Early reports indicated that two persons were killed and at least 98 injured on Kauai. The island, 30 miles wide and approximately 80 miles from Oahu, has a population of 51,000 and a number of resort hotels clustered on its eastern and southeastern shores. Noted for its pristine beaches and majestic scenery, the island is the location for director Steven Spielberg’s film version of “Jurassic Park,” the sci-fi dinosaur novel by author Michael Crichton. The approaching storm trapped Spielberg, together with the cast and crew of “Jurassic Park” and approximately 1,000 tourists, in the ballroom of a beachfront hotel -and Spielberg called home to describe the scene for a Los Angeles-area television station until Iniki’s howling winds broke the telephone link and cut him off in midsentence. A phone link between Hawaii Gov. John Waihee III and Kauai Mayor JoAnn Yukimura was also cut off just as Yukimura told the governor that the storm had ripped the roof off the state office building in Lihue, the island’s largest town. “The damage is extensive,” Hendrie said the next day. “Buildings are destroyed, roofs have been ripped up, roadways are blocked, live power lines are down in the streets. There is no electricity, no phones and in some cases, no water.”
With Lihue Airport closed to all but military flights, Spielberg and everyone else on the island were stranded at least temporarily. But state and federal officials rushed to avert a replay of the Hurricane Andrew debacle in south Florida. Governor Waihee appealed to George Bush for immediate help, and Bush complied by declaring all seven Hawaiian Islands a disaster zone. The Hawaii Air National Guard began relief flights at daybreak and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pulled out all the stops. At FEMA headquarters in Washington, one official said, “There was just this shock that another [hurricane] was coming. People passed each other in the halls and said, ‘Can you believe this?’ “Bruce Baughman, FEMA’s chief of operations and planning, said, “Rather than wait for the state to ask for [help], we just started rolling.” By sheer coincidence, the director of FEMA’s Region X, which covers the Pacific Northwest, was already headed for Honolulu for a hurricane-preparedness conference scheduled for last weekend. Instead, FEMA and state officials conducted their disaster drill for real.
There was no delay in calling out the military. On Oahu, where the storm created 20-foot surf and 59-mph winds, the U.S. Pacific Command simultaneously sent navy ships out to sea to ride out the storm and geared up for the relief of Kauai. At daybreak, army helicopters flew a 33-member team composed of FEMA and army Corps of Engineers specialists to Kauai to survey the extent of the damage and report back on the need for emergency supplies. A Marine Corps ship steamed toward the island with electrical generators, water trailers and 225 Jeeps and trucks aboard. FEMA flew two 56-person emergency teams to Hawaii from California, and the Pacific Command said it had tents, cots, plastic sheeting and ready-to-eat meals on hand. “The supplies are here,” a Pacific Command officer said. “We’ve anticipated the likely requirements and we’ve made preparations to go. This time there has been really good cooperation from FEMA, so we don’t foresee any problems.” No problems, that is, except the appalling devastation on Kauai, a paradise turned to ruin. Director Spielberg, emerging from his ballroom shelter, said he had seen a hurricane as a boy and thought he knew what they were like. Iniki, he said, was “a real rager”-and absolutely no one thought that was hype.
