‘Don’t change your vacation plans,’ Kauai businesses tell tourists

HANALEI, Kauai >> Kurt and Christy Gardner of Tulsa, Okla., were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary Monday as they walked around the shops of Hanalei, many with signs proclaiming their businesses to be “open.”

Certainly it will take some businesses — such as the Hanalei Dolphin Restaurant, Fish Market and Sushi House — months to rebuild and recover from this month’s flood, which destroyed homes and businesses and left Kuhio Highway blocked just outside of Hanalei town, isolating the communities of Wainiha and Haena.

But tourists like the Gardners are happy to report to friends and family back on the mainland that most of what they’ve seen on Kauai is, indeed, open for business.

There aren’t any crowds, and stores and restaurants are happy to see them, Kurt Gardner said.

“It’s actually kind of nice,” he said.

So Christy Gardner had a simple message for anyone contemplating a trip to Kauai: “Go,” she said.

It’s the same message that the Hawaii Tourism Authority pushed earlier in the day.

“Before the thunderstorm, Hanalei was bustling with business because of tourism,” George Szigeti, HTA president and CEO, wrote in a statement. “Since then, visitors have been staying away from Hanalei, which is hurting businesses and putting at risk the jobs they provide to residents. … We also ask visitors to be respectful and avoid going into neighborhoods where recovery efforts are ongoing, and to not go beyond Wai‘oli Hui‘ia Church in Hanalei or try to enter the closed section of Kuhio Highway until state and county officials reopen it to all vehicle traffic.”

Negative press

Images broadcast across the mainland suggest that Kauai is buried under a sea of mud with vehicles flipped on their sides.

The result, said Beatrice Allen, co-owner of the Hanalei Dolphin Restaurant, Fish Market and Sushi House, turned Hanalei into “a ghost town.”

To visitors who were thinking of visiting the Garden Isle, Allen said, “Don’t change your vacation plans.”

Allie DuFault, oldest of three DuFault sisters visiting from Laguna Hills, Calif., said family and friends in California worried about their safety after reports of the flood spread across the mainland.

“Everybody said, ‘Oh my gosh! There are floods everywhere!’” DuFault, 31, said. “It’s not like that.”

“It’s actually been sunny,” added sister Amy, 29.

It’s certainly not been sunny for Douglas Allen, who shares ownership duties of the Hanalei Dolphin Restaurant, Fish Market and Sushi House with his wife.

A handful of workers Monday were busy tearing out everything in all three businesses below where 40 inches of water invaded and sent 10 employees and 10 customers upstairs to ride out the storm overnight in the business office.

“Everything’s totaled,” Allen said.

He has no idea how much it will all cost to rebuild, but vowed to be back in business by July 1.

Even with the reopening seeming so far away, Allen still had a reason for tourists to keep coming to Kauai:

“A lot of people have left,” he said. “But we still have the Poipu Dolphin Restaurant down in Poipu. They can still go there.”

Staying positive

Even staring at a business catastrophe, Allen wore a broad smile as workers pounded, scraped and ran power equipment around him.

“Oh, the restaurant’s totaled,” he said with a smile. “Even with flood insurance, I won’t see a check for 10 weeks. I have 110 employees and I’m the biggest employer in Hanalei, and most of my employees will be on unemployment soon.”

Asked how he can keep smiling in the face of so much gloom, Allen said he prefers to look for the positive among all that’s negative.

“We’re going to have a brand-new restaurant,” he said.

Allen is also grateful that his banker, Paul Endo of First Hawaiian Bank, issued him a line of credit to immediately begin the rebuilding process.

Most of all, Allen said, “the rest of the island is still so beautiful.”

Down Kuhio Highway at Na Pali Hanalei Boat Tours, the unusual April rain, followed by the storm and floods, has sent bookings into a free fall, said office manager Avelina Kuhaulua.

“It is slower because a lot of folks think the whole island is shut down,” Kuhaulua said. “That’s not true.”

So when customers call to cancel their bookings, Kuhaulua has a quick reply.

“No, don’t,” she tells customers. “We’re open for business.”