STRESS IN THE SHELTERS
DISPLACEMENT, UNCERTAINTY, AND LOSS WEARING ON MENTAL HEALTH OF LAVA EVACUEES
Volcano hurts Volcano
NATIONAL PARK’S
CLOSURE, DROP IN
VISITORS ROUGH ON
VOLCANO BUSINESSES
BY MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY
VOLCANO — As Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park continues
into its fourth consecutive
week of closure, the hospitality
industry in the hamlet of
Volcano faces unprecedentedly
lean times.
Park spokeswoman Jessica
Ferracane said the closure of
the park, which has gone on
for 30 days as of Saturday, has
so far cost Hawaii Island more
than $12.3 million in visitor
spending — park visitors last
year spent $455,000 each day
at Big Island businesses, not
counting park entrance fees.
Volcano ordinarily would be
a significant beneficiary of that
visitor spending, located within
a mile of the park entrance.
Without the flow of visitors,
however, many businesses
have seen income dry up.
“We used to get between
40 and 60 visitors here for
dinner,” Tom Smith, owner of
Ohelo Cafe, a popular restaurant
in town, said on Monday.
MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM 75¢
“Last night we had six.”
Janet Coney, office manager
at the venerable Kilauea
Lodge, is running what she
called “plume specials” until
today discounted deals on
rooms and meals. However,
the lodge still has seen “hundreds”
of room cancellations.
Smith said he had to temporarily
lay off some employees
until the situation improves,
although the cafe is remaining
open for the time being. Not
all businesses have that luxury:
Smith said another restaurant,
Thai Thai Bistro and Bar, has
closed until June 22.
Coney said she is trying to
keep Kilauea Lodge open for
the sake of its employees, but
the business has taken a “very
hard hit” — only 13 diners
visited the restaurant Monday
afternoon, compared to its
usual 80-90 guests.
The many bed-and-breakfast
establishments in Volcano
have months of uncertainty
KAILUA-KONA — A man
is dead and another was taken
to the hospital after a white
20-foot boat ran aground at
OTEC Saturday night, according
to officials Sunday.
Around 8 p.m. Saturday,
the Hawaii County Fire
Department received an
emergency call regarding a
boat that had run into a cliff
along the shoreline fronting
the Ellison Onizuka Kona
International Airport. Five
units responded to the scene
1 mile north of Keahole Point,
including a rescue boat and
helicopter.
Fire personnel located an
unresponsive male in the
water and performed lifesaving
measures, but were not
able to revive him. He was
taken to the Kona Community
Hospital and pronounced
deceased. The decedent has
been positively identified as
29-year-old Benjamin Charles
Keely, of Hawaiian Acres.
The second occupant of the
vessel was 48-year-old Gary
Witt, of Hawaiian Ocean View
Estates. He suffered injuries
that were not life threatening,
and is being treated at Kona
Community Hospital, where
he is listed in stable condition.
Police say Keely and Witt
were aboard a fishing vessel
when, for an unknown reason,
the fishing vessel struck
a cliff and Keely was thrown
overboard. Witt remained
within the vessel and located
Keely, bringing him back to
the shoreline, where lifesaving
measures were attempted
until waves took both men
back into to the ocean.
Fire officials don’t know
what caused the boat to run
aground. An autopsy to determine
Keely’s cause of death
has been tentatively scheduled
for Tuesday.
Detectives with the Area
II Criminal Investigation
Section, and the Department
of Land and Natural
Resources, are continuing this
investigation and ask anyone
with information or who may
have witnessed this incident
to contact Detective David
Matsushima, via email at
David.Matsushima@hawaiicounty.
gov, or 326-4646 ext.
224.
HILO — Stacy Welch has
been staying at the emergency
shelter in Pahoa for more than
a month.
Forced out of her Leilani
Estates home by the eruption
activity, she — and many others
— don’t know when they’ll be
able to leave.
Welch, her daughter and
hanai daughter, both 19, and
pets evacuated from their home,
located near fissures 9 and 24,
with fissure 8 two streets behind
her, on May 3.
Born and raised on Oahu,
Welch bought her property on
the Big Island two years ago, but
only moved there last July.
The American Red Cross has
been providing food, clothes
and toiletries in the shelter, but
Welch said there has been “a lot
of miscommunication” between
the agencies at work in the
shelter.
“It just takes a lot of work to
get done what you need to be
done, but we’re doing OK,” she
said.
She’s frustrated.
In one example, Welch said
she had gone to get something
to eat the night before and was
late because she had attended
a Civil Defense meeting.
Welch said there were two
full pans of food, and she
wanted “a tiny bite” from each
one, but was told she had to
choose. She didn’t eat dinner
that night. The next afternoon,
though, a man was there making
cotton candy for the shelter
residents.
Regardless of circumstances,
Welch said the shelter is home
now because “we don’t have a
home to go back to.”
As far as their shelter stay
goes, “there’s no end in sight,”
she said. “As long as that lava is
flowing and earthquakes (are)
going, we have no place to go.
There’s really no way to feel
about it. You just deal with it.”
Her daughter, Madison
Welch, 19, recently left the
Pahoa shelter for other housing.
She goes back to visit her mom,
but said she doesn’t like being
there.
“At this point, it just feels very
hostile in there.”
P F I
PFI
Rubbish Service
Residential Curbside Service
Honaunau to Kohala
Let us make your
rubbish disappear!
PFIrubbish.com 808-329-3440
Locally Owned
since 1979
INDEX Annie’s Mailbox . . . . . . 9B Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10B Nation & World . . . . . . . . .3A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4A Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B
STONE TILE, STONE SLABS, PORCELAIN TILE, POOL TILE, LATICRETE MATERIALS, GLASS TILE, MOSAICS, AND MORE
2865 Koapaka Street
Honolulu, HI 96819
(808) 840-8855 tel
(808) 840-8858 fax
www.tilewarehousehawaii.com
73-4076 Hulikoa Drive
Kailua Kona, HI 96740
(808) 329-8855 tel
(808) 329-5585 fax
Featuring: Cambria Quartz
INSIDE
TACKLING
TRUANCY
HHIS uses grant
funds to try a
new approach
at schooling
NHN, 5B
▼
BIG ISLAND,
BIG EASY
Poi Dog Deli
brings a taste
of New Orleans
to Kona
BIZ, 5A
▼
HI 85 LO 74 WEATHER, PAGE 2A
VOL. 50, NO. 162 18 PAGES
BY STEPHANIE SALMONS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
KILAUEA ERUPTION
Inside her camp which she set up in a dugout of a baseball field at the shelter at Pahoa
Community Center, Leilani Estates evacuee Lesa Callahan tears up while talking Thursday
about the east rift zone eruption. As of Thursday, she had been at the shelter for 34 days.
HOLLYN JOHNSON/TRIBUNE-HERALD
One killed, one injured in
boat crash Saturday night
BY TIFFANY DEMASTERS
WEST HAWAII TODAY
tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com
Lovey Kauhane finishes a short shift Friday at Kilauea
General Store in Volcano. Staff has had to cut hours due
to slow business because of the lack of tourism at this
time. HOLLYN JOHNSON/TRIBUNE-HERALD
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE VOLCANO PAGE 4A
SEE STRESS PAGE 4A
link
link
link
/www.tilewarehousehawaii.com
link