Cut-off communities on Kauai rally

Kauai County announced Sunday that it is working with the Department of Education to open satellite classrooms for students cut off from the rest of the island by landslides on the island’s north shore following the devastating storm earlier this month.

The county will also begin distributing 5 gallons of fuel per household today at Camp Naue for residents in the isolated Wainiha and Haena communities.

Kim Tamaoka, county spokeswoman, said households will get 5 gallons a week and that residents should bring their own containers or drive up in their vehicles.

She said the county is working with the DOE to set up a satellite school at the Hanalei Colony Resort, which is in Haena, for students who cannot go to school because of the landslides. The classes will be for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and the opening date was under discussion.

The county also said trash will be collected from Wainiha and Haena residents along Kuhio Highway at 7:30 a.m. today.

On Sunday more than 400 people attended a community meeting at the Hanalei Colony Resort where state, federal and community partners answered questions.

Mayor Bernard Carvalho said the county will set up a point of contact at the resort where the community can receive information.

“I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we have the hardest working people responding to this disaster recovery,” Carvalho said in a statement. “We are also very appreciative of our community members and partners who are also going above and beyond to assist Kaua‘i and its people. We cannot do this without everyone working together.”

Also Sunday, volunteers from the medical field were providing care to residents at the only medical clinic in the isolated area. The clinic has been operating since Friday at the Hanalei Colony, which has become a hub for the response effort.

Chris Crabtree, team commander for the medical clinic, said the staff had treated more than 120 people since Friday.

Crabtree said he received a call for help Thursday from Kauai’s Emergency Operations Center and was on island Friday morning.

“This was a fast activation,” said Crabtree, who is also director of the Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management, a nonprofit that brings together health care workers to respond to mass urgent-care situations and is running the clinic. It was the agency’s first emergency response since it handled a hospital evacuation in Kona in 2006 following an earthquake.

About five staff members, including a physician, a nurse and a pharmacist, were on hand over the weekend.

Crabtree said the team is treating a lot of cuts, scrapes and skin tears that people sustained during cleanup efforts. There also have been some infections, he said.

Some people received tetanus shots because of puncture wounds. There were some possible staph or strep infections, but they could not be confirmed. Others have come in for breathing problems or allergies.

A pharmacist was recruited to help distribute prescription drugs so residents don’t need to travel by boat to pick them up.

“There’s a lot of groups just coming together to help us get what we need,” Crabtree said.

He said the group has a communication channel so any unusual supplies or requests can be forwarded up to the organization, which can work out the logistics to deliver the supplies.

Dr. James Ireland, a clinical physician at Pali Momi Medical Center, made one such delivery Sunday, bringing in a large duffel bag of supplies to the island.

Taking an 8 a.m. flight, he arrived at Princeville Airport, from which he was shuttled by an American Medical Response vehicle to the road closure on Kuhio Highway. Then he was put into an all-terrain vehicle to cross the closed roadway and get the medical supplies into Haena.

Along the way he saw scores of emergency crew members using heavy equipment and working to remove the landslides, but a lot still needed to be done. Some stretches of road were less than 4 feet wide with 8-foot walls of mud on each side.

In his supply bag were bottles of Pedialyte, a hydrating solution for children, because several were having diarrhea, possibly because of contaminated water, and antibiotic ointment for cuts and scrapes.

He said residents are at risk of getting wounds infected from fecal-borne bacteria because the floodwaters contained sewage. He said those infections could be fatal if left untreated.

Ireland, who planned to return to Oahu on Sunday night, said workers at the clinic are volunteers who have taken time off from their jobs to help.

He said that during his visit he heard one resident had opened up his property for people to place their rubbish for the county to pick it up, and a woman who owns a fishing business was doling out fish for residents to eat.

“It’s community taking care of the community,” he said. “It’s just great to see people helping their neighbors.”

Crabtree, director of the operation, said the clinic may be there for three weeks or until the road is reopened, whichever is sooner.

The county said one lane for emergency use out of the area is expected to be opened by May 7.