Monday, August 10, 2009

Musings: Storm Brewing

It was uncharacteristically, even eerily, quiet when Koko and I rose and went walking this morning. Venus was low on the horizon, while the white moon, nibbled away by the passage of time, was high in the sky. Both were swept by clouds that piled up atop Waialeale, where they assumed the appearance of a vivid, old bruise as the sun sent forth color to herald its intention to rise.

And somewhere out there is Felicia, now downgraded to a tropical storm. After surviving Iniki, I don’t worry about weather anymore. I've got food, water, emergency supplies and an understanding of what to expect.

But I do worry a bit about the tourists, especially those staying in vacation rentals in the more remote reaches of the island, like Haena and Wainiha. This region is naturally vulnerable to the vagaries of nature, and pounding surf, howling winds and swollen streams are common there.

Further, there’s just one road in and out, and it’s prone to landslides and flooding in numerous places.

So many of the vacation homes exacerbate the hazards, seeing as how they’re so often built right on the ocean, with just a narrow strip of buffering sand, or alongside streams that are prone to flash flooding. And to make matters worse, some of the units are built on the ground floor of houses, enclosing areas that are intended to be open, so flood waters can wash through without killing people or inflicting extensive property damage.

Sure it's dreamy staying in the wilds of the North Shore, until a storm hits and you're left without water and food and the means to obtain them. I still remember how cut off that area was in Iniki, and how slow aid was to arrive. The people there really had to look out for themselves, and they did.

Now, on any given day, they’ve got hundreds of clueless tourists in their midst, and in the event of an emergency, the burden for their care and feeding will fall on the residents. And since so many neighborhoods have been overwhelmed by these properties, fewer locals are even around to lend a hand.

Resorts have food and water stockpiled, as well as generators and evacuation plans. Tourists staying in the vacation rentals are totally on their own. Our county Civil Defense director told me he worries about these people, too, because he knows the limitations of his agency.

But the county keeps on approving these units, without looking at the cumulative impact on communities, including disaster response and preparedness.

Meanwhile, I heard Cheryl Lovell-Obatake on the radio the other day, wondering why we’re spending millions on a bike path when we don’t even have an alternate route to evacuate the tens of thousands of people living and vacationing along the coast. We already know Kuhio Highway can’t handle a lot of traffic, and it’s right in the tsunami zone.

It seems like we've grown complacent in the 17 years since Iniki blasted through. I just hope it doesn't take another such event to snap county planners and vacation home owners out of their stupor.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joan,
When you say bike path are you referring to the multi-use path?

Calling it a "bike path" limits people from pushing for low speed transportation corridors which could be used by a variety of low speed devices ranging from skateboards to small electric wheelchairs, bikes, and scooters.

Glen Mickins does have a point when he says the money is for transportation to get people around the island, not a short sighted scenic shoreline lolly-gag for the leisure class. Besides the whole island is beautiful so lets have a useful multi-use path people can integrate into their daily transportation needs as the highways turn into bumper to bumper car lots full of slow moving, petro burning, crawlers.

Anonymous said...

"the burden for their care and feeding will fall on the residents."

-- i guess the tourists can take some comfort that after iniki the military was pretty good about lending a hand? seems they were pretty quick with trucks, field supplies and troops last time around


"wondering why we’re spending millions on a bike path when we don’t even have an alternate route to evacuate the tens of thousands of people living and vacationing along the coast"

-- standard comments from persons not understanding how different state and/or federal funds are specifically earmarked for certain projects. it is not all one big pot of money, with people/gov pulling funds out to pay for a path over monies to, say, feed the hungry or build affordable homes


dwps

Anonymous said...

"-- standard comments from persons not understanding how different state and/or federal funds are specifically earmarked for certain projects."

Like marking drug funds for merry-wanna eradication, that cannot be used for meth interdiction? I think people understand earmarks just not the rational for them.

Anonymous said...

"But the county keeps on approving these units,"

Perhaps in the ongoing debate about Vacation Rentals people have lost site of the fact that the Council finally did STOP any new Vacation Rentals outside of the VDA during its last term.

Sandhya said...

Thanks for your foresight.

Anonymous said...

"Perhaps in the ongoing debate about Vacation Rentals people have lost site of the fact that the Council finally did STOP any new Vacation Rentals outside of the VDA during its last term."

Yes, but that hasn't stopped the planning dept from approving all the illegal ones outside the VDA in Hanalei, Haena, Wainiha, Kekaha....

Anonymous said...

"The council did stop any new vacation rentals outside the VDA."

Yes, the council did finally put a stop to any new vacation rentals. Finally! But during the 10 year process, realtors actively solicited owners to illegally vacation rent and ruthlessly pushed ahead at alarming pace to get as many TVRs in place as possible - knowing full well we didn't want our neighborhoods completely turned into resorts. There should have been some kind of moratorium during all this....the communities really got shafted and are left with a bad taste in our mouths. All the while, neighborhoods are the ones left to take care of the visitors in case of an emergency! And we will help take care of them, but only after we take care of our own family and friends first!

Vacation rentals outside the Visitor Destination Area! What a mess, and it's all because of greed.

Anonymous said...

county liability will soar after the next disaster.

Dawson said...

"-- standard comments from persons not understanding how different state and/or federal funds are specifically earmarked for certain projects. it is not all one big pot of money, with people/gov pulling funds out to pay for a path over monies to, say, feed the hungry or build affordable homes"

-- which avoids the core truth of Joan's point, that details of government organizational charts or, the overarching priorities are bullshit.

Dawson said...

"-- standard comments from persons not understanding how different state and/or federal funds are specifically earmarked for certain projects. it is not all one big pot of money, with people/gov pulling funds out to pay for a path over monies to, say, feed the hungry or build affordable homes"

-- which avoids the core truth of Joan's point, that details of government organizational charts or no, the overarching priorities are bullshit.

Anonymous said...

But the general plan (the one embraced by the charter amendment last year) says that TVRs in non-VDA are good things and it instructs the County to "regulate" them. The real problem is that the County has acted schizophrenic. The County Attorney published a legal opinion that says that TVRs are legal on AG land. Another County Attorney said the same thing a few years later.

So the general plan embraces TVRs. The State taxes them like lawful businesses. County attorneys say they are legal. Then suddenly the Council declares that all TVRs have been illegal on AG land all along and they must all stop operations immediately.

The Council should be applauded for drawing a line and stopping new TVRs, but taking away past TVR uses after repeatedly telling homeowners that they are perfectly legal is like a parent telling her child to go ahead and have the cookie - and then severely punishing the child for having a cookie.

Why is it that a TVR on Ag land cannot be considered a legal use, but a long term rentals on Ag land supposedly are legal? Don't they both involve commercial profit based on a non-Ag use?
The new TVR law was either written out of hatred for tourists or love for the hotel industry - not sure which - but to claim that is about protecting Ag uses is a lie.

Anonymous said...

"county liability will soar after the next disaster"

-- feel free to share what theory of liability people would use, or offer some examples of foreseeable disaster-related harms resulting from some county act or omission. some neglected levies perhaps?


"which avoids the core truth of Joan's point, that details of government organizational charts or, the overarching priorities are bullshit."

-- rephrase / elaborate pls. not sure i am following. my point is many people dont understand funding is often not available for X, but is for Y. some people in the public see Y, and figure it was chosen over X. and of course the funding channels and systems are designed with some degree of rational to fit as many situations as possible...and ya, it may not result in every single county having available to it a set of state and federal funding opportunities which fit the exact needs of a county at just the right time


dwps

Anonymous said...

Who cares if prohibiting TVRs on ag land is pro or anti hotel? It amounts to "spot zoning" and is part of a trend of turning the entire island into a tourist trap.

Anonymous said...

Nice try dwps.
But no matter how many times you explain it, they just don't get the funding process. Especially Glen.
Same comments for six years.
Ouch!

Anonymous said...

"The new TVR law was either written out of hatred for tourists or love for the hotel industry - not sure which - but to claim that is about protecting Ag uses is a lie"

Exactly. The totality of the council's actions are like a complicated set of simultaneous equations, with the winners again being the ultra-rich: mega-house landowners, hotels and realtors.

Anonymous said...

-- feel free to share what theory of liability people would use, or offer some examples of foreseeable disaster-related harms resulting from some county act or omission. some neglected levies perhaps?

No disaster plans for this tsunami and disaster prone area. never was this area supposed to be for hotel or transient use due to its natural coastal hazards. the folks who live there know the risks, but the tourists do not know, nor do they know where to go, or how to get there. The hotels have shelters, food, generators, the vacation rentals, oh they got owners on the mainland, realtors who represent too many commercial properties to do anything.
Where's the evacuation plan for those visitors staying along the coast on the Northshore? How aout the riverfront ones, they should have fun this week? Residents know when the Wainiha River is getting dangerous, have experience with how quick it rises and how dangerous it can quickly become, while the vacation renter is being told to float down the Wainiha river. Where is the sheltor they go to? How do they get there? let's see, along the coastal road, nice.No evacuation plan=lots of you fill in the blank.

Anonymous said...

You are wrong the county opinion was that state law prohiits TVR's in Ag land, that's why it was not included in the original bill

Anonymous said...

Perhaps in the ongoing debate about Vacation Rentals people have lost site of the fact that the Council finally did STOP any new Vacation Rentals outside of the VDA during its last term.
Yeah, and they made the whole north shore a resort while doing so. County planners suck

Anonymous said...

Greed rules

Anonymous said...

i understand your comment August 11, 2009 5:39 AM

as to "No disaster plans for this tsunami and disaster prone area"

-- oh, i am pretty sure they do have a plan. the HQ for this is actually in the building where kpd is. they have a pretty impressive command and communications system in there

otherwise, i dont know if vacation rentals have the duties at law towards the renters you describe in those examples

tho i guess if you can show the kauai never should have OK'd a given structure / home...and later that home / structure per a storm hurt you or your property....mmmm, ya maybe you could find some liability with the planning or building dept, maybe

just my thoughts on it


as to "County planners suck"

-- they are appointed and take orders from those elected by the public. it is a reflection of the electorate


dwps

Anonymous said...

The poor tourists on Kauai also have little information with which to arm themselves.
I recently stayed in a vacation rental on the North Shore and I noticed right away that it was wide open to the ocean and only very slightly elevated. I had looked online before we arrived for maps of the evacuation routes for that area but couldn't find any, nor were there any of the blue evacuation route signs visible in the area. I looked around and pretty much decided we were screwed if a big storm hit as high ground would have been difficult to get to. I'm not paranoid, but I travel with my two kids and have respect for the awesome power of Mother Nature.

Anonymous said...

You should be paranoid. I'd be that those vacation rental owners don't warn you about the other dangers on Kauai, like the serial killers and the child kidnappers/pornographers.

Anonymous said...

"You should be paranoid. I'd be that those vacation rental owners don't warn you about the other dangers on Kauai, like the serial killers and the child kidnappers/pornographers."

??? Is this supposed to be a joke?

Anonymous said...

No joke. The tourist bureau doesn't want you to know. Be afraid.