More than 100 volunteers, from keiki to kupuna, showed up at Lydgate Park in Wailua on September 12 to haul debris out of Morgan's Ponds after Hurricane Lowell sent the Wailua River surging over its banks. Fallen ironwood trees, driftwood, and other storm wreckage had crashed into the seawalls of the man-made saltwater lagoons, littering the shoreline and waters that families normally use for calm, protected swimming.
The cleanup was organized by Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park, which normally hosts a weekly beach cleanup every Saturday for two hours starting at 8:30 a.m., according to The Garden Island. This time, the group needed far more hands than usual. Chris West of the organization said the extra help was needed to clear Morgan's Ponds so people could use them again, per the same report.
Volunteers and County Crews Work Side by Side
Department of Parks and Recreation crews joined the community volunteers at the site, though the two groups worked in separate zones — volunteers were contained to the designated beach cleanup area while county crew members handled their own section, the outlet reported. The county brought in an excavator and several pieces of heavy equipment, which were used to remove fallen ironwood trees near the sewer treatment plant at Lydgate Park.
The debris didn't originate at the park itself. It washed down from upriver along the Wailua River, driven by the storm's torrential rainfall, and forced the river to overflow its banks and create a flooding condition, per the same account. Hurricane Lowell brought rain and winds topping 100 mph to the area, according to the report.
Why Storm Debris Keeps Finding Morgan's Ponds
Morgan's Ponds have a history of catching whatever the Wailua River sends downstream. The lagoons were proposed in the late 1950s by resident Albert S. Morgan Sr., who was inspired by protected saltwater pools he had seen in Italy, and were completed in 1962 using boulder breakwaters to create calm ocean enclosures for families, according to a Hawaii Travel Guide history of the park. The park itself is named for Reverend John M. Lydgate, an early 20th-century community leader.
Flooding along the Wailua River can sweep storm debris into the ponds. Volunteers cleared storm debris from the ponds following heavy weather.
Storm's Scale Still Coming Into Focus Across Kauai
The flooding behind this cleanup came from an extraordinary amount of rain. Rain accompanied Hurricane Lowell's closest approach to Kauai. The storm itself reached Category 5 intensity with sustained winds of 160 mph before weakening and passing about 90 miles west of Lihue at 11 p.m. HST on September 7, then passing west of Niihau overnight as a Category 2 storm before weakening to Category 1 by early September 8, making it the closest approach to Kauai by a Category 2 or stronger hurricane since Hurricane Iniki in 1992, according to Carrier Management.
Lowell's winds also knocked out power to roughly 33,000 accounts — about 90% of Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative's customer base — after gusts up to 84 mph damaged transmission and distribution lines. By September 12, the same day volunteers descended on Lydgate Park, crews had restored electricity to 75% of the island, according to the County of Kauaʻi, while damage assessments identified 57 homes with major damage and at least seven homes destroyed.
Community Groups Fuel the Recovery Effort
Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park draws on a wide network of local backers for its regular volunteer events, including its annual Earth Day event and Make a Difference Day, supplying tools, work gloves, and morning snacks to volunteers. The group receives support from the County of Kauai, the Kaha Lani Association of Apartment Owners, the Royal Coconut Coast Association, Castle Resorts and Hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Department of Parks and Recreation, Starbucks Coffee, the YWCA of Kauai, the Rotary Club of Kapaa, the Y's Men, and the Home Depot.
The Lydgate Park cleanup is one piece of a broader recovery effort still unfolding across Kauai. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees authorized up to $362,800 in emergency disaster relief for Native Hawaiian households and community hubs affected by the storm on Kauai, Niihau, and West Oahu. Hurricane Lowell was also linked to three deaths statewide, including a 74-year-old Kalaheo man found dead near Nomilu Fishpond and a 59-year-old man found dead on Kauai after flooding.
Recovery work continued on Kauai on September 10. Meanwhile, catastrophe risk firm Cotality estimated total insured losses from Hurricane Lowell across Hawaii at between $500 million and $1 billion, with the bulk of that damage concentrated on Kauai. The Garden Island continued reporting on the storm's aftermath.
