In cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), National 

Climatic Data Center’s Integrated Data and Environmental Applications (IDEA) Center 

Amount and Percentage of Current Societal Assets in 

Areas on Kaua`i, Hawai`i, within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki 

Storm-Surge Inundation Zone 

By Nathan Wood 

Open-File Report 2008-1280 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

U.S. Geological Survey 
U.S. Department of the Interior 

DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Secretary 

U.S. Geological Survey 

Mark D. Myers, Director 

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2008 

For product and ordering information: 

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Suggested citation: 

Wood, Nathan, 2008, Amount and percentage of current societal assets in areas on Kaua`i, Hawai`i, within 

the 1992 Hurricane 'Iniki storm-surge inundation zone: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1280, 

12 p. [http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1280/]. 

Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply 

endorsement by the U.S. Government. 

Although this data series is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual 

copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report. 

ii
iii

Contents 

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................1 

Methods ..........................................................................................................................................................2 

Results ............................................................................................................................................................4 

Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................11 

References Cited...........................................................................................................................................11 

Figures 

1. Map of Kaua`i Island, including census-designated places that intersect the historical storm-surge 

inundation zones from 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki ....................................................................................3 

2. Amount (acres) and percentage of developed land within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge 

inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i, based on 2001 NOAA C-CAP land-cover data................5 

3. Number and percentage of residents currently within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge 

 inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i............................................................................................5 

4. Number and percentage of employees within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation 

 zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i..............................................................................................................7 

5. Percentage of employees, by business sector, currently in the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge 

inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i..........................................................................................10 

6. Current amount, in dollars, and percentage of total tax parcel value (minus exemptions) within 

 the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i............................10 

7. Sum of normalized factors for both the amount and percentage of various assets for each community 

with land in the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i........11 

Tables 

1. Amount (acres) and percentage of land classified as developed within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki stormsurge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i. .................................................................................4 

2. Number and percentage of residents currently within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation 

zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i..............................................................................................................6 

3. Amount and percentage of current economic assets within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge 

inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i............................................................................................8 

4. Distribution of employees, by business sector, within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation 

zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i..............................................................................................................9 
Amount and Percentage of Current Societal 

Assets in Areas on Kaua`i, Hawai`i, within the 

1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki Storm-Surge Inundation 

Zone 

By Nathan Wood 

Introduction 

The Pacific Risk Management `Ohana (PRiMO) is a network of partners and 

stakeholders involved in the development, delivery, and communication of risk 

management-related information, products, and services across the Pacific Ocean 

(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Services Center, 2008). One 

PRiMO-related project is the NOAA National Climatic Data Center’s Integrated Data 

and Environmental Applications (IDEA) Center’s Pacific Region Integrated Climatology 

Information Products (PRICIP) initiative, which seeks to improve the understanding of 

patterns and trends of storm frequency and intensity (“storminess”) within the Pacific 

region and to develop a suite of integrated information products that can be used by 

emergency managers, mitigation planners, government agencies, and other decisionmakers (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Integrated Data and 

Environmental Applications Center, 2008a). 

One of the PRICIP information products is a historical storm “event anatomy,” 

which includes a summary of sector-specific socioeconomic impacts associated with a 

particular event, as well as information about the event and its climatological context. 

The intent of an event anatomy is to convey the causes of an extreme storm event and the 

associated impacts in a format that users can understand. The event anatomies also are 

intended to familiarize users with the in-place and remotely sensed products typically 

employed to track and forecast weather and climate. The first event anatomy developed 

as a prototype and hosted on the PRICIP portal is for Hurricane ‘Iniki (National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration Integrated Data and Environmental Applications 

Center, 2008b), a Category 3-4 hurricane that made landfall on the south coast of Kaua‘i 

Island on September 11, 1992, with estimated maximum sustained winds of more than 

140 mph and gusts as high as 175 mph. Storm-surge inundation occurred on the southern 

and northeastern coast of Kaua'i Island. 

In an effort to increase the amount of available information on the Hurricane 

‘Iniki event anatomy of the PRICIP portal, representatives from the NOAA NCDC IDEA 

Center contacted the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 2007 for assistance in 

determining what current societal assets are in areas that were inundated by storm surge 

during Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992. This report contains data summarizing the amount and 

percentage of current societal assets on Kaua'i Island, Hawai'i, that exist in the historic 

Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone. Coupled with an array of information on 

1
the socioeconomic impacts of Hurricane ‘Iniki and distributed through the PRICIP portal, 

the results of this effort will help managers and the general public to understand the 

current risks posed by extreme storms in the Pacific Basin. 

Methods 

To describe current land on Kaua‘i Island that was inundated during Hurricane 

‘Iniki and current societal assets in the area that would be impacted, geographicinformation-system (GIS) tools were used to integrate publicly available hazard and 

socioeconomic data. Land inundated by storm surge during Hurricane ‘Iniki is delineated 

spatially by using a series of overwash lines developed for the State (Hawai‘i Office of 

Planning, 2008) by the University of Hawai‘i School of Ocean and Earth Science and 

Technology (SOEST). The State of Hawai‘i does not have incorporated cities; therefore, 

census-designated place (CDP) boundaries from the U.S. Census Bureau were used to 

delineate communities (Hawai‘i Office of Planning, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). A 

CDP is a delineation used by the U.S Census Bureau to identify areas of settled 

concentrations of populations that are identifiable by name and often are defined in 

cooperation with local or tribal officials, but are not legally incorporated and lack 

separate municipal governments (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). On the basis of the 

intersection of CDP boundaries and historical inundation lines, nine communities on 

Kaua‘i Island—‘Ele‘ele, Hanapēpē, Kapa‘a, Kaumakani, Kekaha, Pākalā Village, Po‘ipū, 

Wailua, and Waimea— have land that was inundated by the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm surge 

(fig. 1). Information about current societal assets in historical storm-surge zones is 

summarized for each of the nine communities. Societal assets found in inundated land 

outside of these communities are aggregated and reported as “Kaua‘i Island (remainder).” 

Societal-asset calculations focus on the amount and percentage of developed land, 

populations (residential and employees), economic assets, and critical facilities. These 

assets are determined because U.S. jurisdictions are encouraged to collect similar data as 

they develop State and local mitigation plans (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 

2001), a requirement to qualify for funds under the U.S. Hazard Mitigation Grant 

Program in accordance with the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, Public Law 106-390. 

Data used in this analysis include: 

 Land cover – based on the distribution of developed land and determined by using 

the low-intensity and high-intensity developed classes of the 2001 National Land 

Cover Database, which was compiled for the State of Hawai‘i by the NOAA Coastal 

Change Analysis Program (NOAA CSC 2007; Dobson and others, 1995); 

 Residents—based on block-level population counts compiled for the 2000 U.S. 

Census (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008); 

 Employees and business community—based on the 2006 infoUSA Employer 

Database, a proprietary business database that identifies location, number of 

employees, total sales volume, and the North American Industry Classification 

System (NAICS) code; 

 Critical facilities—based on the 2006 infoUSA Employer Database; and 

 Tax-parcel value—based on the 2008 tax-parcel dataset for the State of Hawai‘i 

(Hawai‘i Office of Planning, 2008), which includes information on property value, 

content value, exemptions to property values, and exemptions for content value (all in 

2008 U.S. dollars). 

2
Figure 1. Map of Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i, including census-designated places that 

intersect the historical storm-surge inundation zones from 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki. 

Prior to analysis, geospatial data were transformed to share the same datum 

(North American Datum of 1983) and projection (Universal Transverse Mercator 

coordinate system zone 4N), thereby conforming to existing GIS data from the State of 

Hawai‘i’s GIS database. Spatial analysis of vector data (for example, business points and 

tax-parcel polygons) focused on determining whether or not points and polygons are 

inside the storm-surge zones. Slivers of polygons that overlap administrative boundaries 

and storm-surge zones were taken into account during analysis, and final values were 

adjusted proportionately. 

To compare communities, composite indices were developed for the ten 

geographic units (9 communities and the remaining land on Kaua‘i Island) and are based 

on the amounts and percentages of four categories—developed land, residents, 

employees, and total tax-parcel values (minus exemptions). Composite indices of 

amounts and percentages were developed by first normalizing values in each of the four 

categories to the maximum value found within that category. Normalizing data to 

maximum values creates a common data range of 0 to 1 for all four categories and is a 

simple approach for enabling comparisons among disparate datasets. The four normalized 

values are then summed, resulting in one final score ranging from 0 to 4 for each of the 

10 geographic units. These relative scores are developed to compare the 10 geographic 

units and have no stand-alone meaning for a community. 

3
Results 

Data presented in this report were generated to provide information for the 

Hurricane ‘Iniki event anatomy on the PRICIP Internet-based portal and to support the 

collaborative PRiMO-related PRICIP initiative. Results are presented in both tables and 

graphs to satisfy developers and various users of the PRICIP portal. Results include 

information about the amount and percentage of developed land, residents, businesses, 

employees at and sales volume generated by these businesses, and tax-parcel values that 

are in the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone. Additional demographic 

attributes include the number and percentage of residents younger than 5 years, residents 

older than 65 years, total households, and renter-occupied households in the historical 

storm-surge zones. 

Currently, there are approximately 270 acres of developed land in the various 

communities in the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone (table 1; fig. 2). The 

largest amount (105 acres) and highest percentage (26 percent) of developed land in these 

areas are in the community of Po‘ipū. The majority of this land (101 acres) is classified 

as low-intensity developed, a classification that denotes cells that contain 50 to 79 percent 

of constructed surfaces and typically represent small buildings, streets, and cemeteries 

(Dobson and others, 1995). 

Table 1. Amount (acres) and percentage of land classified as developed within the 1992 

Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i. 

High- and Low-Intensity Developed High-Intensity Developed Low-Intensity Developed Census 

designated 

place 

‘Iniki 

zone, 

in acres 

Total, 

in acres % 

‘Iniki 

zone, 

in acres 

Total, 

in acres % 

‘Iniki 

zone, 

in acres 

Total, 

in acres % 

‘Ele‘ele 2 238 1 1 61 1 1 177 1 

Hanap p 10 260 4 0 37 1 9 224 4 

Kapa‘a 19 944 2 2 54 4 17 890 2 

Kaumakani 0 109 0 0 21 0 0 88 0 

Kekaha 43 395 11 5 39 14 37 356 10 

P kal Village 3 76 4 1 4 13 3 72 4 

Po‘ip 105 409 26 5 27 17 101 382 26 

Wailua 10 300 3 1 19 4 10 281 3 

Waimea 38 282 14 0 70 0 38 212 18 

Kaua‘i Island 

(remainder) 39 6,635 1 2 1,023 0 37 5,611 1 

TOTAL 270 9,649 3 17 1,356 1 252 8,293 3 

4
Figure 2. Amount (acres) and percentage of developed land within the 1992 Hurricane 

‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i, based on 2001 NOAA CCAP land-cover data. Communities are ordered from west to east. 

Based on 2000 Census data, the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone 

currently contains 743 residents and 298 households (fig. 3; table 2). The highest 

numbers of residents in the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone are in the 

communities of Kekaha (222 residents) and Po‘ipū (168 residents). The highest 

community percentage is in Po‘ipū, where 16 percent of the 1,075 residents are in the 

Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone. Four percent of the 743 residents in the 

Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone are younger than 5 years, and 17 percent 

are older than 65 years—two age groups considered to have high vulnerability to extreme 

events (Morrow, 1999). Forty-six percent of the 298 households in the Hurricane ‘Iniki 

storm-surge inundation zone are occupied by renters, a group identified in past studies to 

be typically less prepared than homeowners for catastrophic events (Burby and others, 

2003). 

Figure 3. Number and percentage of residents currently within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki 

storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i.

5
Table 2. Number and percentage of residents currently within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation 

Hawai`i. 

Total population Residents younger than 5 years Residents older than 65 years Households 

Census designated place (CDP) 

‘Iniki 

zone 

Total % ‘Iniki 

zone 

Total 

% of 

exposed 

population 

‘Iniki 

zone 

Total 

% of 

exposed 

population 

‘Iniki 

zone 

Total % of CDP 

‘Ele‘ele 0 2,040 0 0 140 0 0 330 0 0 626 0 Hanap p 164 2,153 8 11 141 6 15 260 9 56 706 8 Kapa‘a 33 9,472 0 2 655 6 7 983 20 15 3,129 0 Kaumakani 0 607 0 0 23 0 0 121 0 0 207 0 Kekaha 222 3,175 7 7 171 3 34 494 15 87 1,073 8 P kal Village 49 478 10 2 18 4 10 114 21 12 150 8 Po‘ip 168 1,075 16 4 37 3 36 220 21 78 472 16 Wailua 41 2,083 2 1 131 3 13 363 32 21 781 3 Waimea 34 1,787 2 3 103 9 5 348 15 12 620 2 Kaua‘i Island (remainder) 33 35,433 0 2 2,166 6 8 4,829 26 17 12,383 0 

TOTAL 743 58,303 1 32 3,585 4 129 8,062 17 298 20,147 1 

6
The Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone contains 27 businesses that employ 545 

employees and generate more than $38 million in sales volume (fig. 4; table 3). These numbers 

account for low percentages of the total business community of Kaua‘i (1 percent of businesses and 

total sale volume and 2 percent of employees). The percentage of business exposure is greater 

within some communities, such as Po‘ipū, where 24 percent of the community workforce works in 

the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone. The majority of the employees (66 percent) in 

the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone are in the accommodation and food services 

sector (table 4; fig. 5). There are no dependent-care facilities or critical facilities in the Hurricane 

‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone (see Appendix 1 of Wood and others, 2007, for descriptions of 

these facilities). Finally, property and content value (minus exemptions) for land in the Hurricane 

‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone is valued at more than $1.2 billion, representing 6 percent of the 

total tax-parcel values on Kaua‘i Island (table 3; fig. 6). 

Figure 4. Number and percentage of employees within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge 

inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i. Communities are ordered from west to east. 

7
Table 3. Amount and percentage of current economic assets within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inunda

Island, Hawai`i. 

Total parcel value (minus exemption) Businesses Employees Sales volume Census 

Designated Place ‘Iniki zone, in 

$, thousands 

Total, in 

$, thousands % ‘Iniki zone Total % ‘Iniki zone Total % ‘Iniki zone, in $, thousands Total, 

$, thous

‘Ele‘ele 1,854 276,463 1 0 45 0 0 586 0 0 172,4Hanap p 15,417 303,430 5 4 52 8 10 160 6 1,010 22,96Kapa‘a 51,812 2,092,322 2 1 489 0 2 3149 0 314 425,9Kaumakani 42 2,052 2 0 10 0 0 259 0 0 101,4Kekaha 82,219 515,321 16 3 21 14 4 148 3 802 12,93P kal Village 2,900 26,477 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Po‘ip 849,979 2,326,459 37 16 134 12 514 2101 24 34,642 231,3Wailua 32,933 772,032 4 2 73 3 12 699 2 944 75,29Waimea 11,201 296,879 4 0 92 0 0 1315 0 0 192,2Kaua‘i Island (remainder) 175,445 14,478,150 1 1 2,399 0 3 23,458 0 399 3,994,

TOTAL 1,223,801 21,089,584 6 27 3,315 1 545 31,875 2 $38,111 $5,228

8
Table 4. Distribution of employees, by business sector, within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki stormsurge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i. Business sectors are classified according to the 

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). 

Employees 

NAICS 

Code Sector description ‘Iniki 

inundation 

zone 

Island 

total 

Percentage of 

island total in 

inundation zone 

Percentage of 

the businesses 

in inundation 

zone 

11 Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting 2 290 1 0 

21 Mining 0 25 0 0 

22 Utilities 0 418 0 0 

23 Construction 1 2,563 0 0 

31-33 Manufacturing 0 1,100 0 0 

42 Wholesale trade 0 1,975 0 0 

44-45 Retail trade 26 4,933 1 5 

48-49 Transportation and warehousing 100 2,017 5 18 

51 Information 0 498 0 0 

52 Finance and insurance 4 860 0 1 

53 Real estate and rental and leasing 36 2,595 1 7 

54 Professional, scientific, and technical services 9 832 1 2 

55 Management of companies and enterprises 0 0 0 0 

56 

Administrative and support and waste 

management and remediation services 4 770 1 1 

61 Educational services 0 1,761 0 0 

62 Health care and social assistance 0 3,055 0 0 

71 Arts, entertainment, and recreation 0 766 0 0 

72 Accommodation and food services 357 4,364 8 66 

81 Other services (except public administration) 6 1,257 0 1 

92 Public administration 0 1,679 0 0 

99 Nonclassified 0 117 0 0 

Total for Kaua'i Island 545 31,875 2 100 

9
Figure 5. Percentage of employees, by business sector, currently in the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki 

storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i. 

Figure 6. Current amount, in dollars, and percentage of total tax parcel value (minus exemptions) 

within the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, Hawai`i. 

Communities are ordered from west to east. 

10
Composite indices of current asset amounts and percentages in the Hurricane ‘Iniki stormsurge inundation zone for each of the 9 communities and the remaining land in Kaua’i Island are 

the sums of normalized data in 4 categories—developed land, residents, employees, and total parcel 

value. Figure 7 summarizes the composite amounts and percentages, each with a range from 0 to 4. 

In this analysis of the four data categories, Po‘ipū has the highest relative amount and percentage of 

its assets in the Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone. 

Figure 7. Sum of normalized factors for both the amount and percentage of various assets for each 

community with land in the 1992 Hurricane ‘Iniki storm-surge inundation zone, Kaua`i Island, 

Hawai`i. Assets include developed land, residents, employees, and total parcel value.

Acknowledgments 

This study was supported by the “Risk and Vulnerability to Natural Hazards” project 

managed by the USGS Geographic Analysis Monitoring (GAM) program. I thank John Marra of 

the NOAA IDEA Center for setting the stage for this collaborative project between the USGS and 

NOAA. A community list with proper spelling and diacritical marks was provided by Craig 

Tasaka, coordinator for the Hawai‘i Board of Geographic Names. This project grew from a series 

of discussions held at the 2007 annual meeting of the Pacific Risk Management ‘Ohana (PRiMO), 

and I thank the PRiMO Navigators Council for creating this collaborative environment. I also thank 

John Marra of NOAA, Craig Tasaka of the State of Hawai‘i Office of Planning, and Mara Tongue, 

Susan Benjamin, and Leonard Gaydos of the USGS for their insightful reviews of the draft 

manuscript. 

References Cited 

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joint natural and technological disasters: Urban Affairs Review, v. 39, no. 1, p. 32–58. 

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Orth, R., and Thomas, J., 1995, NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program—guidance for 

regional implementation: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and 

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12

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(PRICIP): [www.pricip.org, last accessed March 14, 2008]. 

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