Camp Alan Faye, the Boy Scouts camp tucked into Kōkeʻe State Park on Kauai's west side, is closed to all visitors until further notice after Hurricane Lowell tore through the 29-acre property, leaving downed trees, blocked roads and campsites, and structural and roof damage to several buildings in its wake. The Scouting America Aloha Council, which operates the site, says an initial damage assessment conducted on September 17 found broken windows, water and debris intrusion, and down utility lines scattered across the grounds, leaving parts of the camp unsafe or inaccessible.
The storm, a Category 2 hurricane that directly affected Kauai County in September 2026, marked the first direct hurricane hit on Kauai County since Hurricane Iniki devastated the island in 1992, according to Wikipedia. As reported by Hawaii News Now, the Aloha Council is now tallying recovery costs while uprooted, snapped and stripped trees and unstable trees continue to threaten the camp's damaged infrastructure.
Camp Alan Faye sits at an elevation of 2,400 feet, about 13 miles from the town of Waimea and adjacent to Waimea Canyon, according to the council's own camp description. The camp includes a campfire bowl, craft shelter and rifle range. The property's high-altitude, densely forested terrain left it especially exposed to wind damage and timber downfall during the storm.
Council Works With Insurers and FEMA While Site Stays Off-Limits
Scouts, volunteers, families and community members are being asked to stay off Camp Alan Faye entirely while safety work and formal assessments continue. Blake Parsons, Scout Executive and CEO of Scouting America, Aloha Council, said the organization's immediate focus is on making the site safe, understanding the full scope of the damage, and evaluating the path forward, per the same report.
The council says it is working with insurance representatives, FEMA, government agencies and community partners as it documents the damage, identifies available resources and determines next steps. To help fund that work, the Aloha Council has established the Camp Alan Faye Recovery Fund, which will support cleanup, hazard mitigation, stabilization, professional assessments and other recovery work tied to the property.
“Every contribution helps us address current needs, care for the property responsibly, and continue providing scouting experiences for young people across our islands,” Parsons said, according to Hawaii News Now. Donations to the fund will also support the Aloha Council's broader scouting mission beyond the single property.
A Storm That Reshaped Kauai's Landscape and Its Namesake Camp
The Faye family's involvement in Kauai's sugar business is part of the island's plantation history, according to Hawaii Magazine.
The Scouting America Aloha Council serves young people across the islands, and Camp Alan Faye's closure is a loss for Kauai's scouting community.
Catastrophe modelers estimate total insured losses from Hurricane Lowell at between $500 million and $1 billion, with most of the physical destruction concentrated on Kauai, as Hoodline reported.
Island-Wide Damage Complicates Camp Recovery
Hurricane Lowell's reach went far beyond Kōkeʻe. The storm cut power to roughly 90% of Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative's customer base, about 33,000 accounts, after damaging 1,500 miles of power and transmission lines across the island, a scale of outage that slowed damage assessments in remote mountain areas like the camp's location. The storm has also been linked to two confirmed deaths across Hawaii, one on Kauai attributed to storm surge and the other on Oahu.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs authorized up to $362,800 in emergency relief. Camp Alan Faye's recovery is one of many relief efforts, with the Aloha Council seeking its own donations as it waits on insurance representatives, FEMA and government agencies to help determine what comes next for the storm-battered mountain property.
