As the tsunami after the earthquake in Japan approached Hawaii in the middle of the night all the major resorts were evacuated. Since the tsunami reached the Big Island of Hawaii at roughly 3 am many people did not know what to expected as the sun rose the next morning and they started allowing people back into the resorts.
What many people found when they reached the resorts was everything in good condition. The most notable damage came in Kailua Kona at Alii Drive. Although many of the outdoor shopping malls and restaurants did not have damage, the King Kamehameha hotel did report significant damage. This was very disheartening given the fact that the King Kamehamea hotel had just been renovated. Although Alii Drive does feature several oceanfront vacation rental communities, none of them experienced any significant issues due to them being at a higher level.
A little further north is the most luxurious resort on the Big Island of Hawaii which features the Four Seasons Hualalai and Kona Village. There was damage reports by both locations. Many of the restaurants at the Four Seasons Hualalai are oceanfront and experienced some damage. Kona Village offers oceanfront Tahitian style huts and some water did reach some of the huts closer to the ocean. There are not any vacation rental communities located near the water at Hualalai so none of them experienced any issues.
On the Kohala Coast none of the properties got affected in the Waikoloa Beach Resort and Mauna Lani Resort. Given that Kolea at Waikoloa Beach Resort is beachfront and located in a flood zone that was the property most people were concerned about. There was no damage done at all. Kolea features some multimillion dollar oceanfront homes which the water reached the steps off the sand to their backyard, but no water reached the property. The beach, A’Bay, located in front of Kolea and the Waikoloa Beach Marriott did experience some damage and was closed for the four days after the tsunami in order to get it back to the prior state.
In the end, the Hawaiian Islands were very blessed that the tsunami did not bring as much damage as some expected. Given the magnitude of the earthquake in Japan, many residents were expecting the worst. With very little damage to any of the resorts on the Hawaiian Islands the tourism and vacation rental industries were minimally affected.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
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