Kumu hula helps deliver 6.5 tons of supplies to isolated Kau families after Hurricane Lala

News admin September 4, 2026 0 Comments

Kumu hula helps deliver 6.5 tons of supplies to isolated Kau families after Hurricane Lala

HAWAIʻI ISLAND, Hawaiʻi (HawaiiNewsNow) – A kumu hula and musician from Ocean View helped deliver six and a half tons of supplies to isolated Kaʻū families after Hurricane Lala.

Kahi Young said his own home suffered roof damage, but he felt a calling to help families that were cut off after floodwaters hit the area.

Coordinating the helicopters

Young called for help from Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, Mauna Loa Helicopters and Rainbow Helicopters. He got a list of 21 families that needed supplies.

“If we got hit this hard, I said, I can imagine everybody else, all these ‘ohana that are stuck,” Young said.

“I prayed and prayed, and I said, ‘Akua, if you can get these helicopters to me, I can get everything on the helicopters and I can get it to those people,’” Young said.

“Within two hours, I had a call back and Eric from Blue Hawaiian Helicopters had told me, yeah, let’s go. He said, we’re fueled up, helicopters heading out to you,” Young said.

“By word of mouth, I had this list of kuleana now that I had put onto my shoulders,” Young said.

First time in a helicopter

Young had never been in a helicopter before the disaster.

“I’m gonna see the land in pieces. I’m gonna see our people tearing. I’m gonna see our people hurt, and it’s gonna be hard,” he said.

“I broke down. I said, I cannot handle, but I have to get to these ‘ohanas again tomorrow,” Young said.

“With all the devastation that we were flying through, there was a lot of beauty in what was happening,” Young said.

“We were really squeezing it to get down there and that feeling by the time we touch ground and we make that first handshake and that first honi, it makes you feel like it’s going to be okay,” Young said.

Nearly three weeks of deliveries

For nearly three weeks, the helicopters made multiple trips per day. Young said it was difficult triaging who needed the most help, so he prioritized keiki, then kupuna.

“Every helicopter load is about 700 pounds and we were doing multiple loads in a day, you know, if we could. So some days we’re doing maybe four or five loads,” Young said.

He estimated they delivered 6.5 tons of supplies.

Young made his last drop Wednesday. He said he and the chopper pilots dropped off supplies to about 125 people.

“By the end of, by the end, so with those 21 houses and distributed about to everybody in those houses, we took about a general count and we’re looking at around like almost 125 people that were gotten supplies,” Young said.

Final delivery

Asked what it was like to complete his work and visit his last family, Young called it bittersweet.

“It was a bittersweet moment. The first times that we have met these families, they were going through a lot. We were all going through a lot,” Young said.

“Kaʻū is strong. It’s going to take more than a hurricane to take them out. They are so strong. They’re the strongest people that I know,” Young said.