Boulders worry Hawaii Kai residents

Honolulu Bulletin ^ | Saturday, November 30, 2002 | Leila Fujimori

[Vidalia]

After a couple of massive boulders smashed into her Hawaii Kai condominium complex Thanksgiving night, Misao Higa could not sleep at her home.

"It was still raining and we didn't feel safe," Higa said. "I have a 4-month-old baby, and his bedroom is on this (the hillside) side. We checked everything in the house, and we left."

But while they stayed somewhere else Thursday, they are back in the Lalea townhouse complex now, and they and others who live there remain concerned about the possibility of boulders crashing down again.

The boulders, one about 4 feet by 6 feet and weighing five tons, and another about 4 feet by 4 feet, rolled down the Hawaii Kai hillside at about 8 p.m. Thursday after heavy rain and were stopped by a 2001 Lexus GS430 and a 1999 Honda CRV sport utility vehicle owned by Sione and Tracy Galvez. A smaller rock smashed a second-story window of the Galvez home.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM The boulders that fell in Hawaii Kai on Thursday night came down this mountainside.

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"Luckily, they had the cars there and it stopped the rocks," Higa said. But she noted there was only a flimsy plastic fence in her back yard which would not provide any protection from a boulder.

The Galvezes' home, like the Higas', is about 10 feet away from the hillside, which sits below Mariner's Ridge.

Other rocks, some of which are secured by cables, seem to sit precariously above the homes.

Higa said that before purchasing the property, they were told the rocks were tied down.

"If they don't take action, we may consider moving," she said. "But after this happened, who wants to buy this property?"

Neighbors Jeffrey and Ruth Carroll also hope whoever is responsible will take care of the problem.

Lalea owns the lower part of the hillside, and Kamehameha Schools owns the upper portion.

Jeffrey Carroll said he has heard "little rocks, softball size, tumbling down at night, but this is the first big one."

A geologist will come out Monday to examine the ridge, said Joe Ornellas, site manager for Lalea.

Kekoa Paulsen, Kamehameha Schools spokesman, said the trust sent a land manager to look at the site yesterday.

Kamehameha Schools is doing an overall assessment of all its lands, after Dara Onishi was killed in her home by a falling boulder in August, Paulsen said.

"I don't know if there's a clear solution to every situation.

"Would we get to the point where we prohibit building, or would the entire mountainside have to be removed or what? It is a serious situation now. It could require very drastic remedies," Paulsen said.

[Vidalia]

This is astounding...

Residents are worried that more rocks could fall down the mountainside.

Hurricanes, electrical storms, and the rest of climactic and or natural slump or rock breakage are not worth mentioning?

Acts of "God" or "Pele" or any other deity are now left out of all litigation?

No, these statements are more than astounding, they are incredulous, rediculous, stupid, ignorant, and full of legal shit are more to the reality of the world in Hawaii.

Screw these people and their coming suits.

Did their parents and grandparents tell them that the "Volcano is alive"?

Or are they just more ignorant fools that cannot find the Pacific Ocean in their wildest dreams?

The ignorance of all things sourced from the U.S. is becoming more dangerous, for these ignorant D.F. children wouldn't know why they were being asked to stand before a brick wall "with lots of bullet holes in it".

There are many children who know the source of the bullet holes, the source of the command for such lineups and the rest of the stories, but the majority of them are very hard to find in the country these days.

Stupid little crap mounded parents like those from California, New England and many East Coast states think that "lining up for rewards" is a good thing, thanks to drug induced esteem classes.

They and their Politically Correct brain-dead parents will be the first to go down, by their own ignorance.

Dumb cane cutters from old, their little boys and other squatters in Hawaii have now been affected.

The ligitative hell from the mainland has now reached what was left of paradise, but don't think of coming here just to sue some idiot Asian, for they are way ahead of your dummy Americans...