State cleans up after wind and rain storm

By Eloise Aguiar and Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writers

Under sunny skies and calm winds, residents across the state yesterday phoned for repairs, keeping utility company crews busy after Wednesday's wind storm in which gusts as high as 92 mph ripped rooftops and snapped trees and utility poles.

Kara Wagner picked up two bags of ice at the Chevron gas station at Koko Marina Center yesterday. Gas couldn't be pumped, but the minimart was open. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The National Weather Service said calm weather should continue through the weekend. Forecasters also were expected to downgrade a high-surf warning today as surf along the north and west shores of most islands was expected to decline.

On Kaua'i, a camper was found dead during Wednesday's high winds, trapped under the branches of a collapsed Norfolk Island pine tree that fell on his campsite in Kapa'a.

Police said they could not be sure of the cause of death — an autopsy is planned — but that it appeared a 40-foot section of the tree snapped off in the strong winds and fell on the campsite of Michael Larson, also known as Michael Souza. Larson, 36, was described by police as homeless.

Two dirt bike riders found his body about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in a wooded area off Ka'apuni Road in the Kapa'a Homesteads area. Assistant police chief Gordon Isoda said the tree's trunk appeared to have missed Larson, but he was pinned by its branches.

On O'ahu, the hardest hit areas appeared to be in Windward O'ahu.

Castle High and Kailua Intermediate schools remained closed yesterday while the campuses were cleared of large chunks of roofing material and damage was assessed.

They were among 10 schools that were closed because of damage or power failure. One building on each campus was blasted by winds that peeled away layers of roofing materials and launched them into windows, walls and courtyards where students normally gather.

"As I'm looking outside my office, I'm glad nobody was around," said Meredith Maeda, Castle High principal. "It happened in an instant."

Maeda said the building is expected to be waterproofed by Monday. Meanwhile, seven giant tarps covered computers and equipment in the technology academy in case it rains. Students, who would have had today, Monday and Tuesday off anyway, will return Wednesday. Today and Tuesday are teacher work days and Monday is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Winds on Wednesday reached 92 mph in Kane'ohe Bay, 85 mph above Makua Valley and 60 mph at several locations. Dozens of utility poles snapped like toothpicks.

The Honolulu Fire Department received more than 110 calls for damaged roofs, but most suffered only minor damage. A damage estimate was not available.

There were no reports of serious injuries on O'ahu.

American Red Cross spokeswoman Cassandra Ely said the agency assisted just one Kailua family whose roof blew off.

Power losses plagued the island Wednesday, and HECO crews worked throughout the day to restore power to most of the island.

One of the largest outages was in the Hawai'i Kai area, where about 11,000 customers suffered power failures Wednesday — some at 1:15 p.m. and the rest at 6:25 p.m. By early evening yesterday, power was restored to all customers there.

But HECO spokesman Jose Dizon said two 46-kilovolt transmission lines that feed the Hawai'i Kai area were damaged by the high winds, and residents can expect service interruptions until permanent repairs are done.

Castle High's Large Group Learning Center, a building that houses the technology academy and the Registrar's Office, lost all of its roofing material except for the bottom-most layer, Maeda said.

Next to Maeda's office piles of roofing material lay broken up into slabs, some as big as 5 feet square and 2 inches thick, blown into a courtyard where students normally gather. Black scars marked walls where the roofing slammed into buildings, smashing windows and cutting through a water pipe.

Roofing debris sailed across four lanes of highway and pieces of wood flew like spears across campus and through the back window of Maeda's car at about 4:30 p.m., he said.

Kailua Elementary was open yesterday despite losing roofing from three of its eight buildings, said principal Lanelle Hibbs. Rain didn't cause any damage, and the one parent who was hit by flying debris reported that he was fine, Hibbs said.

Kailua Intermediate lost most of the roofing material from its C Building, which will remain closed until it is repaired, said Lorraine Henderson, school principal. Two of the rooms were flooded and an emergency work order was requested for repairs, she said.

Roofing companies were getting calls for help during the height of the storm, long before the cleanup began, said Frank Rogers, owner of Leakmaster Roofing and Waterproofing.

The strong wind and rain proved too much for many homes, with owners reporting leaks around windows and siding material as well as roofs, Rogers said.

Betty Burton, who lost about half of her roof, was glad that a contractor finally came by to put a tarp on her Kailua home. The senior citizen had to call the fire department to secure her aluminum roof and gather pieces that had blown off during the storm.

"I had pots and pans all over the house trying to catch the drippings," Burton said.

Advertiser staff writers Jan TenBruggencate and Mike Gordon contributed to this report.