Kauai small businesses ask tourists to return after Hurricane Lowell, with aloha and some patience

Watching her staff happily hand out free meals for hundreds of residents outside their Wailua commercial kitchen, food truck co-owner Kelly Kakalia felt fulfilled.It was the day after Hurricane Lowell finished knocking out power, washing out roads and felling trees across Kauai, and Kakalia was focused on her community, not sales. The island where she was born and raised needed time to get back on its feet and put locals first.But now The Musubi Truck, Kakalia's family-run business with three locations, has had to lay off half its 50-person staff and shut down one truck. 7 storm, there is simply not enough demand for their poke bowls, spam musubi and bento boxes.Officials and some residents asked in the wake of Lowell for tourists to reconsider plans to visit Kauai, an island that can see over 28,000 visitors on a given day.

Tourists might exhaust limited resources and clog roads needed for utility restoration and aid delivery, and some hotels and vacation rentals were badly damaged.Kakalia is grateful would-be visitors heeded calls to give the island space to recover, work that continues since the storm. But she and other small business owners across the island worry too long a pause will wreak economic havoc, forcing more layoffs and creating financial gaps too big to recover from.“Now that power and water is being restored, we should start to switch the narrative before many of us go out of business,” said Kakalia, 36. “People are canceling their trips in November.”When visitors should return is a familiar dilemma on Hawaii, where tourism injected $21.75 billion into the economy last year, according to state data.

After disaster, crowds of sometimes less-than-conscientious tourists can be logistical and emotional barriers to recovery. At some point, however, they are key to jump-starting much of the economy.That tension was especially pronounced on Maui, after wildfires wiped out the historic town of Lahaina in 2023, killing more than 100 people.On Thursday, Kauai County Mayor Derek Kawakami said Kauai is now “welcoming visitors back,” while asking them to respect the ongoing recovery. “Come with patience, spend local, and help us recover,” he said.Amid cleanup, revenue dries upMore than 3,000 Kauai households and businesses still lack power, with some areas still required to conserve water.

Affected residents need generators, financial a… It was the day after Hurricane Lowell finished knocking out power, washing out roads and felling trees across Kauai, and Kakalia was focused on her community, not sales. About 10 days later, The Musubi Truck, Kakalia’s family-run business with three locations, has had to lay off half its staff of about 50 and shut down one truck.

There is simply not enough demand for their poke bowls, spam musubi and bento boxes. Kakalia is grateful would-be visitors heeded calls to give the island space to recover, work that continues since the Sept. “Now that power and water is being restored, we should start to switch the narrative before many of us go out of business,” said Kakalia, 36.

At some point, however, they are key to jump-starting much of the economy. That tension was especially pronounced on Maui, after wildfires wiped out the historic town of Lahaina in 2023, killing more than 100 people. After Lowell, officials and some residents asked tourists to reconsider plans to visit Kauai, an island that can see over 28,000 visitors on a given day.