Federal aid pending as officials count 77 homes damaged or destroyed
In the hours after Hurricane Lowell swept across Kauai and neighboring Ni’ihau on September 7, Michael Olanolan climbed into his excavator and began clearing the main highway of fallen trees. Other neighbors joined him, moving debris so electric crews could reach utility poles downed by the storm. The 76-year-old Hā’ena resident — a father of nine and grandfather of 26 who owns a landscaping and excavating business — repeated the clearing routine every day for weeks. Clearing out roadways became his full-time job while residents were getting back on their feet. His generational home had lost part of its roof to Lowell’s winds, but family and friends helped him repair it, freeing him up to also help his community.
“That’s the way we are up here,” Olanolan said. “We help each other.”
Lowell was the strongest storm to impact Kauai in 34 years, according to The Guardian, bringing heavy rains, winds, and coastal waves that knocked out power to roughly 90% of the island’s 36,000 electric utility customers. Rural North Shore homes suffered flood damage and went without power for nearly three weeks, while on the South Shore, storm surge devastated beachfront properties and roads. Governor Josh Green’s office reported 10 destroyed homes and 67 with significant damage, and the 73,000-person island is still waiting on federal aid.
The self-directed response reflects lessons from past storms. The 2018 North Shore floods damaged hundreds of homes and cut off the community from the rest of the island, residents said, and that experience taught communities to take disaster response and recovery into their own hands because federal government aid — such as financial and cleanup assistance — will take time to come through. Some don’t put hope in government aid at all. After Lowell, residents islandwide cleaned flood-damaged homes, tarped roofs, cooked hot meals, and conducted door-to-door checks of neighbors. When power was out, communities created systems to deliver ice and gas to those in need. Their efforts persisted even as two more storm systems passing south of the Hawaiian islands brought additional winds and rain.
On the North Shore, Megan Wong, a Wainiha resident who coordinates the Kaua’i Resilience Team, ran a community hub where nearby residents could get supplies, meals, and other help in Lowell’s immediate aftermath. A second hub was later created at Wainiha Country Market, near the mouth of the Wainiha River — an adjustment from 2018, when one hub could not reach all affected residents, especially those in areas only accessible by single-lane bridges that get cut off by landslides. In the weeks after the storm, community members and nonprofits dropped off food, water, gasoline, ice, baby food, shovels and other supplies at the hub. The hub’s team also sent kids on bikes to deliver food to residents who were cleaning their flood-damaged homes, and now focuses on helping residents connect with other resources, like financial assistance.
“I think it comes from this innate place of, like, seeing your community as family and ‘ohana’,” Wong said. “If everyone steps to the table and does their part, then we can all make it through together.”
Megan Fox, executive director of local food production nonprofit Mālama Kaua’i, said community-based disaster response has improved since the 2018 floods. Different groups know their roles and are better at avoiding duplicating efforts, she said. The Wainiha Country Market hub also sent kids on bikes to deliver food to residents cleaning flood-damaged homes, and the hub now focuses on connecting residents with financial assistance resources.
Kūpuna, or elders, have done wellness checks of other kūpuna, helped sort through flood and rain damage, and cleared homes from mud and other debris, according to The Guardian.
“Everyone is giving what they got,” Fox said.
In rural communities like Hā’ena and Wainiha on the North Shore, some residents were first reluctant to accept help because they believed others needed it more. In the days after the storm, Wong had trouble getting neighbors to accept donated ice even though the area lacked power and running water.
“You really need to be in touch with your community to say, like, ‘it’s OK to say that you need something. We’re here to help, and we’ll help all the people that need something,’” Wong said.
In the coastal town of Kekaha on Kauai’s west side, residents were not waiting for the government to rescue them. Dennis Eguchi, a Kekaha resident who is part of area nonprofit E Ola Mau, said he went outside the morning after Lowell hit and already saw 18 people assessing damage or cleaning up yards in the neighborhood. Two others went down nearly every road with chainsaws cutting damaged trees, and dozens of others were asking how they could help. Before the state could clear the coastal highway, a volunteer crew using their own backhoes, skid steers, loaders, and other machines removed sand and boulders in the early morning hours. The road was clear by 1 p.m.
“That’s because the community, they’re resilient enough to know what the issues are and they just do it,” Eguchi said.
Kekaha, a tight-knit, multi-ethnic community on Kauai’s west side, traces its self-help culture to the sugar plantations that were Hawaii’s economic engine for more than 150 years, residents said. Eguchi said plantation laborers took care of each other through activities like building a community pool and handing out gift bags during the holidays. Chris Faye, whose grandfather managed Kekaha Sugar Company for decades, said the plantation mobilized its people and machinery to help clean up after Hurricanes Iwa in 1982, which damaged over 11,000 buildings on Kauai and Oahu, and Iniki in 1992, which damaged or destroyed 14,000 homes. Eguchi said that ethic persists: “On the Westside, no one takes credit for what we do. We do it because we love Kekaha.”
In the town of Kīlauea on the North Shore, Raina Bautista and her family cooked up to 220 meals a day for utility and county workers and neighbors, even while they waited for their own water and electricity to be restored. They relied on a camping stove and stored water before switching to collected water from a county-supplied water buffalo. Meals were simple — spaghetti, chowder, pasta, and adobo — drawn from their church’s food pantry before community members began donating. Bautista’s 15-year-old niece, Kale Sambrano, became the face of the operation, standing on the side of the road each day to hand out meals and toiletries to passing cars, and waving down buses and postal workers to feed them as well.
“I was 11 when Iniki hit, and that was all we did was go up and help with the Red Cross, you know, pack bags and give meals,” Bautista said. “And it’s kind of ingrained, so we’re passing it on to this next generation.”
Hawaiian culture is steeped in mālama, or care, of each other and the land, Wong said, and that ethic encourages newcomers to help out as well. Myra Kanahele, who grew up on the private island of Ni’ihau and now lives in Kekaha, said it has been inspiring to see so many community members jump in to help. Many were struggling before the hurricane, as Hawaii’s cost of living — already 84% higher than the US average — has continued to rise. The storm has reminded many of the importance of checking in on one another and giving whatever help they can. Kanahele, who helps other Ni’ihau descendants and Kekaha residents through her nonprofit, Hi’ianelani o Ni’ihau, pointed to the Hawaiian phrase “kōkua aku, kōkua mai” — help others, and help will be given to you — and said she hopes that spirit will continue even as Kauai’s recovery ends.
“At that little point of time, just seeing everybody working together in the neighborhood, I was like: ‘Wow, maybe we need this,’” Kanahele said.
Hawaii has taken damage from six storm systems in 2026, five of which occurred within the last two months and were driven by a strong El Niño, according to The Guardian. FEMA has so far approved nearly $21 million in household and individual assistance for a set of storms in March, but has not yet announced a similar program for Lowell.