Hurricane Lowell passed well to the west of Kauai late Monday night, hitting the island with 50 mph winds and 70 mph gusts along with a four-foot storm surge. Unfortunately it peaked exactly at high tide, so while our hotel had limited impacts, many places along the coasts were inundated on their first floors, and power was knocked out to about 90% of the island. The lack of power was mostly an inconvenience for us – the hotel has a generator so we were able to go to common areas to recharge things, they kept us fed, so the worst of it was not being able to cool off in the heat since the pools are out of commission and the ocean is full of runoff – but a lot of residents and businesses on the island are struggling. After a two-day outage power returned to our hotel late yesterday, although my parents were still in the dark a mile away at their timeshare.
Kauai is an amazingly beautiful place even after a hurricane, and Audrey and I sat out on the beach watching the sunset for a while last night, but given the damage and the fact that they need to focus on recovery we’re cutting our time here short and heading to the Big Island early. I’m not sure when or if we’ll be back to Kauai again, but after many family trips here over the years this island has become one of my favorite places in the world, and it’s sad to have to depart for perhaps the final time after a natural disaster, although the people here have handled it with resolve and an impressive spirit of community, so I’m sure they will help each other to pull through.