A hurricane tore a Kauai house in half, the island’s worst since 1992

Hurricane Lowell tore a house from its foundation in Po’ipu on Kaua’i’s south shore overnight on September 8, 2026, splitting the structure in two and driving part of it across the street. The Category 2 storm passed roughly 80 miles west of the island without making landfall, yet its wind and surge still delivered the closest brush with a major hurricane Kaua’i has had since Category 4 Hurricane ‘Iniki struck the island directly in 1992.

By Tuesday morning, county crews were assessing a south shore that longtime residents said looked unlike anything they had seen in decades. Waves pushed through hotel lobbies, oceanfront restaurants and vacation rentals, while inland communities dealt with downed trees, blocked highways and a power grid that had lost nine in ten of its customers overnight.

A house split in two on Po’ipu’s shoreline

Divers and damage crews confirmed what NBC News reported in the storm’s immediate aftermath: Lowell lifted a home off its foundation on Kaua’i’s south shore and split it in half, with wind gusts near 90 mph driving part of the structure across the street from where it had stood. The same surge carried several cars across the parking lot of a beachfront hotel and destroyed its oceanfront restaurant, the outlet found, while floodwater swept through the building’s ground floor.

Kalohe Kapu, who rode out the storm at the Point in Po’ipu because his own home in Kalaheo sits in a flood zone, told Kaua’i Now that waves also washed through the first floor of the Sheraton Hotel, Kūhiō Shores Vacation Rentals, and homes fronting Brennecke’s Beach and the Beach House Restaurant. Both Port Allen and Kikiaola small boat harbors were damaged, he said, and there was no access to Lawai Beach Resort or Kukui’ula Harbor as crews began working through the wreckage.

Kapu said Lowell “definitely was not as bad as ‘Iniki,” but added that “I don’t think anyone realized this storm was going to be this bad. It was scary; barely slept last night.” Kaua’i County Mayor Derek Kawakami told residents Tuesday morning that “we’ve gone through the worst of it,” while urging the public to stay off roads he called treacherous so crews could clear debris and restore utilities faster.

Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative’s 92% blackout

About 33,000 of Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative’s roughly 36,000 customers, close to 92% of the island, lost power as Lowell’s winds knocked down transmission lines and uprooted trees across Kaua’i. Without electricity, most traffic signals stopped working entirely, compounding the danger on roads already blocked by fallen trees, rockslides and washed-out pavement on the North Shore and Westside highways.

NBC News reported that the hurricane destroyed 10 homes on Kaua’i and severely damaged 67 others, and that a 74-year-old man died on the island, most likely because of storm surge, with an investigation into the death still open as of publication. The scale of that toll, on an island that Lowell never technically made landfall on, is part of why officials kept reaching for the same historical comparison in the days after the storm passed.

The ‘Iniki comparison Kaua’i can’t shake

Forecasters had been drawing that comparison for days before Lowell arrived. John Bravender, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said as the storm approached that Lowell was not forecast to have the same impact as ‘Iniki, but that its track, a major hurricane moving west before turning sharply north, was exactly the kind of pattern that brings back memories of 1992 on Kaua’i, according to Big Island Now.

JoAnn Yukimura, who was Kaua’i’s mayor when ‘Iniki hit, told the outlet the Garden Isle had been struck by both the storm’s front and back winds in 1992, calling it “a one-two punch that devastated us.” Hurricane ‘Iniki, a Category 4 storm, killed seven people, destroyed 1,421 homes and the Coco Palms Resort, and caused more than $3 billion in damage; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded maximum over-land sustained winds of 140 mph and gusts as high as 175 mph, with a storm tide of six feet. Lowell, weaker and offshore, produced nowhere near that toll, but it was still the closest a Category 2 or stronger hurricane has come to Kaua’i since that storm.

One death, and a slow climb back to full power

Recovery has stretched well beyond the storm itself. Governor Josh Green requested an expedited federal major disaster declaration for Kaua’i and Maui counties within days of Lowell’s passage, seeking immediate assistance rather than waiting for a standard joint damage assessment, according to Kaua’i Now’s reporting on the request.

Eleven days after the storm, Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative crews, along with contractors and mutual aid partners, restored roughly 1,500 members on a single evening, including more than 1,000 around Kīlauea, pushing the island to 95% energized as of September 19, according to The Garden Island. Crews were still working remaining outages between Moloa’a and Hanalei, and the utility said power was not expected to return to Wainiha and Ha’ena, the hardest-hit stretch of the North Shore, until late the following week at the earliest.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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