Letter-writer Harold Nakagawa’s treatise on erosion is so wrong, I can’t believe he thinks it’s a complex issue (“Start tackling beach erosion on North Shore,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 17).
Prior to the 1970s, kamaaina rarely built homes right against the beachfronts. Why? Because those who lived in the area experienced the documented tsunamis and high surf incidents affecting Haleiwa and other parts of the North Shore.
I worked with the late Wallace Fisher, whose family lived across the Haleiwa boat harbor; at Waialua High, he once held the state record for the 50-yard dash.
Wally told me about the time he first experienced the effects of a tsunami: the water receded from Haleiwa, so much that he and his daring friends walked onto the exposed reefs to pick up the floundering fish. But within minutes, on the horizon, he saw the incoming first waves of the tsunami, so started back to shore. As fast as he was, he could not outrun the waves. He did manage to reach the shore and higher ground without injury, but learned an important lesson about nature: you can’t beat it, you have to respect it.
Just as Kauai and the Northwestern Islands have greatly diminished in size from their original footprints, so will the rest of the Hawaiian islands. Change via nature is inevitable; accept it. Man is not above nature but a part of it.
Trevor Tyler
Salt Lake
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