SUNDAY, JULY 15, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM $1.50
Family members leave the tunnel March 8 where Cheyanne Lee Anderson died. PHOTOS BY TOM HASSLINGER/WEST HAWAII TODAY
KAILUA-KONA —
More than 25 years ago,
Valerie Delahaye-Ippolito
stepped outside the
Citadel in Cairo, Egypt,
when an earthquake hit,
toppling a building to the
ground in front of her
eyes.
It was an eye-opening
experience for the woman,
who said it immediately
taught her the value of
being ready for any disaster
and the importance
of having a plan in place
long before it’s ever needed
in a crunch.
“I realized that it
doesn’t matter where you
are in the world, things
happen,” she said. “And
knowing how to act properly
is huge. And it can
save lives.”
It’s a point Delahaye-
Ippolito, who runs staging
company Mahalo Hale
and is also certified as part
of CERT — Community
Emergency Response
Team, emphasized at a
community talkstory on
disaster preparedness
held Saturday at Keauhou
Shopping Center.
The event was planned
as the first in a series to
get people prepared for
any kind of disaster as
well as how to react in the
wake of an emergency.
“Our real goal is to bring
information — usable, relevant,
valuable information
— to the community
KAILUA-KONA — Cheyanne Lee
Anderson was a talented artist until
the day she died in a stormwater
drain in Kailua-Kona — that much
everyone involved in her life can
agree on.
And she was beautiful.
Her family watched her grow up
and turn boys’ heads on her way
to becoming an aspiring model, the
direction her life was headed before
she sabotaged it with drugs.
Even early on, she had a rebellious
streak. The family could always see it.
As a 16-year-old, Anderson first
starting sneaking out of her bedroom
window in Captain Cook to meet up
with a man years her senior.
She went on to graduate
Konawaena High School, but by then
she was living with him, away from
home.
A red flag, her stepfather, Norm
Catton, now realizes.
“At the time they probably were just
smoking weed,” Catton reflected back
in March, four days before Anderson’s
memorial service at the Big Game
Fishing Clubhouse at Honokohau
Harbor, where around 100 people
gathered on a sunny Saturday afternoon
to say goodbye and scatter
the 38-year-old’s ashes in the same
waters her stepfather used to fish.
Anderson died of a heroin overdose
in the middle of the night on Feb. 28.
She took her last breath in one
of the drainage tunnels that run
mauka-makai beneath Queen
Kaahumanu Highway near its intersection
with Henry Street.
She died in the Tunnels, as the
area was known on the street.
INDEX Annie’s Mailbox . . . . . . . 6B Classified. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1D Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1C Nation & World. . . . . . 3A-5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10A Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B
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HI 88 LO 77 WEATHER, PAGE 8A
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VOL. 50, NO. 196 32 PAGES
INSIDE
PADDLERS OF
PROWESS
Laka’s youth crews
continue to impress
SPORTS, 1B
▼
FIRST OF
ITS KIND
Hawaiian Quilt
Museum opens in
Kona as the first
such museum
in Hawaii
PAGE 13A
▼
The end of Tunnels
HOW 38-YEAROLD
CHEYANNE
ANDERSON’S
OVERDOSE
DEATH LED TO
THE CLOSURE OF
ONE OF KAILUAKONA’S
MOST
ENTRENCHED
HOMELESS CAMPS
THAT FOR YEARS
LAY HIDDEN IN
PLAIN SIGHT
TOM HASSLINGER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
thasslinger@westhawaiitoday.com
Editor’s note: This five-day series by
West Hawaii Today focuses on opioid
addiction on Hawaii Island. It begins with
how a heroin overdose played a vital role in
the shuttering of a well-known Kailua-Kona
homeless camp and finishes on what more
needs to be done to fight painkiller abuse.
Eye-opening stats will be presented along
the way: Hawaii County’s prescription rate
doubles every other county in the state,
while a vast majority of overdose calls are in
homes and condos, not in homeless sites.
Day 1: The end of tunnels: How the fatal
heroin overdose of a 38-year-old helped
shutter a camp under the highway
Day 2: Averted or inevitable?
Hawaii numbers lower than
mainland, but officials wary
Day 3: Figures on the front:
Meeting the faces and agencies
fighting against opioid abuse
Day 4: Lessons learned: Safeguards,
prevention improved with knowledge gained
Day 5: Coming out the other side:
More is needed in the fight, but
recovery story proof it works
Anderson died in the far left tunnel under the red
SEE TUNNELS PAGE 6A roof sign.
Ice is loaded into Tropical Storm Iselle victims’
cars at Pahoa Community Center in 2014. On
Saturday, community members gathered to
discuss emergency planning at a talkstory in
Keauhou. HOLLYN JOHNSON/HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
Getting prepared
COMMUNITY MEMBERS PROMOTE EMERGENCY PLANNING AT TALKSTORY
BY CAMERON MICULKA
WEST HAWAII TODAY
cmiculka@westhawaiitoday.com
SEE PREPARED PAGE 14A
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