A month after Hurricane Lala’s outerbands struck the Big Island, recovery is slow but sure in hard hit Ka’ū

It’s been a month and two days since Hurricane Lala brought high winds, heavy rain and damaging flooding to the Ka‘ū District of the Big Island, leaving much of the area buried in mud, destroying homes and roads, unearthing graves, and taking the lives of two beloved residents.

The road to recovery continues to be long and winding, but progress is being made in small and large ways.

On Wednesday, the sun was shining and the residents of the rural community celebrated a victory with the reopening of Nā‘ālehu Farmer’s Market. It had been closed since the Aug. 15 storm.

“People were just here to support Ka‘ū,” said Teena Genge, a resident of South Point Road, who was at the market with her hānai son, who sells custom-made birdhouses and bird feeders. “So many people from Kona came down to support us. It was beautiful.”

Lala did not directly hit Hawaiʻi Island, but it passed close to the south as a Category 1 storm bringing winds around 80 mph and much higher at high elevations and torrential rain, including a daily maximum record of 32.1 inches at the Laupahoehoe station in Hāmākua. The rain led to the flash flooding. The combination of severe weather also left many county properties and utilities in shambles.

The Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency said on Wednesday that 27 homes were destroyed, 60 had major damage, 79 had minor damage and another 51 were affected.

The estimated cost of the damage to Hawai‘i County facilities and infrastructure is about $53 million, according to county officials on Wednesday. This includes damage to 3,000 linear feet of water mains.

The Wai’ōhinu Park was inundated with mud and a house was floated off its foundation and came to rest at the park. The Nā‘ālehu Park was damaged and graves were unearthed at the county-owned Nā‘ālehu Cemetery.

Approximately 98% of customers in the Nā‘ālehu–Wai’ōhinu water system now have service, but the water is still not drinkable. A precautionary boil water notice remains in effect.

The Nā‘ālehu fire station is not habitable, said Darryl Oliveira, acting administrator for the Hawai‘i County Civil Defense Agency. Additionally, the fire department lost an ambulance, a tanker truck, specialized gear and radios. Firefighters are currently being stationed in Pāhala.

Kaʻū Family Health & Dental, operated by Hawai‘i Island Community Health Center, was also damaged in the storm. Providers are offering care through a mobile health clinic while the health center undergoes repairs.

Genge is also a volunteer for ‘O Ka‘ū Kākou, a nonprofit that raises funds to support education, culture and economic opportunity in the district as well as participate in service projects. The group has been helping to clear out homes inundated with mud and debris by Lala.

The volunteer group started doing cleanup about a week after the hurricane. Genge said she’s been involved in clearing 10 to 15 homes.

“The water in these people’s houses went up past six feet and the mud in one home was about 4 feet tall that we were digging out,” Genge said.

They have a cleanup day scheduled for Sept. 19 to repair a fence that was washed out. She encouraged people to donate time to help in their cleanup efforts, including those visiting the island. For information, call Genge at 808-400-0643.

“If you can spare even half a day, come down, volunteer, help out, and then enjoy the rest of your vacation,” she said. “You’ll make so many friends and Hawai‘i will become even more special to you.”

Genge said current needs of residents include gift cards to Lowe’s or Home Depot so they can get started on home repairs.

Ryan Trowbridge, a Nā‘ālehu resident, said he thinks the priority of the district should be safe drinking water. Businesses can not make ice now and people haven’t been able to take a proper shower.

“We just use the potable water from the trucks,” he said, adding this water also is used to wash clothes. “It’s weird going a month that way.”

Trowbridge said businesses are open and could use customers.

Water

Recovery efforts are focused on customers who are without service in the Wai’ōhinu Homestead service area.

The county Department of Water Supply said its top priority is restoring Mountain House Spring waterline, a critical source for the affected area, to the water system.

Repairs are expected to take approximately two months once the work begins based on current conditions and the anticipated scope of work. This includes restoration of access roads necessary to reach and repair damaged water system infrastructure; and replacement and repair of damaged waterlines, including pipelines up to 12 inches in diameter. The work is designed to improve their resilience to future heavy rainfall and flooding.

The water department also continues to address significant pipeline and road damage in the Wai‘ōhinu area. The county anticipates having the necessary materials on site by early next week, with repair work to begin soon thereafter.

Because of the extent of the damage, including washed-out roads, drainageways and waterlines, some repairs will require substantial construction and coordination.

To help maintain adequate water storage, the Department of Water Supply is supplementing the South Point tank with potable water hauled from another county water system. Customers served by the South Point tank are asked to continue conserving water to help maintain adequate water storage while recovery efforts continue.

The department has installed and will continue to install flow restriction devices on customer meters along South Point Road, as necessary, to help maintain adequate water service throughout this area.

Potable water tankers are set up at the Wai’ōhinu Homestead area, Discovery Harbour Clubhouse and the Island Mart parking lot in Nā‘ālehu for customers’ use.

Roads

Highway 11 is open through the Ka‘ū District.

The Department of Public Works has begun clearing the washout area on Ka’alaiki Road in Nā‘ālehu, which leads to the Nā‘ālehu Cemetery. That work is being done in coordination with the cemetery recovery team.

Public Works Deputy Director Neil Azevedo hopes to have Ka’alaiki Road cleared by early to mid-October, Oliveira said.

Wood Valley Road is open, with access limited to residents, farmers and emergency vehicles. The county continues work to repair that road.

Oliveira said the Wood Valley area is still vulnerable after two recent rain events that caused flooding issues on Sept. 9 and Sept. 14.

Oliveira said repairs to Cane Haul Road, which is located above the Punalu‘u Bakery, still need to be made to restore connectivity from Nā‘ālehu to Pāhala.

Nā‘ālehu Cemetery

The federal government approved Hawaiʻi’s request for an emergency declaration, which allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures. This includes working with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team to assist with recovering, identifying, documenting and respectfully reinterring human remains displaced at Nāʻālehu Cemetery.

“That’s been a very cautious and maybe slow movement,” Oliveira said. “I want to say deliberate and purposeful activities to try to preserve and recover anything that may be there and associated with some of the displaced burials.”

As of Wednesday, more than 90 headstones or grave markers that were displaced by the floodwaters have been collected. Oliveira said a fairly expansive amount of various skeletal remains, ranging from bone fragments to large complete bones, have been recovered and are being properly stored in refrigerated containers, secured on the police department’s property in Nā‘ālehu.

The archaeologists and team have been working hard to try to catalog and document what’s been recovered.

“I’ve made the promise that we want to return these items to the family,” Oliveira said. “We’re working closely with the County’s Corporation Council and Parks Department to get the process moving along with the return of these elements to the families or these funerary items to the families.”