KAUNAKAKAI, Molokai >> Around 5 a.m. March 22, Kapaakea resident Kalani Johnston Jr. was thigh-high in floodwaters, doing what he could to protect his house.
He also made sure his aunties and neighbors in the same predicament were safe, and continued to wade in the water for hours, even after a police officer told him to evacuate his home at 7 a.m.
Had he and his neighbors been told to evacuate earlier, Johnston said, he probably would have if it were safe and he could ensure his neighbors’ safety. But by the time his neighborhood received notice, “It was too late,” he recalled.
“We have families that are 96, 97 years old with water going underneath their bed in their house, and it’s right across from my house. That’s why our neighbors were so fired up, because we’re not leaving anybody behind.”
Johnston ended up losing around $15,000 in building supplies he had been storing for home renovations, which are now even more urgent with the water damage caused by flooding. He also lost car parts for his auto collision customers that he will have to replace out of his own pocket.
In the meantime, he said he will continue to look out for his neighbors as recovery from recent heavy rains persists.
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Molokai was especially hit hard by the second of two Kona-low storms to sweep across Hawaii in two weeks last month. Flooding and other storm impacts caused an estimated $80 million in damage and losses across Maui County, with well over 1,000 damage reports submitted as of Thursday, including several hundred from Molokai alone, according to county officials.
Residents of the isolated island are facing unique challenges as they struggle to recover. There are no big-box retailers and local stores have limited inventory. Cargo arrives via barge twice a week at Kaunakakai Harbor but can be extremely costly, as are shipments by air.
As of Wednesday, unleaded gas prices exceeded $7 per gallon, and for diesel, used in machinery and boats, prices exceeded $8 per gallon.
For an island of around 7,500 residents, navigating these challenges is nothing new — but doing so in a crisis is.
Kalamaula Homesteaders Association President Lehua Kauka said she and fellow board members opened up a relief hub at Kiowea Beach Park in Kaunakakai the same day as the flooding. It started by serving warm meals — the park is powered by solar panels and water faucets were still running — but Kauka realized getting supplies was going to be a major issue.
“We gave away whatever supplies that we had to families that need it,” she said. “Then we started getting calls from Kapaakea.”
Word got around that the association was helping families, and soon donors from ‘Aina Momona, Maui United Way, Lahaina Strong and the Lahui Foundation began coordinating shipments of supplies. Within a week, they opened a hub on the eastern side of the island at Kilohana Elementary School and split shipments between the two locations to ensure broader access to necessities.
The hubs are open seven days a week from around 8 a.m. until sometimes past 10 p.m. Kauka said they want to make sure people can receive supplies after work, so she and other board members split shifts depending on their day jobs.
For association board member and Kalamaula resident Kalani Johnston Sr., father of Kalani Johnston Jr., helping out at the hub was an obvious choice. While his property was damaged in the flooding — invasive mangroves on the adjacent protected wetland divert water straight onto his property and rain entered through the roof of his home — he spends nearly every day at the hub cooking food or distributing supplies.
“That’s a no-brainer, it’s automatic,” Johnston Sr. said, adding he is blessed to be healthy and to have suffered less damage to his property compared to others on the island.
The Maui Emergency Management Agency has partnered with various organizations to help streamline support for the community. Justin Neuhart, the agency’s isolated communities specialist based on Molokai, said coordinating with community-led organizations was a natural step.
“Molokai has been culturally and historically resilient and our island is really tight-knit,” Neuhart said. “In the event of a storm, we all come together.”
He said that in his role, he prioritizes supporting the needs of both community members and local organizations, which often have more intimate contact with those in need than county and state officials. Neuhart also has personally done outreach on Molokai, with his team knocking door-to-door to ensure as many residents as possible know how to access support.
Kayla Hoku Shaw, program manager for ‘Aina Momona, a nonprofit Native Hawaiian environmental group, said using social media and personal connections on other islands has helped connect Molokai to much-needed supplies.
“My mindset is that community-led initiatives are most effective,” Hoku Shaw said. “However, if they can get behind our community-led initiatives and support it completely, and let us just drive the canoe and back us and trust that we are going to take care of our community, I think that’s really important.”
Residents of Maui have been particularly supportive of its close island neighbor in the aftermath of the recent storm, according to Hoku Shaw, having experienced their own major disaster with the deadly August 2023 wildfire in Lahaina.
“After the Lahaina fire, Molokai was the first to respond by boat by supplying donations to make sure that the people in Lahaina were OK,” she said. “They’ve reciprocated that aloha in such big ways, and we’re so grateful and we’re so appreciative, and we continue to see them return after the storms to help us.”
All residents and community organizers on Molokai who spoke with the Star-Advertiser said the people of Maui were instrumental in providing rapid-response supplies after the flooding, even connecting with Molokai boaters and offering their personal vessels for shipments.
Inside the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority office in Kaunakakai, Molokai Cares has turned an empty room into a donation distribution center. Kui Adolpho, an HTA employee and Molokai Cares co-founder, said the nonprofit was born in response to the Lahaina wildfire and hadn’t needed to reactivate until the March 22 flooding.
That’s when she and other volunteers immediately began organizing donations, assessing needs and gathering intake forms so they could track where to distribute supplies as shipments came in.
Their intake forms also assess long-term needs, such as mold remediation and contracting services, which are now more pressing as the community continues to recover. So far, the organization has received around 300 damage intake forms, a good number of them considered “critical.”
Maka Lenwai, whose home was impacted by the flooding, has spent every day since at Molokai Cares fielding calls and connecting residents with support.
“If you’re local and you know locals, the communication between you is better,” Lenwai said. “Most of these people in my critical list are all homesteaders like me. We live in the coastal line, we don’t have much money … . When I do call these neighbors, they understand that I am also a flood victim and understand I’m here to help, so they’re more open to asking for things.”
Residents, especially kupuna, not wanting to ask for help has been a key challenge every organization and MEMA is navigating. Many people may feel like they can make do and that someone else is more deserving of help, while others may feel ashamed of needing assistance to begin with.
Community organization members said they’ve received reports of kupuna and other residents living in homes taken over by mold or with roofs caving in. Kalamaula homesteader Nani Kahinu said she has personally done outreach to kupuna embarrassed to ask for help while living in unsafe conditions. She said she always tried to emphasize that reporting the damage will help them get the supplies they need to make their home safe again.
Kahinu also has organized donation shipments and distribution through social media as she deals with flood damage to one of the structures on her property, appliances and four vehicles.
She and several residents called for the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to improve the drainage systems on homesteads, which currently consist of man-made streams and culverts diverting water directly into the ocean and overflowing onto neighboring properties.
Swift action is needed, Kahinu urged, as the flooding at her property worsens with heavier storms.
Johnston Sr. said he hopes the state embraces restoring traditional mauka-to-makai ahupuaa systems and managing mauka lands to better handle heavy storm events.
In the meantime, he said, he’ll continue showing up for his community.
“I come here every day,” he said. “It’s what we are supposed to do.”
Monday
The Molokai nonprofit ‘Aina Momona is working to restore the ahupuaa on its land, perhaps providing a blueprint to prevent flooding and encourage similar efforts in other areas.