As Hawaiʻi Island, Maui Nui and Oʻahu continue to recover after Hurricane Lala, HPR spoke with Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami to learn how the Garden Isle fared during the storm.
While Kauaʻi was spared from extreme damage after Lala, the island remains vigilant and ready to assist wherever recovery efforts are needed across the state, Kawakami told HPR.
Interview Highlights
On the state of Kauaʻi after the storm
MAYOR DEREK KAWAKAMI: Based on what I've been able to see through news reports on the other islands, Kaua’i dodged a big bullet, and we're just grateful and thankful. At the same time, our emergency management administrator, Elton Oshio, has been working across the board with HIEMA and his counterparts on every other island to see what sort of assistance they're going to need from our team.
And generally that's what we do. If Kaua’i gets by relatively unscathed, we will send our teams out to go assist the other mayors and their teams. And it's a mutual benefit because, one, we get to see different solutions, different problems that may arise so that we can be ready. And then, two, sometimes coming in from the outside in offers some perspective to the local teams as far as managing the response and even being proactive before the disaster happens.
On Kauaʻi's storm preparation and post-storm protocol
KAWAKAMI: We really take the approach of letting the community lead and having government support them because those are the boots on the ground whenever a natural disaster is happening. So, we still have some work to do. We're not out of the woods yet, because just a little amount of rainfall can really create some problems, just because of the saturation levels. ...
It's really a collective effort because we have a number of large private landowners that pre-storm, they're out there cleaning their own drains, cleaning their own ditches, clearing out debris. Our county public works does the same thing. We take a look at clearing out drains, making sure that shoulders are maintained, taking a look at trees and if it poses a risk to utility lines. So, just on a day-to-day basis, we try our best to maintain so that when storms come, we're not really scrambling. … It's just a part of our operation whenever we're faced with a storm.
On lessons for the future
KAWAKAMI: Just not to take things lightly, because that was a Category 1, and that was not a direct hit. You know, that was Hurricane and Tropical Storm Lala just kind of, like, coming by and saying hello, and not really knocking on the door that badly. And if it had made a direct hit, I can only imagine how much more destruction would have been apparent. And so, I think this is a good lesson learned. ...
And you know, we're going to have to keep an eye on those folks that have been impacted, because what we've learned dealing with a number of disasters is that people that are struggling with mental health issues, it is not obvious at the surface. And it may manifest itself that every time it rains, you you may notice a family member, a child, an adult, or somebody that seems perfectly fine, dealing with tremendous anxiety, almost panic, and we have to keep an eye on our family members and our neighbors to make sure that if there is some sort of mental health issue that's going to be a byproduct of dealing with all of these storms that we've been dealing with, we have to let them know that it's OK to go seek help.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 18, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web
