‘We may go home to nothing’: Nolo makes Big Island residents uneasy
HAWAII ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) – Some Hawaii Island residents are uneasy about Nolo, saying their towns have barely recovered from Hurricane Lala.
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Along Koali Street in Pahala Town is where Kathy Andrade lives with her ohana.
“How did you guys fare during the last storm?” we asked her. “We did not fare well. I now have PTSD. I no longer feel safe in my home,” she said.
Flooding from Lala forced them to flee to a shelter as rivers around the community swelled to unthinkable levels.
“The water went through our our yard, went under our house. It did damage one room and stuff, but it happened so fast, there was no time to get out,” Andrade said.
She said firefighters helped rescue them and thankfully no one was physically hurt. But the emotional damage was long lasting.
She also shared her doctor diagnosed her with PTSD, making the threat of Nolo’s impacts all the more unsettling.
“You wanna stay strong and you wanna be sane-minded when you’re thinking about everything happening, but at the same time, your insides and your head is screaming like, ‘Oh my God, what are we gonna do?’” she said.
Much of the community is still in recovery mode, especially in towns like Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, where homes, businesses, and even cemeteries remain in disaster recovery mode. Many shops haven’t reopened, and hubs are still serving residents without essentials.
Andrade said crews did what they could to clear gulches and rivers, but still worries the town isn’t ready for more severe weather.
“As long as the upside of the gulches are still full of trees and debris, it’s not gonna take much more for those to come down and block it again, and flood out that whole town,” she said.
Ahead of Nolo, she evacuated her family to her Mother-in-Law’s house in Waikoloa.
“I’m shaking as we speak. It’s nerve-wracking knowing that we may go home to nothing. We don’t know,” Andrade said.
While this rush to prepare is an all-too familiar routine at this point, Andrade reminds others to keep kupuna in mind.
“Just check on your neighbors… See if there’s anything that you can do. Are they elderly? Do they need medicines picked up? Anything like that? Just the smallest things will matter,” she concluded.
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