Posted on: Saturday, January 1, 2005
Arrival of New Year is relatively subdued
By William Cole, Karen Blakeman and Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writers
Diehard fireworks fans didn't let forecasts of rain, or periodic bursts of actual rain, keep them from ringing in the New Year explosively.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser At midnight, as Hawai'i entered 2005, the streets were alive with a roiling crackle of firecrackers and the skies above the city sparkled with aerial fireworks.
But it appeared to be a relatively calm New Year's Eve. Possibly revelers were quieted by both the threatened storm and a sympathy with those who suffered in the South Asian tsunami.
As of 12:30 a.m., fire companies around O'ahu had responded to a relatively modest 14 fireworks-related incidents, including 10 garbage fires, three brush fires, and a structure fire that damaged about 30 percent of the downstairs area of a house under construction in Sunset Beach.
No fireworks-related injuries were reported.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser There was strategizing this year. A car was moved out of the carport and the driveway was kept open "so we could stand in the garage and throw the fireworks from there if it started to rain and we got wind," Josette Wakakuwa said.
The family, with about 20 members in attendance last night and about 50 expected for the big family party today, had about $600 worth of fireworks, including firecracker-like noise makers that produce less paper litter.
"We didn't want to have to pay for a permit and the headaches of that, and it's cheaper and there's less rubbish on the street," said Lei Endo, Wakakuwa's mom.
Out front, one family member was stringing up another lengthy roll from a tree trimmer pole affixed to an 8-foot folding metal ladder. A big boom a few doors down set off a car alarm.
With the gray-sky threat of a storm hanging heavily overhead, New Year's revelers were remarkably well behaved early on.
"It's eerily quiet out there," Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said yesterday afternoon.
As of close of business on Wednesday, 11,700 fireworks permits, which allow the purchaser to buy 5,000 firecrackers, had been sold at satellite city halls. Although figures were not available for Thursday, the last day to buy a permit from city offices, Tejada estimated another 1,000 to 1,500 permits were probably sold on that day.
That would bring the total sales to nearly twice the number sold for New Year's Eve 2000, the highest sales since the permit program was instituted that same year.
The storm had already hit Kaua'i.
"Everything is still happening over Kaua'i," said Ray Tanabe, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Honolulu. "They have 3 to 5 inches (of rain) across the island. Over 6 inches in some places. That's for the 24-hour period that ended at 2 p.m."
And yes, he said last night, the rain was still moving toward O'ahu.
Those predicted high winds did materialize, Tanabe said. They just stayed off shore.
"At a buoy northwest of Kaua'i we were registering 55 mile per hour winds," he said. "The high wind watch has been dropped, but we may still see some. They'll just be localized and short-lived."
In Mililani Mauka, the Williams boys, Sheldon, 10; Umi, 8; and Noah, 5, didn't much care if it threatened rain or came down in buckets — they were going to light fireworks either way.
Inside the family garage on Kekahi Street, hundreds of cones and cylinders and ropes of fireworks with names like "Killer Bee," "Cuckoo," and "Flower Fantasy" were lined up in formation like soldiers on three folding tables. A tub of hundreds of firework spinners made for quick access.
"Papa" Dennis Kia, the boys' grandpa, helped with the sorting.
Robyn Williams, the boys' mom, said the night would have "plenty of food and fireworks, and towards midnight, the big bang." That would be 20,000 firecrackers.
"I do it for good luck," Kia said. "I'm looking for prosperity, health."
There was one thought in particular on the minds of the Espinueva women as 2004 drew to a close.
"My brother just proposed to his girlfriend on Christmas morning," Wakakuwa said, "so all us girls, our resolution will be to lose weight, because in January of 2006 we have to be bridesmaids."
The winds — predicted to be high — were still. Heavy rain didn't show up. At 12:30 a.m. today, the National Weather Service said the rain they had forecast for yesterday would probably arrive about noon today.
Fireworks exploded above Aloha Tower at midnight, celebrating the start of 2005. No fireworks-related injuries were reported by 12:30 a.m.
The forecast of heavy rain may have restrained some revelry, but not at the Espinueva 'ohana in 'Aiea. At 7 last night, when they took a meal break, the street out front was already littered with burned out fireworks, and they had a lot more to go.
From left, Umi Williams, 8, and brother Noah, 5, celebrated the incoming year with sparklers at their Mililani Mauka home. The boys, under the guidance of their grandfather, had a large supply of fireworks.
