Lalea owners finally can go home

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HAWAI'I KAI — When Lenora Low and her dog, Sam, move into her Lalea condominium today, it will be a homecoming after an unusual journey.

After a year away, Lenora Low unpacks and moves back to her Lalea condominium after $3 million worth of safety improvements were made to the complex. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Twenty-six families have been out of their homes since Dec. 6, 2002, after geologists determined it was unsafe for them to live near the mountain.

In the 11 months since, crews have swept the mountain of loose boulders, shored up the hillside with wire mesh and built a deep catchment ditch, all part of $3 million in work intended to make the condominium safe again.

Meanwhile, Low lived in a hotel for several weeks, spent Christmas there, had to leave her dog at her mother's, then moved into a rental house in Kalama Valley, waiting for the day when she could return home.

This weekend will be a joyous time as she and the other residents begin returning after the completion of safety improvements paid for by developer Castle & Cooke and landowner Kamehameha Schools.

"This Thanksgiving I will be happy to be back in our own home," said Ed Johnson, another resident displaced by the rock fall. "I have no reason to believe that the rocks will tumble down again."

Castle & Cooke offered to buy back the units, but all 26 homeowners chose to return, said Alan Arakawa, the company's vice president in charge of development and construction.

The $3 million in improvements do not reflect the total cost to Kamehameha Schools and Castle & Cooke, which also spent more than $1 million to house the 26 families at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for several weeks while they found other lodging, and provide a monthly stipend covering rent and moving expenses, a cleaning and repair allowance and reimbursement for utilities.

It was a project notable for its breadth, singularity and cost, estimated at $4 million to $5 million. And despite the inconvenience, residents seem generally pleased with how it has been handled.

"It hasn't been too bad," said Low. "I trust Castle & Cooke. They've been around for a long time, and I knew they wouldn't cut corners."

Johnson said he didn't experience much hardship, as he found another rental in another building right at Lalea. "Castle & Cooke took very good care of us," he said. "They did it with a lot of class and dignity."

While no one can say for sure whether the safety measures will ensure that another rock won't tumble down, the hillside will be checked every year and swept for loose boulders, said Kekoa Paulsen, Kamehameha Schools spokesman.

Steve Martel, a University of Hawai'i-Manoa assistant professor of geology and geophysics, said O'ahu homes are built on basalt rock that tends to crumble with time.

"There are inherent fractures in the rock from the heating and then cooling of the lava," Martel said. "When you couple the fractures in the rock with the warm climate, the abundant rainfall, vegetation and steep slopes, all these contribute to make those slopes particularly suspectible to slope instability, including rock falls."

For Lalea residents, the ordeal began last Thanksgiving, when 1.5 inches of rain fell in 90 minutes, washing down two boulders at the East Honolulu condominium in the evening. An initial soil study had been done before construction began, and the hillsides were swept for loose boulders, said Castle & Cooke's Arakawa.

Low said she worked the night shift and didn't see the yellow warning tape around her neighbor's car until the weekend. She didn't think anything of the hazard posed by other rocks that might have loosened in the deluge, and forgot about the incident until a meeting several weeks later at which geologists said they personally would not let their families remain in homes near the rockfall.

"I didn't think it was that big a deal," Low said. "But that night at the meeting, I began to worry. I wondered where I'd go."

But Castle & Cooke and Kamehameha Schools had reserved 20 rooms for residents at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and residents received a daily stipend for expenses while staying there.

They were told to be prepared to leave their homes for a year, and the developer and landowner hired movers.

Now that the families are moving back in, Castle & Cooke has offered to pay for cleaning. If appliances don't work after a year sitting idle, the developer will pay for repairs.

Residents continued to make their monthly mortgage and maintenance fee payments, but the landowner and developer took care of virtually everything else.

"We wanted to minimize the amount of disruption and the amount of money the residents would be out-of-pocket," Arakawa said. "It was an unfortunate experience."

The ordeal seemed surreal to Low, who said she felt like a homeowner who was homeless. She still thinks she made a wise purchase five years ago when she bought her one-bedroom townhome.

"I feel safe moving back in," Low said. "The hillside has been evaluated by geologists who came up with a solution to fix the problem.

"We have no control over nature. Unless we move the buildings, we're not going to eliminate the risk."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-0464.