No guarantees of safety after boulder accident

By Brandon Masuoka
and Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writers

City firefighters worked yesterday to track the path of a 5-ton boulder that killed a 26-year-old woman when it crashed into her bedroom, but they could offer no safety assurances to dozens of residents in other houses below the Nu'uanu mountain slope.

ONISHI

The boulder, about 5 feet in diameter, clipped the rear eaves of the house and crashed through the wall, hitting Onishi as she slept early yesterday. It tore through the floor, taking Onishi and her bed with it before striking the floor of a family room beneath, next to the home's carport, said Capt. Richard Soo, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman.

"I just think this was a freak accident, an act of God," Soo said. "I don't know how anybody can prevent something like that."

Fire rescue crews inspected the cliff yesterday and found no loose rocks but could not guarantee that the cliff was safe, said Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi.

"We went to look if there were other things loose," Leonardi said. "But that doesn't mean something else, somewhere is not going to come down. Our rescue guys went up and said 'it looks okay,' but we can't guarantee anything."

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources was monitoring the situation, but a spokesman said the state wasn't planning to send a geologist to the site immediately because the boulder fell from private property.

Land department spokesman Mike Markrich said: "This is a complex issue with multiple ramifications, and we're looking into the appropriate public response.

"We acknowledge the concerns of the homeowners and are sympathetic to the loss incurred by the family. However, because this incident occurred on private lands, we will not at this time be sending a geologist to do an independent investigation."

The 5-ton rock, crashing down the Nu'uanu mountain slope, rammed into the back of this house on Henry Street Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Although it had rained there for a couple of days, firefighters found no obvious reason for the boulder to come crashing down.

"It wasn't like a landslide. That's why we went up there to check if there was a landslide or if other rocks would come down," Leonardi said.

The cliff was inspected out of concern for the dozens of people who live in homes snug against the rock face, he said.

"It's a touchy situation. I know the residents were kind of relieved that we took a look, but you just don't know when those things are going to happen," Leonardi said.

"All those cliffsides, those rocks, they're not glued in there.

"We tried to do some due diligence up there. Other than that, there's nothing else we can do. It can't be like a Sacred Falls where they shut down. You can't just shut down the whole neighborhood."

Leonardi said there's not much that Nu'uanu residents can do about falling rocks.

It would be impossible to install chain link fencing against the rock face because many of the homes are built too snugly against the cliff. Homeowners can build rock walls to protect their property, but a rock wall would have done little to stop the 5-ton boulder yesterday, Leonardi said.

"We talked about it, and we tried to come up with something," Leonardi said. "It's a tough one. It's an extremely rare occasion when something does come down, especially something of that size."

Onishi was the daughter of former city planning director Patrick Onishi, who was home with wife Gail and son Blaine, 23, when his daughter was killed; they were uninjured. Another son, 30-year-old Brady, lives in California.

"The whole office is grieving right now. It is a huge shock," said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. "She was one of the brightest, most engaging, social women I have ever known. She was a delight to work with."

The house at 2527-A Henry St. sits against the mountainside, the top house on a long, private lane.

To try to piece together what had happened, fire rescue workers hiked along an irregular path that descended from a point about 100 yards upslope, above and to the left of the Onishi home, said Battalion Chief Paul Loughran.

The crew's best guess, Loughran said, is that the boulder came from a rocky face at the upper end of the path and carved out a trail that ended at a rain catchment ditch 30 feet to 40 feet behind the house, then took a bounce on its wall and was launched into the house.

One of the crew climbed up the face and traced a path above it, looking for evidence that the boulder had fallen from above that point, Loughran said. He found none.

"We're not professional geologists, so we can't say exactly where it came from," he added. "We're just under the assumption that it originated from that area."

Chieh Fu Lu and his wife, Chrysti, who live across the lane and at the bottom of the hill, were awakened by what he described as a "loud rumble, and then a crash." He thought the sound might have come from trash cans gone astray.

"Then I heard the neighbors behind us starting to yell out," he said, "not yelling in fear, but just kind of 'What's going on?'

"I went back to sleep thinking, 'What are they doing?' That's when I looked at the clock: 1:42."

The couple awoke again to the commotion of emergency vehicles arriving. But they decided to stay away from the scene, learning only from a televised report that their neighbor had died.

"We thought maybe it was a tree," said Chrysti Lu, wiping away a tear. "And they seemed so calm. I saw them just walking around."

Another neighbor, Alma Peter, lives a few houses down Henry Street, also next to the slope, but heard nothing of the death until emergency workers arrived.

She said she couldn't recall other boulders tumbling down the hill in the 41 years she's lived in her home.

Advertiser staff writers Robbie Dingeman and Mike Gordon contributed to this report.