Federal employees in Hawaii slated for furlough closed out their work Tuesday and were sent home on Day 1 of the 2013 government shutdown.
According to state figures, that group included 15,000 defense civilian workers alone. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz estimated that 25,000 federal employees in Hawaii could be laid off.
Those and other indicators of the shutdown’s effects are becoming apparent, but the full magnitude of the work stoppage has yet to be seen.
The nonprofit USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park said it is losing $15,000 a day because it is closed. Its visitors enter through the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center for the USS Arizona Memorial, which is closed.
No entry to the USS Arizona, no entry to the Bowfin museum.
Visitor counts are down for the Battleship Missouri Memorial, which, along with the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, is open. The museums had to set up alternate parking and bus pickups near Richardson Pool because the nearby Pearl Harbor Visitor Center parking lot is closed, officials said.
It’s "very likely" that the Hawaii National Guard will have to postpone monthly drills scheduled this weekend for nearly 5,000 soldiers and airmen, Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony said.
State Finance Director Kalbert Young said the government shutdown picture and its impacts on Hawaii are "still developing."
"And like sequestration, the actual in-practice implications are going to take time to materialize and for us to be able to see them so that they can be evaluated," Young said.
More than 100 employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were furloughed, KITV News reported.
A local representative couldn’t be reached, and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and NOAA websites were down. "Due to the federal government shutdown, NOAA.gov and most associated web sites are unavailable," an online message said.
Close on the heels of the day-to-day income loss came a key and recurring question: For how long?
Congress came no closer to solving the budget mess Tuesday.
Jerry Hofwolt, executive director of the Bowfin submarine, said employees still are being paid, and the museum is doing a "safety stand-down" and catching up on some training and cleaning.
"People have families. People have homes. They have bills to pay. You just can’t abandon people," said Hofwolt, a retired submarine skipper.
Hofwolt also is asking, How long?
"So, the short term, you can handle it," he said of the closure and paying employees. "Would I like (the budget impasse) to go on much longer? No, I would not. I would like it to end tomorrow or tonight, but my suspicion is it will be a couple of days. But what if it gets to be a week? That gets to be a real problem."
Major work on three nuclear submarines in dry dock in Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — the Texas, Buffalo and Cheyenne — is now at a standstill.
"There is undeniably going to be an impact on readiness," said shipyard spokeswoman Jensin Weng Sommer. "The degree of impact is going to vary depending on how long the situation lasts."
About 3,000 shipyard workers were furloughed, officials said.
Young, the state finance director, said a number of state and local government programs are administered on behalf of the federal government, such as Medicaid, temporary assistance for needy families, subsidized school lunches and food stamps.
"The question now is, Well, who is paying for all these programs? Because what I’m dealing with is now, on Oct. 1, when the federal government is not in action, nobody has said anything about these programs," Young said. "So is the public expecting the states or the local governments will pay for these on behalf of the federal government? Because the states and the counties don’t have any clear picture on whether or not they will be reimbursed."
Hawaii Army Guard soldier Sgt. Nikolai Sumibcay, 29, who works in human resources as a federal technician at the state Defense Department headquarters outside Diamond Head, said he doesn’t have a car payment, but he has rent to pay.
Sumibcay said he could only get by a "matter of a couple of weeks" without pay "because I’m just going from check to check."
Maj. Jeff Hickman, another federal technician, said before he left Tuesday, "I’m going to go home. I’m going to take care of stuff at home and just watch the news and hope that they come to an agreement."
WHAT’S OPEN AND CLOSED
Here’s a snapshot of the impact of the federal government shutdown in Hawaii: All national parks/museums closed, including:
>> Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, Hawaii island.
>> Haleakala National Park. >> Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.
>> Kalaupapa National Historic Park, Molokai.
>> Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Hawaii island.
>> Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park, Hawaii island.
>> Pu‘ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Hawaii island.
>> World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument sites, including the USS Arizona Memorial and USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park. The Pacific Aviation Museum and Battleship Missouri Memorial remain open.
OTHER IMPACTS
>> Pearl Harbor Shipyard submarine repair work on hold.
>> Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary visitor center on Maui closed.
>> All U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service national wildlife refuges closed, including visitors centers at Guam National Wildlife Refuge in Dededo, Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai and Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge in Kihei, Maui.
>> National wildlife refuges in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — Midway Atoll and Hawaiian Islands — closed. Henderson Field in the Midway Islands remains open.
>> National Weather Service, Honolulu, will continue to provide weather watches, warnings and forecasts.
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