Lihue Airport

But there has clearly been a shift from emergency response toward reopening, and now comes the next challenge: getting people to get back and visit.

I recently saw an article that looked at the state's daily passenger numbers from Lihue Airport, and the numbers really caught my attention.

Before Hurricane Lowell, from September 1st through September 6th, Kauai was averaging around 2,300 direct domestic passenger arrivals a day.

After Lowell, that dropped dramatically, so from September 17th through the 13th, it was around 460 per day.

On Oahu yesterday, about 700 people from the local visitor industry gathered in Waikiki for the annual Hawaii Tourism Conference.

During Hurricane Lowell earlier this month, a power outage at Lihue Airport caused long TSA lines, while businesses saw fewer customers.

Now, with Tropical Storm Nolo approaching, the industry is preparing for more disruption.

In order for the visitor industry to be thriving and solid, we need to make sure that when they come, they get that message that Hawaii is open.

And then the same token in other, you know, in the mainland, there's ways, you know, you can drive to places, right? So the location of resources strategically located at the particular island at risk is also very important.

So during the low storm, we actually add additional resources beyond island ahead of the storm coming in because we expected Lihue Airport to be closed.

So we had folks there already in station, and definitely they were busy as the storm kind of passed through.

And we're doing the same thing for the Big Island with this tropical storm that's projected to come Thursday and Friday.

Power has been restored to about 82% of the island.

Lihue Airport is open and back on regular power, not generated power.

So that's encouraging.

And most roads are currently closed.

Kauai and Niihau, which is a small island just to the west of Kauai, full on hurricane warnings.

Lihue Airport closed for, like, 36 hours.

They were getting close to 100 mile an hour wind gusts.

But it was crazy seeing all the surfers-

We'll pick them up, put it back together.

Travelers trying to leave the Garden Isle were lining up early this morning after yesterday's power outages caused chaos at the Lihue Airport.

I had never seen anything like this in a Hawaii airport or a mainland airport, quite frankly.

[upbeat music]

In Poipu, Ali Duclo, Hawaii News Now.

More fallout from an airport mess as thousands of travelers try to leave Kauai.

Yesterday, Lihue Airport was plagued with power problems, sweltering heat, and long lines.

Mahealani Richardson joins us now with the latest.

Service has also been restored to important medical facilities, including the Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital, Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital, and Wilcox Medical Center.

And power was also restored to the Lihue Airport last night at around 5:00 PM.

The outages created long lines for TSA.

Passengers reported standing in lines for hours, and many missed their flights.