Hawai‘i Island bore the brunt of Hurricane Lala this weekend and some isle businesses were hit hard by the passing storm.
"Of course, our members in Ka'ū have been hardest hit. Some businesses there have lost practically everything," Carla Kuo, executive officer at the Hilo-based Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce, told Aloha State Daily in an email. "Most businesses in Hilo have been up and running and doing what they can to support our community. Some businesses in our surrounding areas are still without power, some without water, but we know service providers are out there doing the best they can to get people back online."
About 40,400 Hawaiian Electric customers across the state remained without power as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to a 1 p.m. update from the utility. Of those, approximately 26,900 are on Hawai‘i Island.
Kuo says HICC has been sharing resources with its members, including a push to report residential, business and agricultural damages to the Hawai‘i County Civil Defense Agency so the island can qualify for federal disaster assistance; that the Vibrant Hawai‘i Resilience Network is accepting donations and volunteers; and that the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services have been mobilized statewide.
HICC also will donate $20,000 to Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s Hawai‘i Island Strong Fund to provide resources for disaster response and recovery and is encouraging its members to do the same, Kuo says.
"Overall these disasters are always tough on our community and our small businesses and we will see and hear more in the coming days," she says. "We thank our emergency responders, county, state and federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations for working long hours, coordinating resources, caring for our neighbors and helping our community navigate these challenging times. We’re grateful to everyone working behind the scenes and on the front lines for their dedication, compassion and commitment."
Kuo says HICC has around 340 members, just two to three of which are in Kā‘u, “but we have members outside the area who do business with farmers there and purchase their products. I do not know yet how many businesses may have been lost, we’re still reaching out to our members to see how we can help.”
In Kā‘u's Nā‘ālehu community, Punalu‘u Bake Shop is one of the businesses that saw major damage from the storm.
The shop, which is noted to be the southern most bakery in the United States, has suffered "catastrophic damage," general manager Zachary Kennedy said in a video posted to Instagram on Monday that he said also serves as a media release.
"We're trying to see what's salvageable. We're doing a damage assessment right now, but early on, I can tell you the bakery has suffered catastrophic damage at this point," he says in the video. "It's going to take time for us to get everything together. It's going to take time for us to come up with a plan. ... The bakery will come back. It's just going to take time and it's going to take a lot of work."
"We are still assessing the full situation and it will take time to get everything back in order. The damage is truly unimaginable," an earlier Instagram post signed by Kennedy reads. "The most important update: all of our employees are safe and healthy. We closed the bakery as a precaution ahead of the storm, so no one was on site."
The bakery says that all online orders have been suspended, it is unable to produce any products and stores will not have its products available.
(ICYMI: ASD spoke with statewide business organizations about the impact of the storms on local businesses. You can read that here).
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
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