In the wake of Hurricane Lowell, the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority sent a message for tourists who were on Kauaʻi during the storm surge and for those planning to visit Hawaiʻi in the immediate future.
David Uchiyama is the HTA’s chief administrative officer. He’s been in contact with emergency management agencies for the county and the state over the efforts to restore power and water to the areas hit hard by the hurricane.
Uchiyama shared updates on the Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative’s progress restoring power and how the state is handling the flow of visitors during hurricane season.
Interview Highlights
On restoring power on Kauaʻi after Hurricane Lowell
DAVID UCHIYAMA: They're already up at 57% power to the island, they have initially given us an estimate that it would have take about a week to 7 days, or a week to 2 weeks, to to get 50%, and they've just, I don't know what they're doing over there, but they they've just worked around the clock to get them to the 50%. …
We're just trying to accommodate visitors as best as we can, and hopefully in sister properties on the other islands, and then clear the path so that workers can get in there to help support the island because the main concern is making sure that we can restore everything as quickly as possible.
On keeping the islands open for visitors
UCHIYAMA: We've sent out messaging letting people know that our other islands are open. For the people that were on Kauaʻi, we were recommending that they take advantage of sister properties on any of the other islands. And for people that were considering coming to Hawaiʻi, we're telling them you still can come. Your itinerary may need to change slightly to incorporate Maui, Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island, but the islands are open for business. For us here locally, we want to make sure that we take care of the residents of Kauaʻi and get power restored, the roads open, and get them up and running again.
On receiving storm support from the tourism industry
UCHIYAMA: We may need to move some of our residents into the hotels temporarily to help them get through this process. … And the industry, as we saw with the Maui wildfires, are very supportive of our communities, and sometimes I think our communities lose sight of how important our industry is, not just for the economic stability of bringing our visitors in, but also when it comes time and the calling is to take care of our residents, they're right there. So I give kudos to the industry on Kauaʻi.
This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 10, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
