Kauai stores ‘overrun with people’ preparing for Hurricane Lowell

News admin September 4, 2026 0 Comments

Kauai stores ‘overrun with people’ preparing for Hurricane Lowell

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Many on Kauai are not taking Hurricane Lowell lightly, as the powerful category 4 system remains on a path similar to that of the most destructive storm in Hawaii history.

On Sept. 11, 1992, Hurricane Iniki claimed seven lives, caused more than $3 billion in damages, and destroyed 90 percent of Kauai’s homes and businesses.

RELATED POST: Hurricane Lowell preparations on Kauai evoke memories of Iniki

Lihue resident Dennis Fujimoto, who experienced Iniki, recalled, “My house had some damage. We lost part of our roof.”

While Fujimoto’s Nawiliwili Road home was salvageable, his brother’s house around the corner was completely ruined.

“He rode out the storm in his bathroom, in the bathtub with a shower curtain overall,” Fujimoto said.

As a longtime photographer and reporter for The Garden Island newspaper, Fujimoto, knows Kauai well, along with its people.

“It was kind of like a dream because the whole island had damage,” Fujimoto said.

Besides weathering the storm and beginning his own family’s recovery, Fujimoto had a job to do.

“We had debris everywhere. We had to come back with the turn stories,” Fujimoto added.

More than three decades later, about a week before Iniki’s 34th anniversary, Fujimoto sees others preparing the same way they did back then, now for Hurricane Lowell.

“I mean, today you can’t go to Home Depot, you can’t go to Costco because the place is overrun with people,” Fujimoto described.

Others on Kauai said the same, sending Hawaii News Now pictures of both stores packed with customers.

Residents are well aware of Lowell’s potential to take a similar path to Iniki.

“Same approach coming from the south and then, of course, veering north,” Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said, while acknowledging on Thursday it may be too early to predict Lowell’s potential impacts.

Kawakami’s memory of Iniki is partially informing the county’s all-hands-on-deck approach, positioning heavy equipment in flood-prone areas, and communicating with the entire county, including folks on Niihau.

“They’re not forgotten. So we reach out directly. And if they need any assistance, they have a direct line in,” Kawakami said.

Lowell comes as the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is still wrapping up repairs from Hurricane Lala, which caused 7,300 outages.

“Luckily we were able to come out of it with minimal damage,” KIUC communications and public relations specialist Allison Young said.

Days before Lowell could present possible impacts for the northern part of the island chain, Young asked customers to update their contact information “so we can reach you in the event of an emergency.”

KIUC’s number is (808) 246-4300.

On Oahu, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) addressed all impacts from Hurricane Lala and positioned generators in key locations, including near hospitals and large care homes.

“It’s really critical that we all prepare,” BWS information officer Kathleen Pahinui said.

BWS is also giving out water storage bags ahead of Lowell.

“They’re really easy, they have a handle cap, and they all come individually wrapped, so they’re really safe and sanitary,” Pahinui described.

Click here for more information on how to get a BWS water storage bag, as well as instructions on how to properly store water in case of service disruptions.