Most in homeless camp shelter with relatives during storm

A majority of the folks living in the Puuhonua o Waianae homeless camp left the grounds to ride out the arrival of Lane, leaving fewer than 50 people behind to watch over the makeshift village next to Waianae Small Boat Harbor.

“The last time we had to evacuate (in 2017), a lot of the things were stolen,” Josiah Koria, a camp spokesman, said Friday afternoon. So a core of residents spent part of the day tying down loose items onto any of the occupants’ vehicles or the ground, he said.

“It’s just hard to rebuild,” Koria said.

About 28 younger children were sent to stay with families who have houses along the Waianae Coast on Thursday night, and many of the camp’s occupants, including the seniors, chose to shelter with relatives in the area as well, Koria said.

As for the folks staying at the camp, “if it gets to the point we need to evacuate, we’re all ready to leave,” Koria said, adding that people from outside the village agreed to give them transport out if the situation became dangerous.

Village residents were grateful for the support of the community, he said. “Everybody has been checking up on us,” he said, adding that people brought sandwiches, McDonald’s food, water and other necessities.

None of the Puuhonua o Waianae camp journeyed up the hill to the nearest American Red Cross temporary shelter at Leihoku Elementary School about 2 miles away.

Karen Awana, shelter coordinator, said about 65 people were signed in Friday afternoon, just slightly more than stayed over Thursday night.

More than half appeared to be homeless people relocating from the beach, and about 20 percent were people from transitional housing centers near the coastline. There were also two families visiting from out of state.

Jeremy Elwood, 41, went to the Waianae Valley shelter with his family Thursday night and intended to stay over again Friday night out of an abundance of caution.

Elwood, from Grants Pass, Ore., is visiting Hawaii for the first time along with his wife, three teenage children and one of the daughter’s boyfriends. They had rented a two-story beachfront house in Makaha for the week only to learn when they arrived that a major storm was coming.

Even when he first arrived, he said, “everyone assured me that rain in Hawaii is no big deal.” But after learning that people staying along the shoreline were being advised to evacuate, his family decided to relocate to the shelter on higher ground. “You can never be too safe,” he said.

The family went to Longs and stocked up with a week’s worth of food, 20 gallons of drinking water and air mattresses that they took with them to Leihoku, he said.

The family managed to do some hiking and swimming, highlighted by the sighting of sea turtles, before heading up to the shelter. Elwood said he’s hopeful the weather will clear up before the family is scheduled to leave Monday.

In the overall scheme of things, the gray skies and blustery winds his family has experienced this week would top the weather in some of the best visitor destinations along the Oregon coast this time of year, Elwood said.

“If this is a hurricane, I’m down for that,” he said.