Many Kauaʻi County services have been disrupted after a fire at the Līhuʻe Civic Center destroyed infrastructure that many county agencies use.
Walk-in and counter services at the civic center have been suspended until at least Friday because of the fire, the County of Kauaʻi said in a news release this weekend, though it’s not clear when those services will resume.
The fire took place at the civic center last week Wednesday.
Kauaʻi County Council Chair Mel Rapozo said the loss of those services is especially painful as residents are in the middle of cleaning up from Hurricane Lowell.
“It was much more than a structural fire. It impacted our real property tax office, the DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles), which does our driver's licensing and vehicle registrations,” Rapozo said. “Part of the Planning Department was damaged. Right now the emphasis is on trying to make sure that this facility is even safe for our employees to return. There's going to take some massive cleanup … 'cause it was a massive fire."
The fire destroyed infrastructure that was used to process transactions, access records and connect county phone lines.
Some of the affected services include real property tax assessments and payments, sewer billing and more than a dozen other services from various county departments.
The county, in a news release, said residents should expect "significant" delays for driver licensing services. All DMV services islandwide will be unavailable until at least Friday.
When available, DMV services will resume at its Kapaʻa location.
“Our employees are working, and our focus right now is getting services back to our community as quickly and as safely as we can,” Mayor Derek Kawakami said in a written statement. “We know this is going to be an inconvenience for a lot of families and businesses, and we do not take that lightly.”
The county said that emergency services are still available, so residents can continue to use 911 in emergency events.
Residential refuse services are still operational as well, and county offices not located at the civic center are still open.
On Sunday the county said it's working to set up temporary systems so suspended services can resume.
It won’t allow county employees back in the civic center until it’s safe to do so.
“I also want to be clear that we are not putting anyone back into a workspace until we know it is safe, and we are not rushing systems back online until we know they are sound,” Kawakami said in his statement.
