Leeward Coast residents — already worried about being trapped if Farrington Highway turns into gridlock during an emergency — received frustrating news from federal, state and city governments recently that help isn’t coming anytime soon.
Angela Lacey and other residents say they are disheartened as yet another year passes without local government addressing their pleas for an alternative escape route out of the area, and with $4.8 million in Trump administration cuts this month for a promising city-bus improvement project.
Hopes for another way out of the Leeward Coast took on added urgency after traffic gridlock turned into a fire trap during the August 2023 wildfires in Lahaina that killed 102 people.
Lacey, 64, was born and raised in Makaha Valley and knows how bad traffic can get even on a typical day. She fears that she would be trapped on Farrington during a disaster, along with everyone else trying to escape.
“If there’s an emergency we’re doomed,” she told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “I’m scared that a tsunami is gonna come and that the West Side people are going to be stuck on the road like how the people got burned in Lahaina.”
The threat of wildfires will only increase for the Leeward Coast over the hot, dry summer ahead.
“We are consistently the driest part of the state, so it’s only a matter of time,” said state Sen. Samantha DeCorte (R, Nanakuli-Waianae-Makaha).
In 2006, 13 utility poles fell onto Farrington Highway in Nanakuli during high winds, crashed onto 17 vehicles, injured two people and blocked traffic for hours.
Farrington Highway has been forced to shut down even when a single vehicle crashes into a utility pole and knocks it onto the highway.
But on normal days with no threat of a wildfire, tsunami or high winds, drivers can still spend five hours sitting in traffic going in and out of the Leeward Coast.
“It don’t matter what day of the week it is, traffic on the West Side is always horrible,” Lacey said. “I am driving in and out at least three times a week,” she said as her voice quavered with emotion. “People don’t realize the strain it does on family, your mental health, your well-being.”
For the residents of Lahaina trying to flee the wildfires, Front Street became clogged with vehicles that had been abandoned when drivers and their passengers found themselves blocked in traffic, with no way out.
Lily Nguyen, 50, her daughter Tina Ho and an unrelated co-worker named Tan Ho were stuck in the gridlock in Nguyen’s Toyota for three hours as flames rained down, set vehicles on fire and caused boats to explode in the nearby harbor.
“There were cars in front of me and cars in back of me,” Nguyen told the Star-Advertiser by phone from Maui last week. “I thought, ‘We’re gonna die in there.’”
So the three abandoned their Toyota in front of the Waikiki Brewing Co., leaped over the seawall and into the ocean for five hours, along with dozens of others, waiting for the flames to die down.
They bobbed in the ocean that already had become contaminated with leaking fuel, oil and other fluids from the exploding boats even as fire continued to rain down.
“We couldn’t get out because the wind was so hot with embers,” Nguyen said. “We lost everything. All I had was my wallet, my drivers license and my phone.”
The Maui wildfires only ramped up fears that the same scenario could unfold along the Leeward Coast, where Kolekole Pass represents the only alternative emergency evacuation route.
But Kolekole Pass runs across military land and remains gated and closed to the public.
It’s supposed to be used as an emergency escape road, and House Bill 823 would have funded an improvement plan for using Kolekole Pass, along with establishing new evacuation routes.
The bill never received a hearing and died in the early days of this legislative session.
DeCorte wasn’t surprised that HB 823 died, saying that Waianae typically gets overlooked.
“Waianae is definitely neglected,” she said. “We’ve been neglected for a long time.”
DeCorte worries that if there were a fire, like on Maui, there wouldn’t be enough space on Farrington Highway to get everyone to safety.
“Any time there’s high winds everybody is on high alert,” she said. “It’s nerve-racking. We’re fearful. It’s concerning and it’s just sad to not have any safeguards to assure that, in the event that it happens, we have precautions.”
In 2023, the state Department of Transportation announced that there would be new road openings to help ease traffic, but the project timelines have been pushed back.
DOT originally estimated that Paakea Road between Lualualei Naval Road and Hakimo Road would open for regular use by this month, but has now delayed completion of the project until the fall.
The city also planned for a $4.8 million Waianae Coast Bus Rapid Transit project to help improve West Oahu bus lines. But the funding was lost as part of the more than $11 million in federal cuts for various city projects.
State Rep. Darius Kila (D, Nanakuli-Maili) called the cuts to TheBus project “devastating.”
In a statement last week, Kila wrote that the project was “not just a study — it was a long-awaited commitment to bring improvements to a community that is consistently overlooked.”
Richard Landford Jr., 78, has been a decades-long advocate for coastal road upgrades, beginning with his service on the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board in 2010 and continuing today as a member of the Waianae Neighborhood Board.
“I have sat on this (Waianae) board since 2016, talking about transportation, how to fix Farrington Highway,” he told the Star-Advertiser.
“A lot of people, wherever they live, they wanna come to Waianae,” he said. “But we need help on our highways. … We’ve been suffering with one road in and one road out.”
Landford lived through Hurricane Iwa when it struck Kauai and Oahu in November 1982, followed by Hurricane Iniki that devastated Kauai in September 1992.
“I’ve seen how many days or weeks we’ve had to go without electricity, when we had to go through Thanksgiving not eating turkey or a warm meal,” he said. “We’re stuck out here. Telephone poles fall down … and we can’t get out.”
As hotter months approach, so do summer camps for kids in Waianae, where safety plays a role in program planning.
Randall Maddox, administrative director for the non-profit Camp Waianae youth program, has been involved in emergency preparations with other youth camps.
With the risk of Farrington Highway shutting down during a disaster, Maddox said, “Our approach is, ‘be prepared to shelter in place.’”
The camp and about 100 children would rely on backup generators and emergency supplies.
But if there were an alternative road out, Maddox said the camp instead “would be able to encourage guests more to return home and care for themselves.”
Waianae Neighborhood Board Treasurer Calvin Endo said he worries that not everyone in the community has emergency supplies, or even a disaster plan. “A lot of people are not prepared for a long-term disaster,” he said.
Endo also lived through hurricanes Iwa and Iniki and fears what could happen if Leeward Coast residents became trapped and isolated. “A lot of people would probably starve to death,” he said.
