”
The hikers all made it out with no injuries among the group.
Friends were there at the Hanalei Bay Resort to take them to dry lodgings, and volunteers continued to assist more escapees from the storm.
The damage is severe in Hanalei but the aloha spirit and malama attitude of the community is apparent in the faces and hands of everyone helping in this tragic time.
Christian R. Cook, Waimea
Warnings should be posted about cliff-jumping
I am writing today to tell you that we had an absolutely amazing and magical vacation on Kauai in December, but, unfortunately, on our sixth day there my son suffered a horrible injury jumping off Shipwreck Point. He has been in a back brace ever since but luckily, he will hopefully have a full recovery.
We need to make sure that everyone knows that jumping off this point is substantially higher than it looks, maybe 40 to 50 feet, and if you land slightly wrong, injury can occur.
The nurses in the emergency room told me that they have people coming in all the time who are injured from this point. When locals in the area saw my son in his brace, they would say “Shipwreck Point?” and then tell their story of the people they knew who were injured.
This point is a major hazard and we need to make people aware and get signs posted right on the point that mention that many have been injured in this jump and that some of the injuries have been life-threatening.
My son heard about this point from social media and from the travel book and there are no warnings!
This is an urgent situation that must be handled. Every day we wait is another day for more injured. From what I understand, another young man broke his back just last week. Please help me make sure no one else has to go through this trauma.
Let’s get signs posted and warn the public.
Ken Beckerman, Mendham, New Jersey
