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Man remembers an eerie, rumbling sound
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| Members of utility crews work to survey damage to this power box on Wailapa Road in Kilauea Tuesday morning. Evidence of the flood waters' path can be seen in the debris line surrounding the power box. |
By Adam Harju - The Garden Island
Al Paterson of Princeville was driving a couple friends to the Lihu'e Airport yesterday morning shortly before 5:30 when he saw a bus stopped near what he thought was a puddle. "It was dark, so we kept driving down the highway," said Paterson. "All of a sudden there was a huge amount of water flowing down the highway around us."
The three adults in the car heard a loud roar and looked out the wind-shield to see a huge wave. "It picked us up and we started moving quite quickly," Paterson said.
The three climbed out of the Ford Explorer after it died as the water swirled around them filling the cab. One climbed on to the roof while the other two attempted to gain footholds.
A low-lying tree limb appeared out of the darkness and the three were able to stop the movement of the truck before it, and they, were sucked into the maw of the flash flood. "And as fast as it came up, it was gone," said Paterson.
The flood left the bewildered adults stranded among a debris field with mud up to the wheelwells and trees and branches everywhere.
"We thought we were going to have to arrange to have it towed, but I turned the key and it sputtered mud and water for a few minutes and we were able to drive it home."
At about the same time that Paterson and his passengers were struggling to stay alive, nearby resident John Brady was lying in bed at home. "There was an eerie, loud, deep rumbling sound," said Brady. "It was like a locomotive, and the ground was rumbling real deeply and then there was the heavy stench of earth."
He awoke to the sound of trees snapping like match sticks and transformers exploding as the flash flood downed utility poles. "The sound was what I remember and I knew that something serious had gone wrong," Brady said.
Brady later helped guide firemen down into the area where the flash flood had passed. "I saw a lot of babies' toys, pieces of houses, roofs in trees," he said. "The houses that were down there are just gone. There's not even a trace, they are just gone."
"It destroyed everything in its path," Brady said.
Firemen were using dogs to search for survivors in the debris, Brady said, while helicopters and planes flew over-head. "They were looking for as many as nine people," Brady said.
The Bradys know the owner of the property from where homes were swept away.
"That man's children and grandchildren were in one of the homes when the flash flood hit," said Kim Brady, John's wife. "His whole family was in those houses," Kim Brady said. "The whole thing is really, really devastating. There is not even a frame-work left on those houses, there are only foundations."
Adam Harju, editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and aharju@kauaipubco.com.
The three adults in the car heard a loud roar and looked out the wind-shield to see a huge wave. "It picked us up and we started moving quite quickly," Paterson said.
The three climbed out of the Ford Explorer after it died as the water swirled around them filling the cab. One climbed on to the roof while the other two attempted to gain footholds.
A low-lying tree limb appeared out of the darkness and the three were able to stop the movement of the truck before it, and they, were sucked into the maw of the flash flood. "And as fast as it came up, it was gone," said Paterson.
The flood left the bewildered adults stranded among a debris field with mud up to the wheelwells and trees and branches everywhere.
"We thought we were going to have to arrange to have it towed, but I turned the key and it sputtered mud and water for a few minutes and we were able to drive it home."
At about the same time that Paterson and his passengers were struggling to stay alive, nearby resident John Brady was lying in bed at home. "There was an eerie, loud, deep rumbling sound," said Brady. "It was like a locomotive, and the ground was rumbling real deeply and then there was the heavy stench of earth."
He awoke to the sound of trees snapping like match sticks and transformers exploding as the flash flood downed utility poles. "The sound was what I remember and I knew that something serious had gone wrong," Brady said.
Brady later helped guide firemen down into the area where the flash flood had passed. "I saw a lot of babies' toys, pieces of houses, roofs in trees," he said. "The houses that were down there are just gone. There's not even a trace, they are just gone."
"It destroyed everything in its path," Brady said.
Firemen were using dogs to search for survivors in the debris, Brady said, while helicopters and planes flew over-head. "They were looking for as many as nine people," Brady said.
The Bradys know the owner of the property from where homes were swept away.
"That man's children and grandchildren were in one of the homes when the flash flood hit," said Kim Brady, John's wife. "His whole family was in those houses," Kim Brady said. "The whole thing is really, really devastating. There is not even a frame-work left on those houses, there are only foundations."
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| 'They are just gone' | Residents, visitors still stranded on both sides |
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Ronald Pray wrote on Oct 17, 2009 5:14 AM:
I am a former U.S. Coast Guard Search and rescue team member at Barbers Point. I never read the scathing November 28 article about a rescue I did in 1977 while on leave.
In November of 1977 I had visited Kauai on leave and hiked the Na Pali coast to go camping. On the trail I saw some hikers in front of me ignore the cries of a man saying he was poisoned by mushrooms he had eaten. I know that there are many poisonous varieties from the orange mushrooms to the copelandia varieties which are deadly. I stopped and he was vomitting and telling me that he was dying. I laid my sleeping bag down onto the ground and made him comfortable then lit my coleman stove and cooked him soup to eat. He ate the soup and continued vomitting. He said that he needed immediate attention. I ecouraged him to vommit everything out of his stomache.
I asked him if he would be OK while I ran back to Haena for help and he said please do that.
I ran from his location sometimes skipping the zig-zags in the trails steep inclines jumping straight down to the trail below. I had injured my Achilles tendon by twisting my ankle which put me on light duty upon returning to Barbers Point.
I then knocked on the first door I found and asked them to contact the U.S. Coast Guard that there was a man stranded on the trail who needed immediate attention.
The Fire Department went in on the trail and found the man walking out on his own. This is why the writer in 1977 claimed that I had misread the situation and that is why he called my rescue "The Rescue that wasn't". I believe that had that man died, his death would have been on my ticket and given that rescuing folks was my business I had a responsibility to perform.
We may never know what part my inducing vomiting played in the recovery of this man. I'd like to believe that it played a major role in his quick recovery.
I am proud that I stood for the highest traditions of the U.S. Coast Guard on that fateful day on the Na Pali Coast.To this day, I have a lump in my Achilles Tendon which hurts on certain days to remind me of that day I ran into that man.
Malama Pono,
Former 3rd Class Petty Officer Ronald Pray "