Ka`u News Briefs March 14, 2011

From its perch in the kiawe trees at Okoe Bay, Nicole Skilling's house was sucked to the ocean
and thrown back onto the  shore.     Photo by Kaiali`i Kahele

UNION ELECTRIC WORKERS went back to work today for Hawaiian Electric Light Co. after being on strike since March 4. Hawaiian Electric Co. and its subsidiaries, Maui Electric Company and HELCO, came to an agreement on March 7, and members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1260, voted to ratify a new contract that will be in effect through October 31, 2013.
     “We look forward to welcoming our union employees back to work,” said Dick Rosenblum, Hawaiian Electric president and CEO. “We sincerely appreciate the patience of our customers during this process.”

Tsunami waves flattened shoreline foliage at Honomolino Bay,
where people walk from Miloli`i to the beach.
Photo by Kaiali`i Kahele

SEN. GIL KAHELE hiked from Miloli`i to Honomolino, Okoe and Kapua Bays on Sunday to witness damage from tsunami waves from Japan that came ashore Friday morning. At Honomolino he reported the tsunami "crunching" two buildings owned by the Carlsmith family and said he was surprised to see a large channel grooved into the beach. Many coconut trees came down, exposing their roots, and half the beach was eroded. Kahele said the wave seemed to come north to south and swept across the peninsula carrying a boathouse out to sea where it sank, with one wall being carried to the shore at Miloli`i. Volunteers were helping to pick up the debris at Honomolino and Miloli`i. 

Volunteers help salvage this Okoe Bay beach house
destroyed by tsunami waves on Friday.
Photo by Kaiali`i Kahele

     At Okoe, Nicole Skilling’s house, which was built back from the beach in the kiawe trees, seemed to have been lifted off its foundation, sucked out to the shore and thrown back inland by another tsunami wave. Her family and friends were helping her clean up. 

     At Kapua, the family retreat of Woody Childs was lifted off its foundation, and the stone wall was pushed back, said Kahele. 

     Kahele said his parents and brother lived at Kapua some 70 years ago. Kahele was born in Miloli`i, where his father was a fisherman.

Tsunami waves from Japan lifted Woody Child's Kapua Bay
house off its foundation and twisted its roof.
Photo by Kaiali`i Kahale

     The senator’s son, Kai Kahele, a C-17 Globemaster pilot with the Hawai`i Air National Guard, took aerial photos along the coast 15 hours before the tsunami struck. “I would never have imagined the devastation that was about to occur. Just goes to show how truly powerful Mother Nature really is,” he said. 

     Civil Defense worker Eddie Chun Hoon and his colleague also hiked in to survey the area.

KA`U COUNCILWOMAN BRITTANY SMART visited shoreline sites of devastation in her council district over the weekend. She said people were helping to clean up the coastal area of Miloli`i, where one side of a building from Honomolino had washed up onshore. She went

Kapua Bay house with wall ripped away.
Photo by Kaiali`i Kahale

to Ho`okena, where she said damage was minimal, and on to Kealakekua, where homes were lost. She said that reefs around the island have been trashed and some volunteer divers are 

floating bags of rubbish up to the surface where boaters carry them away. Smart reported that everything from mailboxes and kitchen sinks to pieces of houses were carried to sea and sank onto reefs in some places. 

THE DISASTER SHELTER FOR KA`U is an even greater priority than before last week’s tsunami, said  Smart. She said that as soon as the governor approves releasing money for the project, which is expected to cost more than $18 million, planning, design and an Environmental Assessment will be launched and take about four to six months. She said the entire project could be accomplished in about 18 months as a “design and build project.” She thanked the county Departments of Parks & Recreation, Public Works, Finance and others for helping to fast track the process. Both Rep. Bob Herkes and Sen. Gil Kahele said they were supportive of the project.

A MEETING FOR THE KA`U COFFEE FESTIVAL will be held tonight at 6 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. Anyone wanting to help with the event is invited to come.