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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Visitors to Manoa Falls worked their way up the trail which is surrounded by a dense tropical rain forest.
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Just two days after a landslide prompted the state to close Manoa Falls Trail, more than 100 people were caught trying to enter it — some of them by going under yellow police tape and past closure signs, according to a statement released by the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.
Its officers cited four of the hikers they saw ducking under the tape Sunday. The hikers, all men ages 31 to 42, were visitors from Denmark, Germany, Russia and China.
The trail remains closed as a safety precaution.
“You put your own life at risk and those of emergency first responders,” said DOCARE Chief Robert Farrell. “Rockfalls aren’t on a clock. They strike with no warning.”
Friday’s rockfall occurred at an upper pool that is off-limits to the public. Debris from the fall covered the nearby Aihualama Trail, which is now closed. On Thursday, a team from Na Ala Hele, the state’s trails and access program, had been standing in the spot where the landslide occurred, according to DOCARE.
“People really need to take these closures seriously. Lives have been lost in the past when people enter into areas that were closed for the sole purpose of protecting them,” said Aaron Lowe of Na Ala Hele.
Na Ala Hele crews plan to add additional closure signs along the road leading to the trail head.
State officials and a private engineering firm are expected to begin assessing the landslide today, according to DOCARE. Their findings will help determine when to reopen the trail.