Latest news with #Waianae
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Ancient warning mysteriously appears on Hawaiian beach mere days before catastrophic megaquake
Mysterious symbols carved into Hawaii's beach have reappeared after a decade, and they may have brought an ancient warning from 1,000 years ago. The series of 26 petroglyphs, dating back to between 1000 and 1400 AD, emerged after the tide receded along the shoreline of Pōkaʻī Bay in Waianae around July 23. The petroglyphs, mainly showing human-like stick figures, may have been a visual record of spiritual or historical events, but US archeologists said their exact meaning remains unclear due to a lack of written context. Native Hawaiians, however, believe the symbols convey an ancestral warning about environmental changes, including oncoming disasters caused by climate change. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner Glen Kila said: 'It's telling the community that the ocean is rising.' On Tuesday, an 8.8 magnitude quake struck Russia's coast, leading to more tsunami alerts and the region's largest volcano erupting hours later. The earthquake was the sixth most powerful on record, and the strongest in Russia's Kamchatka region since 1952. The major earthquake sent tsunami waves to the coast of northern California and Washington on Wednesday morning, with a 3.6-foot wave being the highest recorded along the US West Coast. It's the first time the full set of 26 petroglyphs - carvings in rock surfaces - have been visible on the island of Oahu since 2016. Seasonal ocean swells regularly peel away the sand covering the panel. However, these seasonal conditions typically only reveal parts of the ancient carvings between May and November. The entire collection along Pōkaʻī Bay stretches about 115 feet, and has survived intense summer storms and even hurricanes before the changing ocean waves revealed them for the first time in a decade. According to Kila, the unearthed petroglyphs may have been created by an early Polynesian settlement in Waianae over 1,000 years ago. Laura Gilda, an archaeologist with the US Army Garrison Hawaii, gave a more conservative estimate of approximately 600 years. Visitors to the beach were easily able to spot the giant symbols during low tide, when gentler waves washed over the green algae growing on the sandstone rock. Archaeologists noted that 18 of the 26 petroglyphs appear to be anthropomorphic stick figures, simple drawings of human-like forms using lines to represent bodies, limbs, and heads. Eight are believed to show male genitalia, but it's unclear if the rest are showing men or women. Hawaii was under a tsunami warning following the earthquake that hit Russia. Locals fled the coast in fear of five-foot waves Kila told the Associated Press that the panel appears to be telling a religious or ceremonial story. Based on the teaching of the native Hawaiians, the largest of the petroglyph figures, which has one hand with fingers raised and the other pointing down, depicts the rising and setting of the sun. 'My interpretation, just by looking at it, was an interpretation of Maui, the demigod, Maui,' Kila previously explained during a 2017 interview. Native Hawaiians have described Maui as a legendary figure in their mythology, known for his great size and strength. According to local legends, he pulled the Hawaiian islands out from the sea with his fishhook in one story and snared the sun in a different tale. Kila added that the fingers on the largest petroglyph's raised hand appear to point east, just like the rising sun. 'It's a religious symbol. Like what we have for Christianity, the cross or the other symbols,' the cultural practitioner continued. While there doesn't appear to be a direct connection between the recent megaquakes and the reappearance of the petroglyphs, native Hawaiians believe their return could be a sign that more natural disasters are nearing. Hawaii's Big Island and Oahu were both under a tsunami advisory Wednesday morning, but evacuation orders were quickly lifted. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency advised residents to remain at least 100 feet away from inland waterways or marinas connected to the ocean due to wave surges and possible flooding.
CTV News
7 days ago
- CTV News
Early Hawaiian petroglyphs on a beach are visible again with changing tides and shifting sands
WAIANAE, Hawaii — Hawaiian petroglyphs dating back at least a half-millennium are visible on Oahu for the first time in years, thanks to seasonal ocean swells that peel away sand covering a panel of more than two dozen images of mostly human-looking stick figures. The petroglyphs are easy to spot during low tide when gentle waves ebb and flow over slippery, neon-green algae growing on a stretch of sandstone. This is the first time the entire panel of petroglyphs are visible since they were first spotted nine years ago by two guests staying at a bayside U.S. Army recreation centre in Waianae, about an hour's drive from Honolulu. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner Glen Kila, who traces his lineage to the aboriginal families of this coastal Hawaii community, said he believes the resurfacing of the traditional marvels are his ancestors sending a message. 'It's telling the community that the ocean is rising,' said Kila, a recognized expert on the local culture and history of Waianae who is consulting with the Army on the protection of the petroglyphs. Army officials are trying to balance protecting the petroglyphs with their accessibility on a public beach. John and Sandy Stone consulted tide charts and drove about 30 minutes from their home early Tuesday to get a glimpse after a watching a local TV report about the petroglyphs. 'It was so interesting to touch them,' said John Stone, who splits his time between Hawaii and California. 'It felt interesting to kind of have a connection with the past like that.' It is difficult to date petroglyphs, but an archaeological site in the area is from about 600 years ago, said Laura Gilda, an archaeologist with U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii. According to Kila, Hawaiians arrived in Waianae at least 1,000 years ago. Shift in waves caused petroglyphs to appear The beach here fluctuates in size and profile each year, with low-pressure weather systems that form in the eastern Pacific between May and November causing waves that cut away loose sand from shorelines and redeposit them further out, according to an Army report on the petroglyphs. That shift is likely what causes their temporary exposure. Archaeologists identified a total of 26 petroglyphs. Of the 18 anthropomorphic stick figures, eight are depicted with possible male genitalia and the remainder are of undetermined gender, the report said. The entire panel stretches about 115 feet (35 metres) long, Gilda said. When the petroglyphs first reemerged in July 2016, it was after late spring and early summer storms, including hurricanes, with a lot of wave action that swept the sand away, Gilda said. They remained visible for a period and then got covered again. 'So there's been portions that have ... been exposed since then, but this is the first summer that the whole panel has been exposed again,' Gilda said. Petroglyphs are telling a religious story, expert says Based on the teachings Kila learned, the lineal petroglyphs appear to be telling a religious, ceremonial story. He interprets the largest figure, which appears to include hands and fingers with one arm raised and the other down, to represent the rising and setting sun. Kila said that when the military in the 1930s took over the area and evicted Native Hawaiians, including his family who lived there for generations, his great-great grandmother refused to leave so his family exchanged mountain lands with a coffee plantation so she could remain near the bay. In an interview included in the Army's report, he recalled growing up in Waianae without television. So 'the ocean and mountains were our playground,' he said. The Army recreation centre was off-limits to the public, and the seawall was the barrier between Native Hawaiians and the military, Kila said. Kila, now 72, recalled that if they walked on top of the wall, they were clubbed and pushed off by military police. 'We were proud and knew where we came from, so we never fostered any hatred for the military because one day we believed that the land will eventually return to us,' he said. Kila, while visiting the petroglyphs earlier this week, told The Associated Press that the Army's protection of them represents a shift in that community relationship. Officials have been grappling with how to share the petroglyphs with the community while also protecting them, Gilda said. 'How much attention do you want to bring to this area? You don't really want people to go digging for them when they're not exposed,' she said. 'But they're certainly awesome to come and see on the public beachscape.' Donald Kauliʻa, a Native Hawaiian who was born and raised in Waianae, snapped photos of the petroglyphs Tuesday. Seeing them, he said, feels like 'validation that our ancestors were from here.' Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, The Associated Press
CTV News
12-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Could this Hawaii community be the next Lahaina? Some residents fear a similar wildfire fate
Calvin Endo looks out at private property behind his home where tall grass grows brown during wildfire season on Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Waianae, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher) WAIANAE, Hawaii — When there's enough rain, the mountain-framed expanse of vacant land behind Calvin Endo's house looks like the lush and verdant landscape that makes tropical Hawaii famous. But in the summer, when the jungle of eyeball-high invasive grasses and spindly tree branches fade to brown, he fears it could become a fiery hellscape. This isn't Maui, where most of Lahaina burned down during a massive wildfire in August 2023. Endo's duplex is in Waianae on the west side of Oahu. But Waianae and Lahaina have a lot in common. They're both situated on parched western island coasts, with road access pinched by topography, and are bastions of Native Hawaiian culture. Both have sections crisscrossed by overhead power lines atop aging wooden poles, like those that fell in high winds and caused the Lahaina fire. There's even a Lahaina Street through the heart of Makaha, Endo's neighborhood along the Waianae coast. 'It can happen to us,' said Endo, who moved to the Makaha Meadows subdivision in 1980, soon after it was built. 'We can have a repeat of Lahaina if somebody doesn't do anything about the brush in the back.' In recent days, two wildfires a few miles away, including a July 6 blaze that left a 94-year-old woman dead, proved his worst fears could become reality. It's been nearly two years since Lahaina provided a worst-case scenario of the destruction from wind-whipped flames fueled by overgrown brush. With 102 deaths, it's the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century. In the months afterward, the number of Hawaii communities participating in the Firewise network, a nationally recognized program that helps communities with resources for safeguarding homes, more than doubled to 35 — but none in western Oahu. Even though Waianae residents have long known about their wildfire risks, only now is one of its neighborhoods close to gaining Firewise status. Communities become Firewise by organizing a committee, creating a hazard assessment, developing an action plan and volunteering hours toward reducing risk, such as removing overgrown brush. Firewise tracks a community's progress, connects residents with experts, and provides ideas and funding for mitigation, workshops and training. Identical risk The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service considers Lahaina and Waianae to be at much higher risk than other U.S. communities for a wildland fire, noted Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Keith Ito. 'The weather, the winds, they're pretty much identical,' he said. 'With all that being said, I think that the high-risk wildfire potential is a state-wide problem, not really specific to Waianae or Lahaina.' Nani Barretto, co-director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, struggles to understand why fire-prone communities like Waianae have yet to join the Firewise movement. There are also no Firewise communities on the island of Kauai. 'Just because we are proactive in getting the word out, it doesn't mean the right people are getting the information,' she said. 'For Maui, it took a very devastating event for them to join.' Organizing a community can be challenging because it requires residents to put in time and step up as leaders, she said. Endo, who is a longtime member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board, had never even heard of Firewise until recently. A development called Sea Country, near the neighborhood that was recently ordered to evacuate during a wildfire, is close to becoming the fist Firewise community in Waianae, said Andria Tupola, a resident who also represents the coast on the Honolulu City Council. The process got underway around 2018 but picked up momentum after Lahaina, she said. Sea Country recently completed a hazard assessment and has planned some mitigation events, including a park cleanup in August, said Ashley Bare, the Firewise support specialist for Oahu. Emergency route and hungry sheep Lahaina also provided the spark for opening an emergency access route in Waianae, Tupola said. Farrington Highway, the main artery along the coast, can get clogged with just an accident. Military officials who control a mountain pass above Waianae started talking about letting civilians access the route after Lahaina, she said. During the July 6 fire, state and military officials were ready to open the road as a way out of the coast and into central Oahu, said state Rep. Darius Kila, who represents the area. A Hawaiian homestead community in Waianae's Nanakuli Valley is also trying to achieve Firewise status, said Diamond Badajos, spokesperson for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Home to the largest concentration of Native Hawaiians, Waianae is rich in Hawaiian culture and history. But much of the coast also struggles with poverty and homelessness. Residents have grown accustomed to wildfires in the dry summer months, said Republican state Rep. Chris Muraoka: 'It's almost like if it doesn't burn, something's not right.' However, Muraoka said he thinks communities along the coast would benefit more from fire-prevention and safety education in schools rather than organizing to be Firewise. Muraoka, who lives in Makaha, said communities in Waianae have unique needs that being Firewise might not address, including sections with neighborhoods that are more spread out than in Lahaina and blazes that are often started by arsonists or kids playing with fire. Some residents already do what they can, especially with the dry season underway. Endo often tries to clear brush on private property behind his home himself, to create a firebreak. Some properties in Waianae Valley use sheep to eat the overgrown vegetation. Retired firefighter Shermaih 'Bulla' Iaea recalls fighting blazes in the brush near Endo's home and Makaha Elementary School. In 2018, his farm burned down during high winds from a passing hurricane. He was using a herd of sheep on his property until wild dogs killed them in April. Neighborhoods banding together to become Firewise is another tool that will help, he said. 'There's a 100 percent chance that will happen here,' he said. 'I thought it would never happen to me. Now I'm trying to ring the bells. I'm trying to sound the alarm.' 'Relentless sun' Being one of the poorest communities in the state is a major factor preventing Waianae from becoming Firewise, said Kila, who lives near where the July 6 fire happened. Before the summer, the Democratic lawmaker sent a letter to Hawaiian Electric and telecom companies urging 'immediate and coordinated action' to address dangerous, sagging utility lines on aging wooden poles along the coast. It's not clear why Makaha ended up with a long street named Lahaina, which can mean 'relentless sun' in Hawaiian. But like the west Maui town, it fits the sunny west Oahu neighborhood, which is home to the world-famous Makaha surfing beach. Some neighborhoods above Lahaina Street are newer and have underground utilities, like Endo's. But toward the ocean, older neighborhoods are laced by overhead power lines. That worries Glen Kila, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner in Waianae, who is not related to Darius Kila. Power lines are blamed for sparking the Lahaina blaze. 'If that happens to Waianae,' he said, 'we're done.' Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, The Associated Press
Al Arabiya
12-07-2025
- Climate
- Al Arabiya
Could this hawaii community be the next lahaina? Some residents fear a similar wildfire fate
WAIANAE, Hawaii (AP) – When there's enough rain, the mountain-framed expanse of vacant land behind Calvin Endo's house looks like the lush and verdant landscape that makes tropical Hawaii famous. But in the summer, when the jungle of eyeball-high invasive grasses and spindly tree branches fade to brown, he fears it could become a fiery hellscape. This isn't Maui, where most of Lahaina burned down during a massive wildfire in August 2023. Endo's duplex is in Waianae, on the west side of Oahu. But Waianae and Lahaina have a lot in common. They're both situated on parched western island coasts with road access pinched by topography and are bastions of Native Hawaiian culture. Both have sections crisscrossed by overhead power lines atop aging wooden poles like those that fell in high winds and caused the Lahaina fire. There's even a Lahaina Street through the heart of Makaha, Endo's neighborhood along the Waianae coast. 'It can happen to us,' said Endo, who moved to the Makaha Meadows subdivision in 1980 soon after it was built. 'We can have a repeat of Lahaina if somebody doesn't do anything about the brush in the back.' In recent days, two wildfires a few miles away–including a July 6 blaze that left a 94-year-old woman dead–proved his worst fears could become reality. It's been nearly two years since Lahaina provided a worst-case scenario of the destruction from wind-whipped flames fueled by overgrown brush. With 102 deaths, it's the deadliest US wildfire in a century. In the months afterward, the number of Hawaii communities participating in the Firewise network–a nationally recognized program that helps communities with resources for safeguarding homes–more than doubled to 35–but none in western Oahu. Even though Waianae residents have long known about their wildfire risks, only now is one of its neighborhoods close to gaining Firewise status. Communities become Firewise by organizing a committee, creating a hazard assessment, developing an action plan, and volunteering hours toward reducing risk, such as removing overgrown brush. Firewise tracks a community's progress, connects residents with experts, and provides ideas and funding for mitigation workshops and training. The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service considers Lahaina and Waianae to be at much higher risk than other US communities for a wildland fire, noted Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Keith Ito. 'The weather, the winds–they're pretty much identical,' he said. 'With all that being said, I think that the high-risk wildfire potential is a state-wide problem, not really specific to Waianae or Lahaina.' Nani Barretto, co-director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, struggles to understand why fire-prone communities like Waianae have yet to join the Firewise movement. There are also no Firewise communities on the island of Kauai. 'Just because we are proactive in getting the word out, it doesn't mean the right people are getting the information,' she said. 'For Maui, it took a very devastating event for them to join.' Organizing a community can be challenging because it requires residents to put in time and step up as leaders, she said. Endo, who is a longtime member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board, had never even heard of Firewise until recently. A development called Sea Country near the neighborhood that was recently ordered to evacuate during a wildfire is close to becoming the fist Firewise community in Waianae, said Andria Tupola, a resident who also represents the coast on the Honolulu City Council. The process got underway around 2018 but picked up momentum after Lahaina, she said. Sea Country recently completed a hazard assessment and has planned some mitigation events including a park cleanup in August, said Ashley Bare, the Firewise support specialist for Oahu. Lahaina also provided the spark for opening an emergency access route in Waianae, Tupola said. Farrington Highway, the main artery along the coast, can get clogged with just an accident. Military officials who control a mountain pass above Waianae started talking about letting civilians access the route after Lahaina, she said. During the July 6 fire, state and military officials were ready to open the road as a way out of the coast and into central Oahu, said state Rep. Darius Kila, who represents the area. A Hawaiian homestead community in Waianae's Nanakuli Valley is also trying to achieve Firewise status, said Diamond Badajos, spokesperson for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Home to the largest concentration of Native Hawaiians, Waianae is rich in Hawaiian culture and history. But much of the coast also struggles with poverty and homelessness. Residents have grown accustomed to wildfires in the dry summer months, said Republican state Rep. Chris Muraoka: 'It's almost like if it doesn't burn, something's not right.' However, Muraoka said he thinks communities along the coast would benefit more from fire-prevention and safety education in schools rather than organizing to be Firewise. Muraoka, who lives in Makaha, said communities in Waianae have unique needs that being Firewise might not address, including sections with neighborhoods that are more spread out than in Lahaina and blazes that are often started by arsonists or kids playing with fire. Some residents already do what they can, especially with the dry season underway. Endo often tries to clear brush on private property behind his home himself to create a firebreak. Some properties in Waianae Valley use sheep to eat the overgrown vegetation. Retired firefighter Shermaih Bulla Iaea recalls fighting blazes in the brush near Endo's home and Makaha Elementary School. In 2018, his farm burned down during high winds from a passing hurricane. He was using a herd of sheep on his property until wild dogs killed them in April. Neighborhoods banding together to become Firewise is another tool that will help, he said. 'There's a 100 percent chance that will happen here,' he said. 'I thought it would never happen to me. Now I'm trying to ring the bells. I'm trying to sound the alarm.' Being one of the poorest communities in the state is a major factor preventing Waianae from becoming Firewise, said Kila, who lives near where the July 6 fire happened. Before the summer, the Democratic lawmaker sent a letter to Hawaiian Electric and telecom companies urging immediate and coordinated action to address dangerous sagging utility lines on aging wooden poles along the coast. It's not clear why Makaha ended up with a long street named Lahaina, which can mean 'relentless sun' in Hawaiian. But like the west Maui town, it fits the sunny west Oahu neighborhood, which is home to the world-famous Makaha surfing beach. Some neighborhoods above Lahaina Street are newer and have underground utilities like Endo's. But toward the ocean, older neighborhoods are laced by overhead power lines. That worries Glen Kila, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner in Waianae who is not related to Darius Kila. Power lines are blamed for sparking the Lahaina blaze. 'If that happens to Waianae,' he said, 'we're done.'
Washington Post
12-07-2025
- Climate
- Washington Post
Could this Hawaii community be the next Lahaina? Some residents fear a similar wildfire fate
WAIANAE, Hawaii — When there's enough rain, the mountain-framed expanse of vacant land behind Calvin Endo's house looks like the lush and verdant landscape that makes tropical Hawaii famous. But in the summer, when the jungle of eyeball-high invasive grasses and spindly tree branches fade to brown, he fears it could become a fiery hellscape .
