From: teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (A. Lani Teshima)
Newsgroups: rec.scuba
Subject: Kauai Update--LONG (was Re: Damage to Kauai???)
Date: 15 Sep 92 03:27:21 GMT
Organization: University of Hawaii

In article <cheese3.11.0@ioc.unibe.ch> cheese3@ioc.unibe.ch (Daniel Hirschi) writes:
>My wife and I had planned a trip to Kauai starting Oct. 9th., to go hiking, 
>scuba diving and enjoying ourselves. Now, because of that Hurricane, should 
>we cancel, should we go? How bad are the damages? It is very difficult to 
>judge from the info we get from the newspapers in Switzerland. 

I am posting this on the net since there seems to be much interest.
First of all, CHANGE YOUR TRAVEL PLANS NOW. There has only been very
minor damage done to the other islands. Make arrangements to visit
Oahu, Maui or the Big Island instead of Kauai. Even on Oahu, the
damage was contained to the basements of Waikiki hotels (flooding),
and on the Leeward Coast along Waianae, which is very far from
Honolulu (unfortunately, it's also home to some choice dive spots, but
I don't know their conditions.)

For those who have dove the Mahi on the Leeward Coast (it's a
shipwreck at 90 feet), the last hurricane we had (Hurricane Iwa in
1982) turned the Mahi completely around, so the bow was facing the
other way. This is what I've been told. I don't know what the
situation is now, but I can post when I learn more.

As for Kauai, it looks like the whole island is completely devastated.
The following are excerpts from Sunday's Honolulu Star-Bulletin &
Advertiser newspaper:

"It broke my heart"
Kauai mayor: Hurricane left 'total destruction' (front page)

by David Waite and Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser staff writers

Lihue, Kauai--Hurricane Iniki's rampage across Kauai on Friday was far
more destructive than Iwa's was 10 years ago. As news finally filtered
out of the Garden Island yesterday, it was all grim.
  "I saw total destruction--it broke my heart," Kauai Mayor JoAnn
Yukimura said after a 90-minute helicopter flight with Gov. John
Waihee across the island's battered landscape.
   "There is incredible human suffering in terms of loss of homes and
dislocation of their lives."
   President Bush declared most of Hawaii a federal disaster area.
   The stsorm, which slammed into Kauai on Friday afternoon packing
winds up to 165 miles per hour, left at least three people dead,
according to Bob Blair, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. Another hurricane-related death was reported on Oahu.
   A 91-year-old Kauai woman was killed when her house collapsed and a
76-year-old man died after being hit by flying debris. A third person
was reported to have died of a heart attack during the storm, Blair
said.
   One person was killed on Oahu in a fire caused by a candle used
during a storm-related power outage...
   ...Yukimura had set preliminary damage estimates at $350 million to
$500 million. But after her tour, she said the cost of repairing the
destruction could reach $1 billion.
   The storm left at least 8,000 people on Kauai homeless and
infliected perhaps three times the damage of Hurricane Iwa, which
smashed Kauai a decade ago.
   "Our initial survey is far from complete, but we expect to be
sheltering 8,000 people whose homes were destroyed," he said. Many
more homes are partially damaged and may be habitable with minor
repairs or plastic covering, he said.
  "You might see some tents, but I don't think you'll see tent cities
(which cropped up in hurricane-devastated south Florida). People may
prefer to stay in their homes while repairs are made.
  Oahu, which appeared to be dead center in Iniki's paty on Friday,
escaped the brunt of the storm. But officials said there was at least
$2.5 million in damage to coastal areas, particularly along the
Waianae coast and in Waikiki.

I'll keep you all updated as we start getting information on specific
towns and sites.

Aloha--


--
A. Lani Teshima (teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.edu)       o | /_/_/ "Sea Hare"
Student, UH School of Library & Information Studies     o|<0_0>--------*
A small mind is easily filled with faith.                 \=^-| |____| | 
Blessed is a mind too small for doubt.                        \_}B   \_}B