Hurricane Iniki was the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. state of Hawaii in recorded history... It was the first hurricane to hit the state since Hurricane Iwa in the 1982 season, and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Dot in 1959.

Our younger daughter was born the end of August that year and I was on leave from the Army. It's traditional but not mandatory that fathers take at least a couple weeks leave after the birth of a child.

We were living in Waianae on the leeward side of O'ahu at Makaha Surfside apartments about 50 feet from the beach. We lived on the fourth floor. 

All the news outlets in the state had been keeping a watch on this storm for a few days. On the 9th or 10th it became very apparent that O'ahu and maybe Kauai were going to get hit. The wife and I stayed up all night watching the hurricane news on CNN. The Weather Channel was not in Hawai'i in 1992. 

When we were living there, the only meteorologists on the island worked at HNL airport or one of the branches of the military with fixed wing aircraft.

There was no real need for meteorologists in general. Daily weather forecasts went something like this: "Windward (east) and Mauka (mountain) showers, Trades (easterly winds) 10 - 15 (mph)." On O'ahu there is no north, south, east and west. There is windward, Eva or leeward, mauka and makai.

The Rain Begins

Some time on the 10th the feeder bands started coming in and with them the rain. It started light but as the day progressed it grew heavier.

I went to a convenience store to see if I could find some batteries. They had none. No water. No rice. No bread. There was not much of anything left in the store. I went home to  watch CNN to see what was going to happen.

About 4 AM we decided it was time to bug out. The wife's parents lived in Aiea about 2 miles inland. We stopped in Nanakuli to pick up her grandmother. Gammy knew that somebody would be coming to get her. She was sitting there with a couple of bags packed ready to go.

After some difficulty navigating the flooded Farrington Highway and fighting the wind, we finally got to H-1 and from there to Aiea. We got the girls and Gammy in the house and battened down the hatches. I went upstairs and went to sleep.

When I woke up, everything was over. There was no rain, no birds chirping, not much wind. It was still overcast.

I called my unit to let them know that I was still alive and kicking. They told me that I needed to sign in off leave. I told them that I needed at least a day to make it back to my residence and check on things there.

The Aftermath in my Neighborhood

The next morning we left Gammy and the girls at the in-law's and headed back home. Where H-1 turns into Farrington Highway the road started getting bad. There were limbs and rocks littering the road. There were places where the surf had washed over the natural sea wall and sand was 2 or 3 feet deep. City and County workers were out trying to clear the roads but it looked like it would be a slow go.

The normally 45 minute trip home took well over 2 hours.

I don't remember there being any power lines down. I do remember there was an incredible amount of wind and water damage. 

The apartment complex in which we lived had a chain link fence running along the beach. There was a gate that residents could use to access the beach. And it was no real beach anyway. It was a reef.

When we got to our apartment we went out on the small balcony and looked down. There was a piece of reef about the size of a VW bug that had been picked up by the surf over the fence and set down about halfway between the beach and the apartments. Trees were down. The pool was full of sand. All the windows and sliding glass doors on the first floor had been blown out by the surge. Everything in those apartments was a total loss.

We packed a few more bags and went back to Aiea.

Where's my Unit?

The next morning I got in my uniform and headed back to my unit to sign in. When I got there, all the vehicles were gone from the motor pool. There was no one milling around. 

I signed in and Staff Duty told me that the battalion and in fact the whole division had deployed to Kauai in a support role. There was only a skeleton crew left.

All communications on Kauai were down. There was no phone service, no electricity. From what I understand, it was fairly dismal.

I was in a communications unit and of our mobile switchboards had been tied into civilian phone lines there at the unit. A cable was run from there to a radio van which had a line-of-sight radio shot to the top of Mt Ka'ala. The shot was relayed from there to some mountain top on Kauai back down to a switchboard there somewhere.

The horizon is about 28 miles. You can only put in a line-of-sight shot about that far with no obstructions. It's about a hundred miles from O'ahu to Kauai. The easiest way around this restriction is to elevate your radio towers - thus mountain tops.

For the next 2 or three weeks I monitored the switchboard and processed emergency traffic for Kauai County, Red Cross, the state of Hawai'i and FEMA.

I'm still amazed at how quickly the division deployed. The people were flown over there but our vehicles had to be loaded on ships and transported. 

I never thought to ask, but the only vehicles taken were probably ours and those of the Medics and a few other support vehicles.

I never made it to Kauai and I don't know how well the division and the locals got along. I'm just glad that we were able to provide some support in the hours and days after the event.