Kauai businesses feel tourism slowdown as island recovers from Hurricane Lowell

KAUAI (HawaiiNewsNow) – Kauai businesses are feeling the squeeze as tourism slows following Hurricane Lowell, with some owners forced to lay off employees and close locations.

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Cadena Ragsdale, founder of Kauai Fresh Fish, said the business lost about 70% of its sales almost immediately.

“We lost about 70% of our sales overnight. And I have laid off, unfortunately, my entire team except for one person. It’s just crazy to go from this like thriving, you know, bustling business to overnight having very little sales and wondering if we’re going to make it,” Ragsdale said.

Before Hurricane Lowell, Ragsdale said Kauai Fresh Fish serviced about 15 to 18 restaurants a day. Now, she said, the business is down to about three or four orders.

Ragsdale also said damage to cargo operations, ports and harbors has affected product availability.

“We have definitely seen a drastic reduction in sales. With the damage to the cargo, the damage to our ports and harbors, we’ve seen a drastic decrease in product availability,” she said.

Ragsdale is not alone.

“As soon as the visitors left, it became apparent that our numbers at our coffee shops just immediately dropped,” said Sean Garcia, owner of Java Kai Kauai.

Garcia said Java Kai’s Kilauea location remains closed because it is still without power.

He said the business also had to make a difficult decision involving its employees.

“This last weekend, we had to make that rough decision to lay off about half of our staff, which is about 45 people. And it’s a tough thing to do. It’s a tough thing to tell people, hey, next week, you’re not going to get a paycheck from us,” Garcia said.

Garcia said Java Kai depends on visitors while also asking them to be mindful of the island’s recovery.

“We do rely on visitors coming here and spending money. But if you do come, just be respectful,” Garcia said.

Kelly Kakalia, co-owner of The Musubi Truck Kauai, said her business initially focused on helping the community after the storm.

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“So we spent the first two days after Lowell just cooking rice and making fresh poke bowls and chicken katsu and ahi katsu. And it was just like so nice to be able to give back to the community that’s given to us so much over the last six years,” Kakalia said.

But as business remained slow, Kakalia said the company realized the problem was bigger than expected.

“And we thought something was wrong with like our processing system because it was like pretty slow, which of course, like I don’t want to be ignorant that we’re going to be a little slow. But then Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and we’re like, okay, this is not good,” she said.

The business ultimately had to make cuts.

“We had to start making some quick decisions and pretty heartbreaking…..we had to lay off more than half of our employees. We had to close one of our locations in Kaloa. And that was just, yesterday we had to close,” Kakalia said.

Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said the island’s North Shore remains off-limits.

“I would say the North Shore is someplace that like just visitors should not go down because it’s an active disaster zone,” Kawakami said.

David Uchiyama said officials are also being cautious about how the island welcomes visitors during the recovery.

“We’re being very respectful and cautious about our approach going forward because of what we experience with the Maui wildfires. So we’re very sensitive to that,” Uchiuyama said.

Businesses hope to find a balance between welcoming visitors and respecting the parts of the island that are still recovering.

Business owners also want to know whether additional financial support will be available.

“For, to be declared a state of emergency, is that coming? And I think those are the questions that a lot of us business owners have is like, is there going to be any support for us to recover?” a business owner said.

Lawmakers are scheduled to meet with the governor and other leaders on Kauai Thursday to discuss how much funding the island may need for its recovery.

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