Ka‘ū strong: Community bands together to clear roads, deliver food and water to neighbors after Lala

As Kamakani Dancil watched floodwaters caused by Hurricane Lala slowly rise from his bedroom window at his home in Nā‘ālehu on Saturday night, he thought if it got much higher he would grab his fins and board.

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. Instead, the 51-year-old welcomed Sunday morning first with relief. And then with: What to do?

“My two trucks were barricaded in the garage, and my driveway was full of mud,” he said. The rest of his neighborhood on Niu Street, which runs into Maia Street, also was hard hit by the high winds and high-speed flood waters that roared through.

So he picked up a shovel and wheelbarrow and started cleaning up the mess. A neighbor showed up with an excavator to help out with the heavy mud.

“Without my neighbor’s help, there’s no way I’d do this with my wheelbarrow and shovel,” Dancil said. “These guys are the real heroes.”

And that’s how it’s been since Sunday in this rural town of about 820 people who all seem to know each other. Local ranchers and community members with skid steers and excavators cleared roads and driveways of mud, trees, boulders and debris so people were trapped in their homes.

There has been a police and National Guard presence in Nā‘ālehu, but there has been a feeling that the community has been left to dig themselves out.

County and state public works crews have been clearing major roads and bridges since after the storm. Private sector companies Isemoto Contracting and Good Fellow Bros. have also been helping in the road clearing efforts.

Dancil said he thinks the government is doing the best they can and understands they have processes and protocols they are following.

“I think when you come to these rural communities, we kind of help ourselves,” he said. “I mean, just looking at them right now, this is not a government agency, nor are they getting paid. It’s just people helping people.”

Dancil said Hawai’i County Mayor Kimo Alameda and Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green walked the neighborhood on Monday. Green said at a press conference later in the day that he planned to do everything he could to obtain funding assistance for the recovery.

And a couple of Red Cross workers walked Dancil’s street, assessing damage on Wednesday. But that was about it for official help he observed.

Frequent trips were made by community members on four-wheelers to and from the Hongwanji Mission, where a Vibrant Hawai‘i resiliency hub was established, delivering food, water, diapers, and even tampons to residents who were busily trying to clean up before another storm arrived.

Supplies at the hub are stocked by the nonprofit and other communities from around the island.

Makana Gravela, 29, of Wai‘ohinu, has been operating his skid steer since Sunday morning, clearing debris in front of his house and his neighbors’ just to get access to Highway 11. From there, he started working his way toward nearby Nā‘ālehu.

Gravela estimated scraping through at least 8 feet of mud at one point. While mud and boulders are challenging enough, the 29-year-old said he had to stop and find another route at one point because there were tombstones and caskets.

The floodwaters ripped through the Nā‘ālehu Cemetery above the Punalu‘u Bake Shop, unearthing coffins and washing headstones down the street, where they now rest in mud in residents’ yards.

“We just didn’t want to go through there,” he said.

Gravela spent Wednesday scraping and clearing roads and by the afternoon he went to go take care of his own property.

“I have a horse pen that some of my fences washed out, so now I got to go take care of that,” he said.

Teani Grace-Keanu, 24, lives on Poha Street at the bottom of Maia Street with her three young children, ages 5, 1 and 2 months. She said her family was fortunate. No water got into the house. But the next morning, she could see the streets in her neighborhood were caked in at least 8 inches of mud.

“A lot of people were outside helping one another,” she said. “This whole subdivision came together, trying to clear up all the mud and stuff.”

Grace-Keanu also said neighbors brought out skid steers and excavators to clear the roads so they could get supplies into families.

“Some of us didn’t have much,” she said.

On Wednesday, Kana Mook pulled up in his SUV with a smile on his face, asking Grace-Keanu if she needed anything.

“He’s the real hero,” Grace-Keanu said.

Mook, 34, lives on Lokelani Street, above Niu and Maia Streets on the mauka side of Highway 11, with his wife and two young children. When Lala hit, he said the wind flew the roof up through the night and “we just strapped it down, because it most likely would’ve torn the roof apart.”

Mook said the next day, the National Guard came around and gave them paperwork to fill out to file damage reports, which he plans to do. But as he walked through the street of his small town, he thought: “They take priority over myself.”

Mook started walking on foot into Niu and Maia Streets with a shovel just to dig people out of their homes. Once there was a path in and out of the neighborhoods, he walked through with a wagon delivering food, toilet water, drinking water, snacks and diapers.

Eventually, Mook started to make deliveries in his vehicle, shuttling supplies from the resilience hub at the Hongwanji Mission. He left supplies on people’s doorsteps across Nāʻālehu, Wai‘ohinu and Discovery Harbor.

“I’ve just been so fortunate because people have been helping me out, giving me gas so I can go make these deliveries,” Mook said.

He especially tries to get through the Niu and Maia Streets because many residents on the street are elderly. He also is working to get medical supplies to them, including ice to keep insulin cold.

“I’m a nobody, but altogether we’re a lot of people here,” Mook said. “We come strong, man. Ka‘ū strong. Ka‘ū strong.”

Hawai‘i County Council Member Ashley Kierkiewicz organized water distribution to ranchers whose 2,500 head of cattle on South Point Road were cut off from their water supply and would die if they did not get water, and lots of it.

Kierkiewicz said a rancher called Hawai‘i County Civil Defense on Monday, who then forwarded the call to her. She told Big Island Now: “I don’t know anything about ranching. I know about logistics.”

Needing 10 gallons of water a day for each cow, Kierkiewicz connected with Jas Glover, a general contracting company, who was able to provide a 4,000-gallon container that haulers could use to dump water into the ranchers’ storage tanks.

Deliveries have been going out daily since Wednesday.

Kierkiewicz is trying to figure out now where they can get access to water spigots or fire hydrants closer than Hilo and Kona.

The councilwoman was surprised this task fell into her lap.

“We say we prioritize food security,” she said, questioning, “Why is this industry overlooked?”

AT&T set up a temporary tower at a county base yard on Wednesday, giving cellphone service to the area, according to Marcia Masters, team leader for the Nā‘ālehu Resilience Hub.

The Hawaiʻi National Guard’s 93rd Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Enhanced Response Force Package has been boots on the ground in Ka‘ū in the aftermath of Lala.

According to a social media post from Maj. Gen. Stephen F. Logan, Adjutant General, Hawai‘i, he stated the has conducted more than 320 wellness checks, connecting with residents and helping identify needs in the community.

“They are also supporting the recovery of human remains from the Nāʻālehu Cemetery, ensuring the remains are handled with dignity and respect as efforts are made to reunite them with their ʻohana,” he wrote on an Instagram post.

Shannon Carley, spokesperson for the American Red Cross said the emergency shelter that opened ahead of Lala has transitioned into a long-term evacuation center offering three meals a day to residents who do not have a safe place to live. As of midnight Wednesday, the population count was 32.

There was frustration from the community members where they felt the Red Cross was not providing help to those in need.

Noelle Taylor, 50, said the day after the storm, she went to the shelter to ask for food and water and was denied.

Grace-Keanu said she knew people who offered to buy supplies from the Red Cross and were told no.

Carley said an excess of supplies was provided ahead of the storm by Hawai‘i County because of the possibility of the community being cut off. At that point, she said the supplies did not belong to American Red Cross to distribute.

“They were cut off for a few days there, and as the roadways have opened up, they’ve been able to get additional supplies into the area,” Carley said.

Since the storm, Carley said the Red Cross and the county are working together to distribute the food “equally and appropriately.”

Calls to the county hoping to get more details on what work they are doing and areas they are concentrating their efforts on Thursday and Friday were not returned.

But the county said previously it has been working to restore access and utilities. According to an update on social media from Alameda, medical doctors were set up at the Nā‘ālehu Elementary School Gymnasium from 2 to 6 p.m. on Thursday to provide free general medical services for those wanting or needed assistance.

The Department of Water Supply reports that the water line that feeds Nā‘ālehu and Wai‘ohinu, which was damaged by Hurricane Lala has been repaired. However, at this time, due to damage of service lines in Nā‘ālehu and Wai‘ohinu, only certain areas have service.

Customers who had water restored are being advised to boil water before use.