October 16, 2006

The Dream Shaken

Evening on the Kohalla Coast, Kawaihae, North Kohalla, West Hawaii

"Hoku, Hoku, you need to come and look at this..."

I walk into the TV room where Woody is sitting staring at the tube, while CNN is blaring..."6.6 Quake rocks the Big Island". I too sit down stunned at the implications of a quake that size.

The Island has been bombard by daily rain, and is geologically unstable. Often siesmic activity of this magnatude means that volcanic activity is on the way...When I saw the location of the epicenter of this swarm of earthquakes, I shuddered. That region is the location of the little known but perhaps the most dangerous Volcano on the Big Island, Hualalai.

In the early 1800's this sleeping giant woke up and began errupting, spewing lava and large rocks on people. Where many of North Kona and South Kohalla's five star resorts stand once stood villages that were filled with people that had no way of escape the mountains's wrath, They died trying to escape the swiftly moving lava. It was the largest loss of life at the hands of nature ever experienced on the Big Island. Some estimate 10,000 souls were drowned or consumed by flames....

In the shadow of Hualalai is the Kohalla-Kona Gold Coast, a region that streaches from Hawi at the northern most tip of the Big Island to Kealakekua Bay, where the first white people, Captain James Cook and company landed, is heavily populated and built up. We should count ourselves very fortunate if all that happened were a few landslides and a rock wall or two falling down. The power can be restored, but how do you restore life...

I got an email from Claudia, now happily living in San Francisco, "Whew, we got out just in time..." Yes I have to agree. I can see the shambles my house would have been.... my store... But I never grow weary of thinking about the Big Island.I am concerned about friends I left behind...

I dreamt of the places I had seen on the news, dreams peopled by the voices I had heard on the CNN feed. Woody and I were glad to hear the voice of mayor Harry Kim, and some local officials that we knew by name. The familiar lilt of Local Kine Talk, which still colors our speach was evident in the news reports. People at work now say "Hey, we know where you got your accent now" and that is very true.

So many of the places that were shown on the news were very familiar including the roads where rock slides occured. Thank you, Lord, that this was on a sunday insted of a work day where commuters are driving from Hilo to Kona. How many nights did Woody leave at 3am to make the 3 hour drive to his security job... CNN labled the road over the Hamakua Coast, its narrow bridges and soaring clifs and gorges as one of the 10 most dangerous highways in America, now with the added attaction of falling bolders, and red dirt avalanches...

But the views of the Hamakua, The images of the gardens and gultches, delapidated single wall houses and bazillion dollar resorts, and the much missed sound of Hawaiian names and language was like a knife in my heart...

I wonder if I can ever go back without having to be dragged to the airplane...

For many, their Hawaiian Dream was shaken, visitors have demanded to be flown home, and Kama 'aina, residents like we were, may have huge repair bills as many do not have property insurance. Insurance, like everything else, is horrible expensive. Most do not have it unless there is a mortgage on the dwelling...We skipped it for six months, I sware I will not do so again as long as I can help it, given the horrendous year we have all seen courtesy of Mother Nature. I was sad for the losses that I saw on the news, but again so glad that no life was lost... that is a miracle... and to me shows God's protective hand on his island children.

The quiet Sea... The epicenter of the quake was just off this shore and to the south a mile or two. Taken near Puako, North Kohalla West Hawaii.