As in the previous year, nothing dominated the news and life in general in 2021 like the corona­virus pandemic.

While Hawaii and the rest of the world learned to better cope with the virus, the year turned out to be a roller coaster of optimism, caution, disappointment and uncertainty as new variants crushed hopes for a return to normal.

The year started with the promise of a vaccine rollout that would help stamp out the COVID-19 pandemic. That didn’t happen, but Hawaii death and hospitalization rates were among the lowest in the country, and daily infection numbers had dipped below 100 by the end of January.

For six months the pandemic seemed to simmer on low as a majority of Hawaii residents received their vaccinations and state and county leaders maintained a range of restrictions.

The state’s battered economy was slowly moving toward recovery. Diners returned to restaurants. Tourists were starting to fill Waikiki hotels and Gov. David Ige was being urged to loosen mandates meant to curtail the spread of the disease.

But then the delta variant struck in late June, causing infection rates to boom over the next couple of months and hospitals to strain with patients, mostly the unvaccinated.

The governor in August even urged tourists not to come to the islands.

Just when it looked like Hawaii was over the delta wave — with Ige easing limitations on international travelers — the super-transmissible omicron variant emerged, sweeping the globe and vaulting daily infection counts in Hawaii to new heights.

On Thursday, with just one day left in 2021, Hawaii recorded a single-day record of 3,484 new COVID-19 cases.

In November, the state’s death toll from the coronavirus topped the grim milestone of 1,000, and on Christmas Day, Hawaii health officials reported total infections since the start of the pandemic had surpassed 100,000.

While there are indications omicron does not cause as severe illness as the delta variant, uncertainty about what the future holds is dogging islanders as the new year dawns.

Red Hill water crisis

Also unresolved by year’s end is another story that had Honolulu on edge: the Red Hill water contamination crisis.

In late November, military families in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam began complaining that their tap water smelled of fuel and reported skin rashes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and headaches.

Navy and state health officials later confirmed that the Navy’s Red Hill drinking water shaft was contaminated with petroleum. Water samples from the shaft taken Dec. 5 found diesel fuel levels 350 times the state’s environmental action level for drinking-water toxicity. Total petroleum hydrocarbons linked to other fuels also vastly exceeded the state’s action level.

The next day, the Department of Health ordered the Navy to stop operating its Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, clean up contaminated drinking water at its Red Hill shaft, drain the fuel in its underground tanks and figure out how to operate the facility safely.

The Navy objected, saying, among other things, that Red Hill’s 18 active tanks power military operations in the Pacific and are critical to national security.

Following a DOH contested case hearing on the matter this month, however, hearing officer David Day described the Red Hill fuel complex as a “ticking time bomb” that poses imminent peril to human health and the environment.

The Navy filed its objections to Day’s report this week, and it’s now up to DOH Deputy Director Marian Tsuji to make a final decision on whether to uphold the emergency order.

The Navy’s drinking water system serves approximately 93,000 people. More than 4,000 families left their military housing due to the contamination and an estimated 3,400 were living in hotel rooms, their bills to be picked up by the Navy.

Meanwhile, the Navy continues to flush out its water system and is awaiting the results of its investigation into the cause of the leak. Navy officials told state lawmakers Wednesday that they should be finished flushing the water distribution system by the end of January and that some of the displaced military families could begin moving home as soon as late next week.

Of larger concern for Honolulu is the aquifer that sits 100 feet below the aging Navy fuel tanks. Officials with the Honolulu Board of Water Supply warn that a catastrophic leak could foul the drinking water for the 450,000 people living in the area from urban Honolulu to Hawaii Kai for decades.

Tragedy in Waimanalo

The sad saga of 6-year-old Isabella “Ariel” Kalua, reported missing from her Waimanalo home Sept. 13, tugged at Hawaii’s heartstrings for weeks while family, friends and strangers continued looking for the little girl well after authorities suspended the official search.

Investigators now say she was murdered after having been kept in a dog cage, starved and tortured by her adoptive parents, according to court documents. Isaac and Lehua Kalua were arrested Nov. 10, with police saying they believe the girl was killed a month before she was reported missing.

Her body still has not been found.

Isabella’s 12-year-old sister, also adopted by the Kaluas, told police, among other things, that the couple forced her to keep a secret that the girl was found not breathing after having been left in a dog cage in a bathroom, her mouth and nose covered with duct tape.

An Oahu grand in November indicted the couple on charges of second-degree murder, abuse and related offenses. The indictment also charges the Kaluas with abusing Isabella’s 12-year-old sister, who they also had adopted.

They pleaded not guilty to the charges and are awaiting further court proceedings.

A grand jury was given details of alleged horrific abuse dating back to early 2019, when Isabella was only 3.

“This is a heinous crime,” Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm told reporters last month. “They need to be held accountable.”

Offseason disasters

Many in Hawaii look with trepidation at the hurricane season forecast and the possibility that a large and devastating storm could barrel into the islands any time from June to November.

It turned out that the scariest and most destructive weather events of 2021 came during the offseason — in March and December.

A series of major storms lashed the islands from March 8 to 12, leaving a trail of destruction from Kauai to Maui and leading to state and federal disaster declarations.

On Maui, nearly 14 inches of rain March 8 led to the over-topping of the Kaupakalua Reservoir and Dam and the evacuation of some 150 downstream homes while authorities responded to more than a dozen calls for help from residents trapped by rising water.

A massive landslide in Hanalei on March 11 blocked traffic to Kauai’s North Shore, and 82 homes in Windward Oahu and the North Shore were damaged by flooding, including three that were destroyed.

In December, heavy rain and strong wind from a “Kona low” swept over the state for three days, from Dec. 5 to 7, dropping anywhere from 20 inches on the south-facing slope of Haleakala on Maui to nearly 13 inches at Lyon Arboretum in Manoa.

On Oahu, flooding damaged hundreds of properties, triggered at least nine ocean sewage discharges, and swamped a Hawaiian Electric substation, knocking out power to thousands of residents and scores of buildings in Downtown Honolulu.

Heavy rain on Maui flooded homes on the usually drier leeward side of the island, washed away cars and damaged Piilani Highway, among many related problems.

State officials are still trying to get a full accounting of the damage in anticipation of a federal disaster declaration. Like the March storms, damage from the December event is likely to add up to many millions of dollars.

Police shootings

With police shootings making headlines on the mainland, Honolulu witnessed a couple of high- profile incidents of its own — deadly shootings in which officers were able to avoid prosecution.

First there was the fatal shooting in McCully of 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap. Following a chase on April 5, Honolulu Police Department officers shot at a stolen Honda sedan with six male occupants between the ages of 14 and 22, killing the Micronesian teenager.

Now-retired Police Chief Susan Ballard told reporters that Sykap was the driver of a car linked to a crime spree, including an armed robbery in Moiliili. She said officers fired at the car after it had rammed two police vehicles.

In June, after a grand jury declined to indict the officers, Prosecutor Steve Alm charged them via a criminal complaint. But Judge William M. Domingo in August ruled there was no probable cause to try the three officers on charges of murder and attempted murder.

A week after Sykap was killed, there was another fatal shooting, this time involving an unarmed 29-year-old citizen of South Africa during a bloody fight with three police officers after they responded to a burglary call in Nuuanu on April 14.

Arriving on the scene, police said they found Lindani Sanele Myeni, who is Black, acting strangely. The confrontation led to a violent brawl and shots were fired by police.

In June, Alm announced that the officers were justified in their shooting and that race was not a factor in their actions that night.

Both incidents led to protests against police violence, calls for use-of-force policy reforms and wrongful death lawsuits by families of the victims.