Earthquake damage closes bridge between Hana & Kipahulu


Well it looks like here in East Maui we're having a significant impact from the quake a week ago: the Maui News reports that the county is indefinitely closing Paihi bridge between Hana and Kipahulu. This will particularly affect about a dozen Kipahulu students who go to Hana school, and many residents who work in Hana, but pretty much everyone in Kipahulu relies on Hana for supplies, ice, mail delivery, etc. I'm actually in a somewhat reverse situation, living near Hana but going out to Kipahulu once or twice a week for my work with the Kipahulu 'Ohana. The only access to Kipahulu will be from the Kaupo side, through Kula. There are also hundreds of tourist buses and cars each day that normally make this journey to the 'Ohe'o area of Haleakala National Park. This section of the national park is completely cut off for visitors because even the back side of the road through Kaupo was also damaged and is open to local traffic only. This will definitely impact our activities hosting groups at the taro patch in the park. Kipahulu is a off-grid and very self-reliant community, and I'm sure they'll figure out ways to manage while the county works on getting a temporary bridge up, but this will definitely have a big impact on life over here, the implications of which will take a few days to come to terms with and find workarounds for. (Here's the Star-Bulletin article on the bridge closure.)

Update: Below and in the extended entry I'm posting some photos take by a friend on the day of the quake in Kaupo, showing the road completely covered by rubble. Kaupo is the side of the island directly facing the epicenter across the channel. I had another friend who was in this same area actually doing a hi'uwai standing in the ocean at the time the quake hit! Rocks were falling off the cliff behind her. The road was blocked off in both directions, and about forty people who had been there for a wedding were trapped there all day. They finally opened up the road to Kipahulu/Hana late in the afternoon so everyone could leave and then closed it again. This section of the road is now open and is the only access in or out of Kipahulu.




Posted: Sun - October 22, 2006 at 07:32 PM    
   
 
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Published On: Oct 23, 2006 09:56 AM
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