FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 | WEST HAWAII TODAY 10A HVNP management plan advances ACTION TO PROTECT, MANAGE PARK TSUNAMI: West Hawaii Today Associate Editor Chelsea Jensen reflects on the March 11, 2011, tsunami that devastated Japan and impacted the Big Island. Born and raised in Kailua-Kona, Jensen, a reporter at the time, covered the story in the midst of the treacherous elements, earning Hawaii Pa’i and Society of Professional Journalists awards for photos and writing. Get the full unabridged version of this column, including video, online at www.westhawaiitoday.com. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A much of Kailua Village as the sun rises, TRAFFIC ADVISORY On the morning of Saturday March 12th, 2016 PATH (People’s Advocacy for Trails Hawaii), will be holding the 9th Annual Run for Hops 5K/10K Community Race. Loloku Street and Ma’a Way will be closed from 7:15a to 9:15a, for the safety of the participants. No other roads will be closed, but from 7:30am to 9:30am the following streets will be have runners along the shoulders and sidewalks: Kuakini Highway, Makala Blvd. Luhia Street, Kaiwi Street, Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway and Eho St. IDS 3 POTENTIAL COURSES OF As Hawaii Volcanoes National Park celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the National Park Service is busy charting a course for the future of Hawaii Island’s crown jewel. The NPS on Thursday released the final version of the park’s general management plan, wilderness study and environmental impact statement, which identifies three potential courses of action to be taken to protect and manage the national treasure over the next two decades. The public now has 30 days to review and comment on the document. After that, the park system will select its preferred option from the plan and begin the process of putting it into effect. The plan, which has been in development since 2008, includes a road map for developing the park’s newly acquired 116,000-acre Kahuku property, encompassing the southwest rift zone of Mauna Loa from about 2,000 feet to 12,500 feet in elevation. Currently, the public can only access the lower portion of the unit during weekends and special events. The park’s preferred alternative, identified as No. 2, seeks a restrained approach to developing the Kahuku unit, according to HVNP Environmental Protection Specialist Danielle Foster. Meanwhile, Alternative No. 1 would leave the property pretty much as it remains now, while Alternative No. 3 would be more aggressive in developing Kahuku. “What we really want to do is open it up more, seven days a week. We want to be able to have visitor amenities, but low key, more rustic,” she said. “A few smaller sized campgrounds, bathrooms … and commercial services to a limited degree.” The upper portion of the Kahuku property, which is relatively untouched, would largely be left alone to preserve its pristine nature. “There wouldn’t be commercial tours driving through it and things like that,” Foster said. “It’s much more low key.” The plan also includes increases in funding necessitated by the operation of Kahuku, such as an additional $1.5 million for natural resource projects like fencing, boosting the staffing budget by $3 million, and an additional $31 million for facilities like picnic areas, campgrounds and bathrooms. Only 32 commenters weighed in on the early drafts of the plan, Foster added. “I think that means people are in general happy with things,” she said. “We’ve had several opportunities for comment … and each meeting had less people providing comment. … To me, it means we did a good job in our outreach in incorporating people’s opinions.” Barring any commenters bringing up important points in the next 30 days that may have been overlooked during the draft process, the park service is likely to select Alternative No. 2, Foster said. Info: http://parkplanning. nps.gov/havogmp. Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@ hawaiitribune-herald.com. BY COLIN M. STEWART HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD those very waves, racing around buildings, pushing cars and people as if they were just leaves in the wind. The screams from the Japanese watching from floors up as the world rushed by beneath them, their homes, their livelihoods, their families and friends washed away in a moment of sheer terror, sounds I will never forget and images burned in my mind forever. An hour later, another text informs me that the earthquake was far stronger, a magnitude-8.8. Finally, at 9:31 p.m., it’s official: A tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii. Days after the temblor, the U.S. Geological Survey would up its strength again, to a magnitude-9.0. Whoosh, the first waves arrive in Kona I’m not quite sure when the first waves hit Kailua Village, but it’s still pitch dark out when the sound of the surf stopped crashing (apparently while the water was pulling out) and it became eerily quiet. Scott is outside on the lanai. “It’s about 5:15 a.m.,” he says. A short time later, seawater bursts through the parking deck of Waterfront Row and onto Alii Drive, over a stone wall and into the parking lot of St. Michael the Archangle Church. Standing on our lanai, up three stories behind the church, we wonder if it will come farther. Luckily, it does not. It’s 6 a.m. when we first venture out, me in a dress and slippers carrying a phone and camera. Sand and rocks (some bigger than my head) are strewn across Alii Drive; rockwalls are toppled; and businesses left in shambles, including two restaurants, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and the Kona Inn Restaurant, which each saw tables, chairs, doors and more damaged like something out of a flooded war zone. Heading north along Alii Drive, the damage seems to increase the closer we get to Kailua Pier. Alii Drive is in shambles, whole sections of the roadway seemingly pushed up from beneath (this would turn out to be the case). Signs bent. Tables on their side in the middle of the road. Hangers strewn about. Lots of things where they should not be. ‘Don’t you ever do that again’ It’s 6:56 a.m., March 11, 2011, and water is rushing into Kailua Bay, swirling, churning and gurgling. A pinkishpurple sky silhouettes Hualalai and illuminating the coastline and the damage already done. I capture this all, watching it unfold through the screen of my iPhone. As the water rises, I stand there in a trance, taping. As it comes over the stairs from Kaiakeakua Beach, I yell, “Scott, watch yourself.” He’s somewhere over by the bathrooms. As the water overflows the seawall, I realize, I am a moron. I let out the most pathetic scream, turn around and start booking, slippahs slapping the wet ground and the white water catching up to me. I see some employees, albeit a little smarter than myself, taking off into King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. Then I see foam, it covers my feet, I keep running and then I am no longer running. My feet are swept from beneath me. I am now at the mercy of the ocean. The ocean I did not respect. I don’t remember thinking much, other than keeping my new iPhone above water. Right, like that mattered — I wound’t be calling anyone if I were dead. Arms and legs scrambling in the smelly, dirty water, I feel the back of my knees being ripped by lava rock. It’s the wall, right in front of Menehune Coffee. I put my arms out, I don’t know why, and I hook myself on the railing there. (This railing still stands, and I have kissed it many times for saving my life.) I hold on, watching in terror as the water just keeps on coming, rushing in to the hotel, reaching to within a half-foot of the ABC Store sign affixed to the hotel’s exterior. I am lucky. I catch my breath, muttering a couple not-so-nice words. Shaking. Soaked in that dirty water. I’ve lost my slippahs and my camera is soaked. I quickly pull out its memory card, blowing on it to dry it — please, please I remember thinking, hoping all those photos (one that I would win awards for) were not gone. OK. Now I’m over it. I’ve had enough. Not. There’s a hotel with glass windows washed out, doors off their hinges, and stuff strewn everywhere — I’ve got to check it out. I take a couple of steps and peer inside the hotel (which had just been remodeled) and it is no better and glass is everywhere so I decide not to venture forth. However, for some odd reason, the tsunami’s water comes within inches of the Herb Kane collection in the hotel lobby but never touches the priceless works. (Kane had passed away March 8, and I still think he had something to do with it.) OK. I got lucky. I stink like the back end of a bay from being washed in the virulent waters. I go home, scrub myself with burning hot water, trying to rid the dirtiness. Good enough. I put some hydrogen peroxide on the backs of my knees, and slap on some Neosporin to prevent staph infection and head into the West Hawaii Today office. There, I run into my mentor, theneditor Reed Flickinger, and my mother, paginator and copy editor. The photos are epic, the story’s good. Adrenaline is pumping. But, Mom is not happy. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she says through her grinding teeth. That tone of voice that’s like they’re saying your full name when you are really in trouble. That tone. But I do. I drive as far as I can to Kealakekua Bay, and when I am stopped by Civilian Emergency Response teams, I make the last mile of the trek down to the bay. There I witness boulders strewn over Puuhonua Road, a home floating in Kealakekua Bay, homes pulled off their foundation and pushed inland, and vehicles in the ocean. With little else to get down there, and it getting later in the day, I decide to hike my way back to my car. I thumb a ride from a local with kids in the back of his pickup back to my car and head back to town to put it altogether for the next day’s paper. History. In the making. In all, the tsunami caused an estimated $14.2 million in damage to Hawaii County and $30.6 million in damage statewide. Reflecting 5 years later Hindsight 20/20, I look back on that event and realize just how lucky I, Scott and my community are to still be alive and here today. My heart sinks for the loss Japan felt, however, and my prayers go out to comfort those still in pain. There’s so much to learn from that day and what each person takes away is different. The dress and broken camera serve as reminders. For me, I learned that my “quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem,” Kailua-Kona, is not invincible, we are not protected from tsunami or hurricane. I also learned a new respect for the ocean and for heeding warnings not to be in areas, though I am reporter. I also gained a lot of knowledge about the community I was born and raised in and work for everyday: That we are resilient and no matter how long it takes we get back to normal and move forward. And, I’d rather live no where else and survive alongside anybody else. Oh and yea, I learned not to mess with my mom. All this happened on my mom’s birthday, March 11, just to put the cherry on top. Five years later, I still have to say I’m sorry Mom! A tsunami pours over the seawall at Kailua Pier on March 11, 2011. CHELSEA JENSEN/WEST HAWAII TODAY Rocks are shown strewn across Puuhonua Road at Kealakekua Bay. Tourists walk through the Thurston Lava Tub Thursday afternoon at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. HOLLYN JOHNSON/HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
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