Derek Kawakami

The North Shore is just, it, it's dangerous to be out.

Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami says the island's North Shore is an active disaster area, with crews still working on power restoration and water conservation notices.

I would say the North Shore is someplace that, like, just visitors should not go down, 'cause it's an active disaster zone.

He says traffic is snarled because of utility trucks on the road and people hauling trash and green waste.

Meanwhile, Kauai's mayor says visitors should not go to the island's North Shore.

Mayor Derek Kawakami says it's an active disaster area, and traffic is a nightmare because of utility trucks on the road and people hauling trash and green waste.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority says before Lowell, Kauai tourism was doing fairly well with 873,000 arrivals in the first seven months of the year and $1.76 billion in revenue.

Officials say they don't know how much revenue will be lost but said they are being careful about their tourism messaging.

And what do you do here for Kauai County?

So for Kauai County, I am a public information officer under Mayor Derek Kawakami.

I'm primarily responsible for the digital media work.

So majority of my work is behind the camera, editing, you know, shooting film and video, following mayor around the island as he attends different events and does different things.

The fire damaged critical IT systems impacting transactions, records, and phone lines, and temporary systems are being developed.

Mayor Kawakami says the county workers in the Kapule Building are working at alternative sites or teleworking.

So our DMV, uh, and when I say DMV, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of being broad with it, um, caught on fire.

And, um, our IT infrastructure is all in the basement, and that building is, um, houses our planning department, real property tax, finance, treasury.

The fire damaged critical IT systems impacting transactions, records and phone lines, and temporary systems are being developed.

Now, when we asked if the fire was related to the hurricane, Mayor Kawakami said the cause is still being investigated.

Now, the mayor says county workers that were displaced from the Kapule building are working at alternative sites or teleworking.

If you need to reach someone at the county, we will put those numbers on our website.