2014 Hurricane Iselle During our Stay on Kauai

Well, we were spared the brunt of the hurricane (that turned into a tropical storm and went south before it got to Kauai), after it slammed into the Big Island. We have had warnings for 5 days and had been getting ready—gas in the car, driving to our evacuation shelter just to make sure we knew where it was/is, water jugs, filling the bathtub and everything else with water, and so on. It was the only thing that anyone talked about. We were worried about a “storm surge” (never had heard of it before) that would bring a big wave up over our balcony at our beach house.

Before we went to bed Friday night we were told by the Governor that Iselle had dissipated and turned south and west. The only thing we had to worry about were flash floods. But we were also told that if the civil defense siren went off, we should evacuate immediately. After we went to bed our local civil defense siren in fact went off. We got up and kind of panicked. We did just what we had been told to do. We packed the computers and our suitcases  and were ready to go. Eron, our neighbor from Da Fish Shack came by and said that he had called the handyman and the handyman said we were better off staying put. Flash floods would wash out roads. Then Melissa, another neighbor came by to say she had called the police and they had said that there had been a mal-function in the civil defense siren. The police also said we should stay put. Dimitri then also called the police and the police said the same thing to him: stay put. So we stayed put and, having nothing else to do, went back to bed.

Overnight the rain was torrential and didn’t stop but the wind was not as bad as we have experienced. The next morning the ocean was calm and almost flat.

The  next hurricane that was barreling down on the Hawaiian Islands, named Julio was turning north and would likely miss the islands. That hurricane had been due sometime Sunday/Monday. We were under a high surf advisory from Julio through Monday. Even on the next Saturday, our NaPali Coast Sunset Tour was cancelled due to high surf. We finally got to take the tour on the following Tuesday.

It is unusual for hurricanes to hit the Hawaiian Islands and two hurricanes back to back is evidently unprecedented.  A really great side effect of the hurricanes was that the nights were cooler; during the nights after the storms the temperature went down to a more comfortable 75°. Dimitri almost used a blanket!