Last week, Hawai’i was hit by Hurricane Lowell. The peak of the storm reached Kaua’i late Monday night (September 7) and lasted through the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday morning (September 8). During that window, the core of the storm made its closest approach just west of Niʻihau and Kauaʻi as a Category 2 hurricane, tracking northward.
The impacts on the Garden Island were extreme, with wind damage and downed lines knocking out power to over 90% of the island. The National Weather Service issued the first-ever tornado watch in Hawaiʻi’s recorded history late Monday night, which remained active until 4:00AM Tuesday as outer convective rain bands rotated across the island.
EVERYBODY on Kaua’i was impacted by Lowell. We are still waiting to hear from some of our family and friends on the island, but many are still without electricity more than a week later so it is to be expected.
In the past few days, many nature conservationists and Kaua’i non-profit organizations focused on nature conservation provided post-storm updates on their websites with photos and information on how this hurricane impacted the animals and plants they care for.
Save Our Shearwaters said they admitted twelve birds in a single day, including an injured pueo recovered from a downed tree and ʻuaʻu kani chicks found half-buried in sand. The chicks are still stabilizing and have 2+ months of daily care ahead before they are ready for release. Significant damage was done to their facility. The roof of an outdoor enclosure is compromised, aviary siding ripped away, wash-pad table snapped in half, and more. The area containing their washer, dryer, refrigerators, and freezers flooded, and they won’t know their status until power returns.
Koke’e State Park, the gateway to the Alaka’i Plateau, was devastated. The cabin where Forest Calls stayed when filming our VR experience in June 2025 was damaged. The entire forest was greatly destroyed and it will take weeks to clear the roads, and probably decades for the forest to recover.
Many videos have since been shared on social media platforms, and one of the most striking one is by Kaua Hermosura, showing the road to Koke’e before and after the storm: video.
Our thoughts are with everyone in Hawai’i. We love you, and we hope that you can rebuild, recover, and begin to heal. But thoughts alone are not enough.
We cannot control the storm, but we can choose what we do in its aftermath. Forest Calls was created to bring meaningful and positive change, and that is what we will continue to do. We will continue to listen, to create, to connect, and to answer the call.
