Kauai residents prepare for potential Hurricane Lowell outages, disruptions

POʻIPŪ, Kauaʻi (HawaiiNewsNow) – Residents on Kauaʻi who are all too familiar with the destruction a major storm can bring are taking no chances as Hurricane Lowell approaches the state.

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Many spent Friday securing their properties and purchasing emergency supplies.

While the latest models indicate Lowell’s track is shifting further west away from the islands, the system remains too close for comfort for survivors of Hurricane Iniki.

Although more than 30 years have passed since that powerful 1992 storm devastated the Garden Isle, memories of its destruction remain vivid for many local families.

“Parts of our house flew off. The porch. And we’re sitting in the hallway, kind of huddled together,” Hanapēpē resident Marla Kitaguchi said, “so scary to have that same kind of track.”

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Stores overwhelmed by storm preparation

Crowds descended upon major retailers like Costco and Home Depot on Friday. Even smaller local grocery stores, such as the Big Save in Kōloa, dealt with a heavy surge of customers stocking up on bottled water and canned goods.

“I come in before 9 o’clock, and the lines by self-checkout is really bad and the customers get real upset because there’s no cashier,” said Big Save employee Sharla Baniaga. “What people gotta remember, there’s other people that need to get items too, not only them.”

Further preparations were visible at the Ace Hardware store in Līhuʻe, where residents stood in long lines to fill up propane tanks.

Meanwhile, community volunteers organized along Rice Street to clear debris from storm drains to mitigate flooding risks from potential heavy rainfall.

The Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative warned residents to prepare for the possibility of power outages starting Monday into Tuesday. Utility officials advised that depending on the severity of the damage, it could take multiple days to fully restore electrical services.

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Marathon organizers monitoring forecast

Despite the approaching storm, the annual Kauaʻi Marathon remains scheduled to go on as planned this Sunday, with a record 2,400 runners registered.

However, some participants have already altered their plans due to the threat.

Kauaʻi Marathon participant Carina Valdez said half of her travel group from California ultimately canceled their trips due to the hurricane.

“They were scared of the storm,” she said. “So they decided to say, ‘Okay, better be safe. We’re going to stay home.’”

Fellow marathon participant Jaydee Gutierrez said, “We’re going to crawl. We’re going to push through the rain. Hopefully we won’t get swept away. We’re hoping the wind will be behind us to push us through the hills.”

Co-race director JT Service confirmed that safety is the organization’s top priority, with coordinators checking weather forecast updates every six hours.

“We want to do the best thing for the island. We want to do the best thing for the marathon and the runners,” he said. “So we take all that information together and just make the best decision possible.”

Organizers have established a final deadline of 6 p.m. Saturday to make an official determination on whether the marathon will proceed.

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